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My parents respected the Jewish traditions – they observed kosher, but not Sabbath – because we had to work. However, they did close the shops on Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. We would go to synagogue on every holiday. We had a pupils’ synagogue on Sabbath – on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. [Organised attendance of Jewish pupils to services at the synagogue on Saturdays at Sabbath] There was a small and a big hall in the synagogue. The synagogue services for pupils were held simultaneously in the small hall – the prayers were read by the pupils themselves so that they might learn them. We had a famous teacher – we used to call him uncle Bucco – Bucco Delarubisa. He was a teacher in the middle school, his two sisters were teachers, too, as well as his wife. He once was the teacher of my mother, too. We learned many things from him. He was our Math teacher, but we learned a lot more from him – many sayings, for example, which famous people were Jews, he also taught us about the Jewish life and traditions. It was he who took us to synagogue on Friday evenings and we made our ‘pupils’ synagogue’ in the small hall of the synagogue. After I had my bar mitzvah I started taking part in the prayers – I used to read them. We observed the high Jewish holidays at home, too. We would lay the table for the respective holiday, kindle the candles and read a prayer. Just simple observing of the traditions, without putting much passion into it. We would always buy matzah for Pesach. Purim was marked in its own way – we were given money and sweets. At Chanukkah we used to kindle the chanukkiyah at home.
My parents seldom went on holiday. I remember that one year we came to Sofia’s Ovcha Kupel with my mother (there is a mineral water spa there) because of her illness. My mother and I used to visit my grandmother in Varna. My parents used to gather with their brothers and sisters as well as with my mother’s cousins in Ruse. In 1933 and 1934 all my father’s brothers gathered in Varna to visit my grandmother: Aron and Albert came from Dobrich [Romania at the time], Marko – from Milan (Italy).
We didn’t have a garden, but we had a big yard in one of the houses, shared between four other buildings and we played there. My mother was ill because she had two hard births (mine and my brother’s). She had problems with her physical condition and so we used to hire a housemaid from the neighboring villages Dimitrovden and Gergyovden for the winters. [The villages are named after Bulgarian Orthodox holidays. Dimitrovden is St Dimitar’s Day, while Gergyovden stands for St. George’s Day.] The housemaid had a bed in the kitchen.
My parents seldom went on holiday. I remember that one year we came to Sofia’s Ovcha Kupel with my mother (there is a mineral water spa there) because of her illness. My mother and I used to visit my grandmother in Varna. My parents used to gather with their brothers and sisters as well as with my mother’s cousins in Ruse. In 1933 and 1934 all my father’s brothers gathered in Varna to visit my grandmother: Aron and Albert came from Dobrich [Romania at the time], Marko – from Milan (Italy).
We didn’t have a garden, but we had a big yard in one of the houses, shared between four other buildings and we played there. My mother was ill because she had two hard births (mine and my brother’s). She had problems with her physical condition and so we used to hire a housemaid from the neighboring villages Dimitrovden and Gergyovden for the winters. [The villages are named after Bulgarian Orthodox holidays. Dimitrovden is St Dimitar’s Day, while Gergyovden stands for St. George’s Day.] The housemaid had a bed in the kitchen.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Mois Natan