Tag #142343 - Interview #78223 (Henrich Zinger)

There were two cheders in Velikiy Berezny: one for boys and one for girls. Girls studied fewer subjects than boys, but they learned everything a Jewish woman should know: to pray and read in Hebrew. Girls went to cheder at the age of five or six - I can't remember exactly - and studied there for a year. Boys went to cheder at the age of three. We had a melamed teaching us, and his assistant helped him to take care of younger children's needs: he gave us food, took us to the toilet, etc. At the age of four we studied the alphabet and reading in Hebrew since we had previously learned words. We also studied Yiddish, learned to read and write, studied Jewish history, traditions and religion. After finishing cheder at the age of seven we went to a general school.