Tag #144683 - Interview #100262 (Yakov Furmanas )

Saturday was the most important day of the week. Factory was closed on that day as well as other Jewish places. Lithuanians, who worked for grandpa, had a Sunday off as well. On Thursday challachs were baked in oven for Sabbath. On Friday everybody was busy mother, grandmother, Meyer’s wife, housekeeper. All of them were getting ready for Sabbath. Our house was always clean, but it was sparkling on Fridays. There was starched table cloth. The table was laid with challachs, wine, festive dinner. Grandpa and uncle Meyer went to the synagogue. At times my unreligious dad joined them. We were looking forward to see them back. When the first evening star appeared in the sky, grandmother being the eldest woman in the house, prayed and lit candles on the antique sconce. On Saturday we had the tastiest dishes. The mandatory dishes were gefilte fish, chicken brother, boiled and friend chicken and all kinds of tsimes. All of those dishes required heating. Thus they were served by a Lithuanian housekeeper. The most important Sabbath dish was cholnt- meat with beans and potatoes, which was kept in heated oven since Friday. On Saturday adults did not work. They spent time having conversations, took walks on the broadway, in the park with their children and families. In general, it referred mostly to rich Jews like our family. As for poor Jews, they also had to celebrate Sabbath, but they did not have money for it. There was a special charity committee and my grandpa was also a member of it. On the Sabbath eve, some of the Jews came over to us and got necessary things –money and products. I had never seen those people as they came from the back door. Our housekeeper and grandma fed them there.