Selected text
My grandmother insisted on getting a divorce. Rabbi Warshavskiy
stamped his feet, yelling, "I can't, because I've never heard you
arguing." At that time it was next to impossible to get a divorce, but
my grandmother managed to convince my grandfather to divorce her.
Zelman Borchevskiy forgot about his dream to enter the medical faculty
at the Warsaw University. He took my grandmother to St. Petersburg. In
order to obtain a permit for my grandmother to live beyond the
boundaries of her residential area, he took her to Kronstadt, a
fortress on an island near St. Petersburg. (In Tsarist Russia, the
Jewish population was only allowed to live in certain areas. In Kiev,
Jews were allowed to live in Podol, the lower and poorer part of the
city.) In Kronstadt the rabbi of the Baltic Navy married them for 100
rubles. There were no friends or relatives at their wedding. The rabbi
said the prayer under the huppah and issued their certificate. And my
grandmother obtained the residential permit as a wife of a Jew with a
higher education.
stamped his feet, yelling, "I can't, because I've never heard you
arguing." At that time it was next to impossible to get a divorce, but
my grandmother managed to convince my grandfather to divorce her.
Zelman Borchevskiy forgot about his dream to enter the medical faculty
at the Warsaw University. He took my grandmother to St. Petersburg. In
order to obtain a permit for my grandmother to live beyond the
boundaries of her residential area, he took her to Kronstadt, a
fortress on an island near St. Petersburg. (In Tsarist Russia, the
Jewish population was only allowed to live in certain areas. In Kiev,
Jews were allowed to live in Podol, the lower and poorer part of the
city.) In Kronstadt the rabbi of the Baltic Navy married them for 100
rubles. There were no friends or relatives at their wedding. The rabbi
said the prayer under the huppah and issued their certificate. And my
grandmother obtained the residential permit as a wife of a Jew with a
higher education.
Period
Location
Kronstadt
Russia
Interview
Roman Barskiy