Tag #145059 - Interview #103798 (Mina Smolianskaya Biography)

My grandmother Hana told me that he studied at cheder and read a lot. He borrowed books from melamed, as my grandmother didn’t have money to buy books. My father wanted to become a lawyer. There were very few educated people at that time. My mother, for example, had no education. My father came from a very poor family that couldn’t afford to pay for his studies even though he was eager to study. Besides, he was a Jew and there was admission restriction of 5% for Jews willing to enter higher educational institutions. This 5% were boys from rich families. My father was advised to be baptized if he wanted to study, but he refused. He had to give up his dreams and became an apprentice of a carpenter.