Selected text
The second case: a student on another occasion threw in ‘But he is chifut [29].’ You can imagine how I feel when the word ‘chifut’ is being used as this word is associated with the most difficult years from the Holocaust and I say, ‘Do you know what this word means?’ ‘Well…no.’ ‘This is the most horrible word for a Jew, and I am Jewish.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’ I informed the Party Secretary. She didn’t pay serious attention.
We didn’t keep strictly the Jewish traditional holidays. Usually on Pesach and Rosh Hashanah we used to convene in the house of aunt Rebeka and uncle Mois, but we continued to keep [Yom] Kippur – especially my mother, for her it was a law to keep it.
I have never questioned the existence of the state Israel but, on the other hand, I have never thought seriously about that because I knew that our kin were there and I could join them whenever I wanted to. I have never had any administrative problems in this respect. In general, I believe that the state Israel is necessary for our people who had suffered so much. I’ve been to Israel several times – I visited it in 1960, in 1993 and twice in 1996.
We didn’t keep strictly the Jewish traditional holidays. Usually on Pesach and Rosh Hashanah we used to convene in the house of aunt Rebeka and uncle Mois, but we continued to keep [Yom] Kippur – especially my mother, for her it was a law to keep it.
I have never questioned the existence of the state Israel but, on the other hand, I have never thought seriously about that because I knew that our kin were there and I could join them whenever I wanted to. I have never had any administrative problems in this respect. In general, I believe that the state Israel is necessary for our people who had suffered so much. I’ve been to Israel several times – I visited it in 1960, in 1993 and twice in 1996.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Reyna Lidgi