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We didn't observe any Jewish holidays. We celebrated Soviet holidays. Nevertheless my favorite holiday was Easter: we had Easter bread and painted eggs. At Easter I visited my uncle Abram, whose wife Nadezhda was Catholic. She fried cabbage with pork. At Christian Easter I also visited my aunt Lidia. I celebrated the Jewish Easter with my paternal grandmother. She was religious and her sons, Miron and Michael, made all the necessary arrangements for a traditional Jewish celebration. There was always fish. My grandmother didn't have any special crockery, but she washed all her utensils in boiling water. One of my uncles led the seder. I was even reprimanded once for bringing a piece of bread into the house when everything with yeast was removed from the house. My grandmother went after me, I replied something rude and my uncle gave me a good spanking.
1922 was a difficult year. There was an organization called ARA [14]. ARA sent a few trains loaded with food products to Odessa. The chairman of our housing committee took a group of children under 12 years old from our building to the ARA canteen. I remember the maize porridge and concentrated milk in boxes that we had there.
We had Ukrainian, German, Greek and Polish neighbors. We, children, played football and the 'Cossacks and bandits' game [a version of 'Cowboys and Indians']: those who play divide into two groups and the cossacks are seeking for bandits and 'kill' them or take them prisoners. Jews were craftsmen, bindyuzhniki and tradesmen in their majority. There were also tailors and watch repairmen. I never saw any of the Jews wearing payes. Even wearing a beard wasn't a tradition then. Younger men were expected to be well shaved. Many young people even shaved their heads following Kotovsky's [15] example. [Editor's note: It is known that Kotovsky used to shave his head.] I remember that there was a negative attitude toward Lithuanian Jews in Odessa: they were very religious and the others called them 'litvak', which means a cunning and roguish person. [Editor's note: Litvaks were more traditional Yiddish-speaking and religious Jews from Vilna and its surroundings. The interviewee describes it as a general negative term for a cunning and roguish person, perhaps it is due to the stereotypes among more assimilated Odessite Jews.] There were many nationalities in Odessa and there were many mixed marriages. Provincial Jews used to say that there was the 'fire of Hell burning many around Odessa'. [Editor's note: 'fire of Hell burning many around Odessa' is a quotation from the novel Fishka the Tailor by Mendele Moykher Sforim [16].] The process of assimilation began in Odessa at an early period.
1922 was a difficult year. There was an organization called ARA [14]. ARA sent a few trains loaded with food products to Odessa. The chairman of our housing committee took a group of children under 12 years old from our building to the ARA canteen. I remember the maize porridge and concentrated milk in boxes that we had there.
We had Ukrainian, German, Greek and Polish neighbors. We, children, played football and the 'Cossacks and bandits' game [a version of 'Cowboys and Indians']: those who play divide into two groups and the cossacks are seeking for bandits and 'kill' them or take them prisoners. Jews were craftsmen, bindyuzhniki and tradesmen in their majority. There were also tailors and watch repairmen. I never saw any of the Jews wearing payes. Even wearing a beard wasn't a tradition then. Younger men were expected to be well shaved. Many young people even shaved their heads following Kotovsky's [15] example. [Editor's note: It is known that Kotovsky used to shave his head.] I remember that there was a negative attitude toward Lithuanian Jews in Odessa: they were very religious and the others called them 'litvak', which means a cunning and roguish person. [Editor's note: Litvaks were more traditional Yiddish-speaking and religious Jews from Vilna and its surroundings. The interviewee describes it as a general negative term for a cunning and roguish person, perhaps it is due to the stereotypes among more assimilated Odessite Jews.] There were many nationalities in Odessa and there were many mixed marriages. Provincial Jews used to say that there was the 'fire of Hell burning many around Odessa'. [Editor's note: 'fire of Hell burning many around Odessa' is a quotation from the novel Fishka the Tailor by Mendele Moykher Sforim [16].] The process of assimilation began in Odessa at an early period.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Victor Feldman