Tag #150032 - Interview #78438 (Tilda Galpert)

The Jews celebrated holidays in accordance with the laws. We lived about 50 meters from the synagogue. It was a big choral synagogue. It was beautiful. The women stayed on the second floor. My parents began to take us to the synagogue when we turned seven. My father went to pray at the synagogue every morning. Most Jewish men went to the synagogue every morning and evening. Some Jews prayed at home and this was no contradiction to the laws. All boys had to go to pray at the synagogue every day. Everybody was religious. My mother watched even more strictly that all boys put on their tefillin in the morning and prayed at home. I don’t know why they stayed at home on weekdays rather than going to the synagogue with my father. When they reached the age of 13 my brothers had their bar mitzvah. They had to prepare a report about a section of the Talmud and speak in front of guests at home. It was quite a remarkable ceremony. It never happened that somebody smoked on Saturday. All Jewish families watched that all laws were followed. Everybody was afraid of being a cause of an unpleasant rumor. Everybody knew each other and one couldn’t do something wrong without being noticed. Everybody had to follow Jewish laws, traditions and religious rituals. All families followed the kashrut. The children took poultry to a shochet to have it slaughtered.