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On Sunday, farmers from the village visited my grandfather after the market was closed to have lunch and discuss business and life. Those discussions were in Ukrainian. My grandmother did all the cooking, and the farmers used to say “zhydivska [Jewish] fish, it’s so delicious, how do they cook it?” Zhyd was what they called Jews, and it didn’t sound abusive to us - this was the only word we knew. My grandfather didn’t smoke, but he drank vodka, and the farmers respected him for that. It was their tradition to have a good drink while talking and Jewish people were basically no drinkers. So my grandfather showed that he was one of them by sharing a drink with them. Quite a few farmers used to get together at my grandparents’ place. Some were in the house and others were outside. And they would ask each other “why do you think ‘zhydy’ are so smart? They just listen to what we talk about and smarten up.” Fairs were held every Sunday. Crowds of people used to come there and the church bells would toll for half a day. Jewish families were close with Ukrainians. The farmers bought the goods that Jewish people produced, and Jewish people bought the farmers’ products. And everybody was content with this way of life.
My grandmother was religious and didn’t do any work on Friday evening and Saturday – she didn’t even strike a match. They used an oil lamp for lighting the house. On the Sabbath they poured in just enough kerosene so that it would burn out on its own, so that they didn’t have to put it out. On Saturday a Ukrainian girl, Pruska, used to come to check whether there was [enough] fresh water. My grandmother used to bake a special roll for Pruska.
The population in this town was half Jewish. It was quite a big town. There was a church in the center and two synagogues: one for the poor and one – for rich people. We were craftsmen, tinsmiths. We didn’t have servants and big buildings , we weren’t merchants and we didn’t make a lot of money, so our family attended the synagogue for the poor. We never went to the synagogue for the rich; the people who went there were mainly merchants. There was a big difference between the rich and the poor. The rich and the poor Jews never interrelated, and marriages between members of these different castes were not possible. One couldn’t enter the house of a rich Jew, they communicated via their servants. This was the period of the “Beilis trial,” when Jewish people were accused of drinking the blood of Christian children. This resulted in the pogroms in Kiev. But there were no pogroms in Rafalovka.
My grandmother was religious and didn’t do any work on Friday evening and Saturday – she didn’t even strike a match. They used an oil lamp for lighting the house. On the Sabbath they poured in just enough kerosene so that it would burn out on its own, so that they didn’t have to put it out. On Saturday a Ukrainian girl, Pruska, used to come to check whether there was [enough] fresh water. My grandmother used to bake a special roll for Pruska.
The population in this town was half Jewish. It was quite a big town. There was a church in the center and two synagogues: one for the poor and one – for rich people. We were craftsmen, tinsmiths. We didn’t have servants and big buildings , we weren’t merchants and we didn’t make a lot of money, so our family attended the synagogue for the poor. We never went to the synagogue for the rich; the people who went there were mainly merchants. There was a big difference between the rich and the poor. The rich and the poor Jews never interrelated, and marriages between members of these different castes were not possible. One couldn’t enter the house of a rich Jew, they communicated via their servants. This was the period of the “Beilis trial,” when Jewish people were accused of drinking the blood of Christian children. This resulted in the pogroms in Kiev. But there were no pogroms in Rafalovka.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Yevsey Kotkov