Tag #151835 - Interview #101583 (Isaac Klinger)

My mother, Riva Volotsenko, was born in Mayaki, Belyayevskiy district, Odessa region in 1883. She was the youngest daughter in the family. She didn’t go to school. She got religious education in the family: her father taught her prayers in Hebrew and her mother taught her all Jewish traditions. My mother learned to cook traditional food. She observed the kashrut and Sabbath and wore long-sleeved gowns that Jewish girls were supposed to wear. In 1903 she moved to Odessa looking for a job. She went to work at the jute factory. I don’t know where she lived. She probably rented a room. 

My parents met at the jute factory and got married in 1904. They had a traditional Jewish wedding with a chuppah. Their friends and relatives helped them with the wedding. They rented a facility for the party. When my parents got married they rented a small one-room apartment on Hospitalnaya Street in the center of Moldavanka. They had a small room and a kitchen.

When my older brother Dodik was born in 1905 there was a big Jewish pogrom in Odessa 9. My father told me about it. About one thousand Jews perished then. There were Jewish defense units 10 armed with knives and self-made grenades. My father was also a member of such a group. Our family did not suffer during this pogrom, but many Jewish families in Moldavanka did.