Tag #153697 - Interview #102282 (Leo Lubich)

My father arranged a bar mitzvah for me in 1925. At this point, the synagogues still functioned and the authorities hadn't yet begun trying to stamp out religion. This struggle began in earnest in the 1930s 12. During my bar mitzvah I had a tallit put on, and tefillin placed on my hand and head, and I was taken to the synagogue. There I met the rabbi and he conducted the ritual. I don’t remember the ritual itself since I saw it as a game, but didn’t dare disobey my father by refusing to take part. The adults explained to me that I had come of age and could now come and pray at the synagogue. In reality, I stopped going to the synagogue since I was more taken by the communist ideology we learned at school and didn’t believe in God. I believed religion to be an ignorant vestige of the past.