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We always meet for services on Saturdays and on the holidays, and if a holiday falls on Friday, for example, we go on both days. On Yom Kippur we used to spend all day in shul, but nowadays we start later and don’t take breaks, because hardly anyone comes back from them. We do everything the way it’s supposed to be done, and in the evening around 5, when we go home, everyone who’s been fasting rushes for some food. But the ones who used to fast have died now. I don’t fast, because I reckon I was undernourished enough when I was young.
I always go to shul on Saturday, since if one or two people are missing, the service can’t take place. I go, and I sit; it’s not so tiring for me – just a little if I stand for half an hour at a time. Sometimes we have a memorial prayer for some deceased friend or relative. We recite a special Kaddish then – either I recite it, or the chairman does. The older folks who didn’t emigrate attend pretty regularly. Every Saturday we have a half-liter of vodka, and sometimes someone smuggles in a bottle of their own, so we can always have a drink. And the little meal doesn’t cost anything – they always prepare something for Saturday. For example a kosher chicken cutlet, potatoes with some gravy, and sweet tea with lemon – no wonder people attend! But not too many people – sometimes there’s barely ten. It’s a change of pace, anyway; with the meal and all, it lasts a couple of hours. We talk – we can’t speak Yiddish, though, since not everyone there understands it. So we talk in Polish, and if I need to discuss something with the chairman, then we speak Yiddish.
I always go to shul on Saturday, since if one or two people are missing, the service can’t take place. I go, and I sit; it’s not so tiring for me – just a little if I stand for half an hour at a time. Sometimes we have a memorial prayer for some deceased friend or relative. We recite a special Kaddish then – either I recite it, or the chairman does. The older folks who didn’t emigrate attend pretty regularly. Every Saturday we have a half-liter of vodka, and sometimes someone smuggles in a bottle of their own, so we can always have a drink. And the little meal doesn’t cost anything – they always prepare something for Saturday. For example a kosher chicken cutlet, potatoes with some gravy, and sweet tea with lemon – no wonder people attend! But not too many people – sometimes there’s barely ten. It’s a change of pace, anyway; with the meal and all, it lasts a couple of hours. We talk – we can’t speak Yiddish, though, since not everyone there understands it. So we talk in Polish, and if I need to discuss something with the chairman, then we speak Yiddish.
Period
Location
Legnica
Poland
Interview
Michal Warzager