My grandfather went to the synagogue in Kopaygorod, the district town, not far from Koryshkov. He went there only on important Jewish holidays. After returning from the war my grandfather went to the synagogue in Kopaygorod at Rosh Hashanah. He was wearing his medals. The local Jews had never seen Georgian Crosses before, and got very angry with my grandfather. They couldn't believe that a Jew would come to the synagogue wearing Christian crosses on his chest. They wouldn't allow my grandfather to enter the synagogue. Then the rabbi came to ask what it was all about. The other attendants told him that they believed my grandfather didn't respect the faith of their ancestors since he came to the synagogue with all these Christian crosses on his chest. The rabbi explained to them that these were the tsar's military awards that my grandfather had earned at the front for shedding his blood. Afterwards, of course, he was allowed to enter the synagogue as a man of honor.
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Displaying 13831 - 13860 of 50826 results
Ruvin Gitman
So, my grandfather's family was very wealthy. My grandmother kept a cow. They also had a big garden and a kitchen garden. My grandmother managed all the housekeeping. Their sons worked in the fields with my grandfather.
My grandparents were very religious. They observed all the Jewish traditions in their home and celebrated the Sabbath and all the Jewish holidays. All of their sons were raised as Jews. They didn't go to cheder. There was no cheder in Koryshkov and my grandfather didn't want to send his children to Kopaygorod, as it was too far away. Teachers came to teach the children at home. My father and his brothers were good at Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and arithmetic.
My grandfather, my father and his brothers prayed at home every single day. They prayed three times a day: before meals in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, performing the ritual of washing hands before meals. They took their tallit and twiln tefillin to the field to pray in the afternoon [the interviewee is talking about the evening prayers, the Maariv]. On holidays the whole family went to the synagogue in Kopaygorod. Isroel had a friend in Kopaygorod who was a shochet. My grandfather's family stayed in this man's house and spent the holidays in Kopaygorod. Every member of the family had his own seat in the synagogue.
My grandfather and grandmother wore old-fashioned traditional Jewish clothing. My grandmother wore a wig and covered her head with a shawl when going out. My grandfather wore a long black jacket or a black suit, and a vest with a silver watch chain hanging from its pocket. He wore a black hat and a little black cap underneath it. At home my grandfather always wore a yarmulka. My grandfather only wore light cotton pants and shirt to do work in the field, but he still wore his yarmulka.
Koryshkov was a quiet village. There were no Jewish pogroms before or after the Revolution of 1917 [1]. Koryshkov village was not beside any railroad or main roads. During the Revolution a gang was passing by the village. The gang members were about to rob the 12 Jewish families residing in the village, but the Ukrainian farmers stood against them saying: 'They are our zhyds [Jews]. We do with them what we want, but we won't allow you to take one hair from their heads'. They then chased the bandits away. This was the only time such a gang came to the village.
My mother, Brukha Perelman, was born in 1905. Only her brother Itsyk was older than she. The next brother was Elik, then came Bluma, Psakhe, Haika and Ide-Leib. Their family was religious. All the children got a religious education. The boys went to cheder and the girls were taught at home. They could all read and write in Hebrew and Yiddish, and studied the Torah and the Talmud. The family observed Jewish traditions and celebrated the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. They communicated in Yiddish, but they all spoke fluent Ukrainian. They remained deeply religious people until old age. None of them had any special education.
My parents married in 1922. They had a traditional Jewish wedding. They had a wedding ceremony with a chuppah at the synagogue in Kopaygorod, and they had a huge wedding party. The whole town was invited to the wedding: Jews and Ukrainians. The newlyweds moved to Koryshkov and had another wedding party there arranged by my father's parents.
I remember this house very well. We lived in it before the war. It was an ordinary Ukrainian house with a thatched roof and clay floors. The house had three rooms and a kitchen. We had a shed in the yard where livestock and hay for the winter were kept. We had a cow, 10 sheep and numerous chicken and geese. We also had two horses.
My parents worked from morning till night and all the children helped them. I shepherded geese when I was five, and then, after I grew older, I began to shepherd the cattle. My father grew grain of high quality and vendors eagerly bought his crops. My father was a very good farmer. His cows produced at least three buckets of milk each. My mother milked cows three times a day. My father was a good gardener, too. We had a nice orchard and a kitchen garden. In the autumn my father hired employees to help him with the harvesting. He paid them well.
Our family was very religious. My parents observed all the religious traditions and taught us to do the same. My mother didn't wear a wig, but she always covered her head with a shawl. My brothers, my sister and I received a religious education. We studied Hebrew, and read the Torah and the Talmud with our teachers. I can still remember when and what prayer one needs to say. I also remember the prayers. However, during Soviet times I didn't have the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of Judaism.
We spoke Yiddish in the family, and Ukrainian and Russian with our Ukrainian and Russian neighbors. The Jews in Koryshkov visited each other and kept in touch. They often got together for dinner. They also socialized with their Ukrainians neighbors., etc. Ukrainians knew that they were not expected at Sabbath and left us alone on this day. People were very tolerant towards each other's faith. There was no anti-Semitism.
Our family always celebrated the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. My mother always cooked bean or carrot tsimes [2], chicken broth, chicken and fish. My mother baked challah, cookies and pies with cottage cheese or meat. We had separate dishes for meat and dairy products. The rules of kashrut were strictly followed. The shochet in Kopaygorod killed chicken and geese. If there was a calf or lamb to be slaughtered, the shochet was invited to come to our house before major Jewish holidays or family celebrations.
I liked to visit my grandfather Isroel on Saturdays. He prayed at home on Saturdays. My grandmother had all the meals prepared for Saturday. She cooked cholent in a big ceramic pot. She capped the pot with dough and put it in the oven to keep it warm for Saturday. My grandmother also cooked pitcha - chicken necks, legs and chicken giblets boiled with garlic, vinegar and eggs. This dish is supposed to be eaten cold. She also made stuffed fish and two freshly made challot covered with a nice embroidered towel. After my grandmother lit the candles and said her prayer, she turned her face to us. The door to the room was open and we always said 'Shabbat Shalom', greeting the coming in of Saturday. Then my grandfather recited Kiddush, blessing the wine. The wine was poured into a big wine glass. After my recited Kiddush he took a sip from the glass and gave it to my grandmother. She took a sip and then handed the glass to me. My grandfather also recited Kiddush over the challah. He poured himself a little cup of vodka, recited Kiddush over the challah and drank the vodka. Then he asked my grandmother to give him a bite of something to eat. She put a cookie in his hand. Each of us took a small piece of challah and ate it, dipping it into salt.
My mother's father lived in Kopaygorod. We spent Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah there. We stayed with my grandfather Moshe and my grandfather Isroel stayed at his friend's home. We all had our own seat in the synagogue and went there to pray. We all fasted on Yom Kippur, even the children, from an early age. My relatives and I have always fasted, except during the years of army service.
We celebrated Pesach at home. The first seder lasted until morning, until we read the whole Haggadah in Yiddish. We started preparations for Pesach long before the holiday. We made matzah at grandfather Isroel's home. He had all the necessary tools to make the matzah . He kept them in the attic.
Other Jews also came to Isroel's home to make their matzah . They usually made it from one or two pounds [32 kilos] of flour. There was not to be a crumb of bread in the house at Pesach. . My grandfather had a special big kosher board used only for rolling out the dough for the matzah, a special bowl, rolling pin and a wheel for making holes. Stiff dough was made from water and flour, then holes were made and in about 15 minutes the dough was to be put in the stove. The freshly baked matzah was placed on a special white sheet.
.There were people in town who made a special kind of wine from raisins. My father went to Kopaygorod to get some wine. My mother made a special beetroot drink (kvass) for the Pesach borsht. All baked goods were made from matzah flour. The matzah was crushed and then sieved. My mother made traditional stuffed fish, chicken broth, boiled chicken and beygelakh, little bagels made from matzah flour. My mother also baked keyzelakh from matzah flour, eggs and boiled potatoes with geese cracklings. My mother also made pancakes and strudels with jam, nuts and raisins. The house was always very clean. We brought out fancy dishes from storage in the attic. On the eve of Pesach we searched for breadcrumbs to burn.
On the first day of Pesach my mother covered the table with a snow-white cloth. In the center of the table there was a dish with six symbolic foods: zroa - a piece of fried meat with a bone, maror - horseradish, beitsah - hard-boiled egg, charoset - ground apple with wine and nuts, karpas - greens or vegetables with salted water in a saucer, and matzah on a plate. After the prayer it was necessary to dip the greens in the salted water and eat them to feel the bitter taste of slavery of our ancestors in Egypt. We all drank the Pesach wine. There was always an extra glass poured for the prophet Elijah. According to Jewish legend, the prophet Elijah visits every home on the first day of Pesach and drinks from the cup that has been poured for him. He is invisible, but he can see everything in the house. The door is kept open for the prophet to come in and honor the holiday with his presence.
.There were people in town who made a special kind of wine from raisins. My father went to Kopaygorod to get some wine. My mother made a special beetroot drink (kvass) for the Pesach borsht. All baked goods were made from matzah flour. The matzah was crushed and then sieved. My mother made traditional stuffed fish, chicken broth, boiled chicken and beygelakh, little bagels made from matzah flour. My mother also baked keyzelakh from matzah flour, eggs and boiled potatoes with geese cracklings. My mother also made pancakes and strudels with jam, nuts and raisins. The house was always very clean. We brought out fancy dishes from storage in the attic. On the eve of Pesach we searched for breadcrumbs to burn.
On the first day of Pesach my mother covered the table with a snow-white cloth. In the center of the table there was a dish with six symbolic foods: zroa - a piece of fried meat with a bone, maror - horseradish, beitsah - hard-boiled egg, charoset - ground apple with wine and nuts, karpas - greens or vegetables with salted water in a saucer, and matzah on a plate. After the prayer it was necessary to dip the greens in the salted water and eat them to feel the bitter taste of slavery of our ancestors in Egypt. We all drank the Pesach wine. There was always an extra glass poured for the prophet Elijah. According to Jewish legend, the prophet Elijah visits every home on the first day of Pesach and drinks from the cup that has been poured for him. He is invisible, but he can see everything in the house. The door is kept open for the prophet to come in and honor the holiday with his presence.
At Purim my parents arranged Purimshpilen, holiday performances in the village. They were lots of fun. At Purim my mother always made hamantashen, and gave them to all of our family members. At Chanukkah we were given money. Mother lit the central candle on the first day of Chanukkah and recited a blessing. Then she lit one candle from it, and then each member of the family lit one candle in a beautiful silver chanukkiyah every night for 8 days. Every morning the whole family said a prayer. At Sukkot my father made a sukkah in the yard and we had lunch and dinner there. It was often cold or it rained, but we still had to stay in the sukkah and my father used to say that it was the Lord reminding us about the sufferings of the Jews.
I don't know what my parents and grandparents thought about the Revolution of 1917, but I know what they thought about collectivization [3]. When the decree on collectivization was issued, my grandfather called all his sons and told them to submit their applications to the collective farm [4] on the following day. They tried to tell him that they wanted to work on their own land. But my grandfather explained to them that if they wanted to live with their families peacefully in their houses they had to join the collective farm. My father and his brothers obeyed their father and were the first to submit their applications. All the rest of the Jews decided to go along with the collectivization. The youngest brother, Moshe, was appointed chairman of the village council. Berl became a foreman of the collective farm. Shmil-Leib became director of the store, and my father became chief of logistics.
Regardless of their official posts my father and his brothers remained very religious. However, they didn't go to synagogue openly. They went secretly and only on important holidays. They went early in the morning while people were asleep, and afterwards went to work. But they celebrated the Sabbath and all the religious holidays at home. My parents often went to celebrate holidays with my mother's parents. Many farmers refused to join the collective farms. They were declared to be kulaks [5] and were sent with their families into exile in Siberia. They were not allowed to take any luggage with them into exile. I can still see this picture and hear the screams and crying of women forced to leave their homes. About one third of the Ukrainian population of Koryshkov was deported.
I went to school in 1931 when I was 7. I attended the Ukrainian secondary school in Koryshkov. There was a Jewish school in Kopaygorod and my grandfather Moshe wanted me to go there and live in his house. My mother told him that Jewish schools had no perspectives and that I was to study where I lived. My mother turned out to be right.
We celebrated Soviet holidays at school. We had meetings in the morning where the school director and the schoolteachers greeted us. This was an official function. Then we went to the village cultural center where our parents were invited, too. We performed concerts, sang Soviet songsd, danced and recited poems. We liked these holidays very much and we enjoyed the applause.
While in the 3rd grade, I became a pioneer. I was eager to become a pioneer. I believed in communism and the promised happy future. Although my parents were religious people they didn't have any objections to my becoming a pioneer. My father said: 'Do it, if you have to'. At that time pioneers were called upon to struggle against religious prejudices and make their parents atheist. But I was of two minds concerning this. I listened to what I was told at school and accepted those ideas, but also enjoyed meals at Sabbath and other holidays at home.
In 1932-33 there was a terrible famine in Ukraine [6]. Our cow saved us from starving to death. There were only three cows left in the whole village, and ours was one of them. During collectivization, only cows and chickens were left with their owners. Everything else was made public property. We didn't let our cow go to pasture. It would have been slaughtered by starving people. My father mowed grass and fed the cow in our yard. The cow stayed overnight in the anteroom of our house. My father slept beside it at night with an ax in his hands to defend himself from thieves if they came at night. In the morning my mother milked the cow. This bucket of milk was for our family, my grandfather and my father's brothers. During the afternoon milking hungry people came to our yard, and my mother poured each of them a cup of milk until it was finished. My mother never took any money for the milk. During the evening milking she also gave milk to people. We also ate corn that had been stored in our attic for a few years. We dried and ground the corn manually and boiled it. Milk and corn was our only food for two years. Our large family survived, but many other people didn't. Many people were dying; there were often no survivors in a family.
The synagogues in Kopaygorod - there were several of them - were open until 1936. When the struggle against religion [7] intensified they were closed. The Christian church was also closed. In those years it was not safe to go to synagogue. There was only one synagogue left of the 300 existing in Kiev before the Revolution of 1917.
The arrests during the Great Terror [8] didn't touch our family. My father instructed me not to speak with strangers and to answer any and all questions that people asked with 'I don't know'. I was a sociable boy and my father realized that any person could be a KGB informer and that any of my revelations could work against him. I could inadvertently give away information; even saying that we celebrated religious holidays at home, or anything else might become a basis for further accusations. My father knew that people could be found guilty of espionage or anti-Soviet activities, even though they might be innocent. We didn't turn on lights at home until we secured the windows with blankets, and we spoke in whispers; even the most innocent words could be interpreted voluntarily, although my parents didn't have any anti-Soviet discussions.
The school director and deputy director were arrested. We were told that they were public enemies and that they were teaching works by Soviet authors who had been declared public enemies. We were just children and believed what we were told. But we couldn't imagine how these kind, nice people could be public enemies. We kept silent and didn't comment on anything.
The school director and deputy director were arrested. We were told that they were public enemies and that they were teaching works by Soviet authors who had been declared public enemies. We were just children and believed what we were told. But we couldn't imagine how these kind, nice people could be public enemies. We kept silent and didn't comment on anything.
In our free time we played football and went swimming in the summer. I read a lot. I mainly read books that glorified the Soviet power. My favorite book was How Steel was Tempered by Nikolay Ostrovsky. It is about dedicated Komsomol members of the post-revolutionary period. I idolized Pavel Korchagin, the main character of this book. I was eager to become a Komsomol [9] member. I entered the Komsomol before finishing school.
In 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany. My parents and our fellow villagers were common people who didn't give much thought to the situation in Germany at that period. They didn't have any presentiment of the war. The propaganda of those years was very strong. We were convinced that we were the strongest people in the world and could beat any enemy. There was also another factor. Many Jews, including my father, who knew Germans during World War I said that Germans were educated people and wouldn't do any harm to the Jews.
On 22nd June my friends and I had a party to celebrate our obtaining of school certificates. Many of us were going on to study in other towns. We partied all night. When I came home on the morning of 22nd June 1941 my parents were not home. They had gone to the market in Kopaygorod. I sent my younger brother and sister to play in the yard so that I could have a good sleep. I slept like a log until I woke up hearing someone knocking on the door and on the windows. It was my schoolmate. I asked him why he was knocking as if a house was on fire. He said, 'Worse than that. The war has begun'. That was my memory of the beginning of the war. There was an announcement on the radio. Kiev had been bombed.
We failed to evacuate. We lived too far from the railroad and failed to reach it. In about a month and a half Vinnitsa region was occupied by German and Romanian troops. We were under occupation. The occupiers established a Jewish ghetto in Koryshkov. This area was under the jurisdiction of Romania. There were many Jews from Chernovtsy and Romania in the ghetto. The village was fenced in with barbed wire and a gendarme post was built. The first group of people to arrive at the ghetto was accommodated in the pigsty and spent the whole winter there. There was no heating there, not even a small stove. They all died. The newcomers were accommodated in public facilities. They were overcrowded and dirty.
We lived in our house, but we occupied only one room. Other rooms were given to newcomers to the ghetto. My mother voluntarily took them to the house to help. I cannot say exactly how many people there were in the ghetto. There were six to eight thousand people before the war when each family lived in their house. During the occupation there were four or five families in every house. Life was very hard. It was impossible to get a wash, do the laundry or change. We had a garden and a kitchen garden that helped a little with the food situation, but we were still always hungry. My mother always shared whatever we had with the others. When we ran out of all food we starved along with the others.
We lived in our house, but we occupied only one room. Other rooms were given to newcomers to the ghetto. My mother voluntarily took them to the house to help. I cannot say exactly how many people there were in the ghetto. There were six to eight thousand people before the war when each family lived in their house. During the occupation there were four or five families in every house. Life was very hard. It was impossible to get a wash, do the laundry or change. We had a garden and a kitchen garden that helped a little with the food situation, but we were still always hungry. My mother always shared whatever we had with the others. When we ran out of all food we starved along with the others.