Monastir Synagogue (Thessaloniki)

Transcription

As a young child, I heard my parents talking. My mother told my father to go the synagogue. She was religious. He said, "Look, I want to go. "Why should I take this old man’s seat who is keeping the synagogue running on a daily basis. "At four in the morning, it’s freezing cold outside, "he’s already up and walking to the synagogue. "If I go, because I’ll give a donation, they’ll give me his seat. "So I don’t want to go." That was his excuse. But nevertheless, he would go. Religion was very important and powerful. Even here in Israel I don’t see people as committed and connected as they were there. They were very connected. I heard that they were wearing their prayer shawls when they were taken to their deaths. Do you know what happened on Passover? How much we cleaned? We started very early. We did it in order to clean. But the stones at the entrance to the house, between which plants grow, we would sweep so that there wouldn’t be a piece of bread, God forbid. That’s how serious we were. I remember, it was very impressive. Albocher, who I believe appears in the picture, had a beard up to here. He would lead the seder on Passover and we would all sit together. We were like one family. His wife really liked my mother. We would sit together on Passover and say all the blessings and tell all the Biblical stories and explanations until the morning. It was like an art. It was a very holy event. The Sabbath was the same thing. We would have a gypsy woman in Monastir who would come to light the fireplace, otherwise there would be no heat and you could freeze. If it wasn’t lit that was it. I remember my mother at five in the morning on Friday would already be baking in order to finish everything in time. To get everything in the outdoor stove for the Sabbath. So that everything would be ready. To get five children bathed wasn’t easy. That everything would be ready by the time father came. They loved each other very much. They had met in the army during the First World War. My mother had been a nurse and he was a soldier. Ah, the holidays, it has remained with us until today. I remember my mother would do this and that, she did everything, there wasn’t anything she didn’t do. And she did it all by herself. From the least to the most important holidays, by her, nothing was more important, everything was an important holiday. How did we sense the holidays? Firstly, we changed the curtains, the rugs. Passover had its own utensils and a completely separate kitchen. For regular holidays, she would prepare all different kinds of foods that we still remember today. The holidays were very festive, warm, and tranquil. We wouldn’t celebrate them by ourselves. Our neighbors were like our family. It was a two story home. We owned it. The people who lived below us were like part of our family. There were no arguments. I never once heard that the house was ours and not theirs. All of the holidays, Passover, Rosh Hashana, they would come up to us, and we would set up a long and wide table. There was a long corridor in our house, about 20 meters long and 5 to 6 meters wide, and it was a beautifully set table. They would all come up. And it was clear that we would eat with the neighbors. My neighbor, my best friend, who didn’t live so far away, they would also join us. All of these friendships and relationships were strengthened by the fact that we celebrated the holidays and the Sabbaths together. In the summer, we would sit together for nights on end. The parents would have their own table with all different delicacies, and the children would be in the next room playing, reading, and singing. It was a life that was indescribable, an incredible life. All of this was…