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Pesach was the major holiday because it was
at home. The high holy days were more important, but, because they're
more "synagogue" holidays, it doesn't involve the total
family in quite the same way. So, Pesach stands out as the most
important, because we had the biggest house and the most table room
and my grandparents would come in from Woodbury to our house....
I can easily remember my grandfather at the head of the table, a
huge table that it turned out to be, and all of the children were
down at one end of the table opposite him and we were carrying on
our own little visitations there and talking or whatever, and he
did the seder up at the other end with the adults.
-Ethel Leopold Goldberg |
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The Blessing of Bread, Chaimowitz Bar Mitzvah, c.1950
Louis Chaimowitz, Harry & Anna Chaimowitz London
(Collection of Sherman & Arlene London)
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The Jewish community
in Waterbury has included immigrants of diverse nationalities, occupations,
economic and educational backgrounds and political viewpoints. While
these differences have produced a variety of congregations and social
organizations that respond to the differing interests within the
Jewish community, the common foundation of their faith has formed
a bond among them all. |
To me, eating on Yom Kippur was a mortal sin.
I would never think of doing that. And even on Passover: we kept
Passover for the whole week. I worked downtown in a store and I
brought my lunch every day or I would go home for lunch.
Rosh Hashanah, of course, the service got out at 2:00 or 2:30. They
you went home and you had your big meal. The real traditional chicken
soup. Homemade gefilte fish. Everything was homemade. I don’t
think my mother ever bought anything in the store. She made her
own noodles and gefilte fish. Chicken soup. Borscht.
-Goldie Atkin |
My mother kept a
kosher house and we had a barrel of dishes in the cellar that they
brought up that they used only for Passover. My recollection is
that my mother used glass plates because glass plates you could
use for either meat or dairy. Because the theory is that they didn’t
pick up anything. When you washed them they were clean.
-Sherman London |
Channukah
(Collection of Mary Blank)
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