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My mother was a "zogerin" [reciter] in the women's section of the synagogue.
Can you describe what she did? What does it mean to be a "zogerin"?
When the women would gather in the synagogue...
She would read from the siddur [prayer book].
Where would they gather in the synagogue?
In the synagogue... There were twenty synagogues. In Berdichev.
Before the war.
She was a Rabbi's daughter. My grandfather was a Rabbi.
The Rabbi of Chervone.
Nakhman Kaluzhne.
His name was Nakhman. Nakhman ben [son of] Reb Moyshe Kaluzhne.
With such a white beard, a Jew.
His name was Moyshe? No, Nakhman Kaluzhne.
From here, [Chervone] is 18 kilometers. Not far.
So your mother was a... What did you call it?
In the women's [section of the] synagogue.
Because there was a synagogue. Downstairs, the men prayed...
And upstairs the women prayed.
They would wait. My mother's name was Khane.
When Khane comes, she will read.
And other women will repeat?
They repeat, they listen, this and that.
So she was learned, if that's the case?
Well, she didn't go to university...
But in Jewish matters, she was learned.
Because there was a yeshiva there.
For women and for men.
So she went to the yeshiva.
She completed her studies, she knew Loshn Koydesh [Biblical Hebrew]
And Yiddish, we spoke Yiddish, at our house we spoke only Yiddish.
And I went to a Jewish school.
And Russians also went to the Jewish school.
In a Jewish school where everything was taught in Yiddish?
Yes.
How many of these Russians were there?
There, where I studied, there were 8 or 10 such people, Russians.
And they studied in the Jewish school.
They could speak Yiddish better than Russian.
Those were the days.