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Emerich Grinbaum - October 3, 2000

You went to, you went to, you went to parochial school, youwent to...

No, that was a, a, a secular Hebrew school. Uh, which is...

That you went to.

Yes, that was a, a elementary, four, four years and then eightyears gymnasium. I-and-we studied Hebrew practically, practically all day,this, all day subjects were taught in Hebrew. Mathematics, physics, everything.

So instead of public school, you went there.

Right, right. We-that was uh, uh, a very high level school. Andwe didn't have religious b...re...the only religious boys they were the, fromthe Mizrachi. Because the Mizrachi was the, the uh, religious Zionists, ifyou ???. So we didn't have children with payot you know, payes, you know.The only, th...those, those from Mizrachi, two, three children, but most ofthem secular. Although uh, we had Tanách you know, everyday. Then at thattime be obliged to have uh, put kipas. Otherwise we could and we could not.And we had prayers and you know, and that was very, very Zionist and we uh,we studied Hebrew literature, Hebrew re...Israel, and sto...Jewish historybetter than most of the schools here in the United States, much more.

What language did you speak at home?

At home, Hungarian.

Hungarian.

That's my mother tongue.

Not Ruthenian?

No, I think no-Ruthenian, neither Czech, no. We s...uh, we uh,okay, I'll tell you. In 1936, uh, I was six, I entered school, the elementaryschool. We started Hebrew. The first day we entered that school and the firstsentence, Rak Evrit. No Hungarian, no Yiddish, no nothing. So after one yeareverybody was fluent, children was fluent in Hebrew.

Rak Evrit means only Hebrew.

Only Hebrew. And that's all we studied. And then until-in '38be uh, so when I was in third grade, the Hun...Hungarian conquered that area.Uh, '38 November 10, and I tell you exactly. And before that we learned alittle bit Czech and a little bit Ruthenian, very little in the school, elementaryschool. Later if, later people learned more, but I didn't manage to learn.When the Hungarian came there was only Hebrew and some Hungarian, of course,in the schools.