Lily Fenster - November 8 & 10, 1994
Religious Practice in America
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Because he seen he did things that, to people, that they open business, he gave them warm meats if they were fine. He says, if he would be longer there, he would get cancer and die earlier than, he couldn't, because he had a lot of compassion, Dave. You could ask about they fenced around, but people they know, I mean, you know. They say the wife, the husband you know, all of a sudden he died, became good you know, but it, no, it's true fact. He had his faults, of course. He was human. But uh, he was a good person. When you come in honey, you never went out empty handed. I remember once, a Lubavitcher came here to the house. It was maybe a year before, a year and a half and asking, because he used to always buy a table for the hall, for the fund raising, $1,000.00, whatever it was. I'm not so religious and I respected the Lubavitcher because they do a lot. They do a lot for Judaism. I mean--even not for Jews. They do a lot also for children what have problems with dope, mixed marriages. They try to do it. I know they, they did help quite a few children, which, for that, I respect them, so he came and he says, "Rav Dovid," you know the way they say. "Konst noch laig'n de tefillin?" And he brought a pair of tefillin and my husband was not a believer, I mean, he liked to go, we were members from the B'nai Moshe for twenty-six or twenty-seven years, but he wasn't a ??? you know uh, he was modern to some degree, because he came from such a background in Europe. They all were religious. I mean, in Europe, every Jew was religious. Very few, in the late years, maybe, you know. So he put in the Tefillin and he says, "Rav Dovid you did good." It was a young rabbi you know, and it brought the dumb tears to his eyes, because he recall his home, his background. He was raised in that atmosphere. The father used to daven far'n umid you know, next to the Rabbi. So, well, in Europe, the Jews had that type of education. Cheder as you know, I mean, that was the most important thing. Some of them didn't even know how to write Polish or nothing. They just believe in uh, in the Jewish tradition and it's changed lately. It became modern. My father was a modern person. My grandpa didn't like it. He suffered a lot because of that.
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