Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Alexander Karp - September 14, 1995

Religious Life

Was your family religious?

It's, you would call it here probably as Orthodox.

What did you call it there?

Um, a little bit less than Orthodox.

Did you attend synagogue regularly with your family?

Oh, definitely, yes.

Daily or just on...

Not necessarily daily, but, eh, certainly Friday afternoon everything stopped, and then prepared for the Sabbath. Certainly and, uh, on Sabbath nobody, nobody worked. It was observed by each and every one regardless whether you were a little bit more religious or less.

What would, what would a Friday night be like at your house?

Oh, Friday night was the typical family Friday evenings. Uh, certainly we'd have candle lighting and the traditional Friday evenings, uh, with, uh, going to the synagogue and after synagogue having the dinner.

And Saturday? What would happen on Saturday?

Saturday the very same thing. In the morning we went to synagogue, approximately till noon or maybe a little bit after. And, uh, went home and had lunch and two, three hours later or four hours later, you went back to the synagogue. And, uh, summertime, of course, Sabbath went out a little bit later. So you went back for the evening services. And basically everything has, uh, has, has been surrounded by the synagogue activities. Because there was nothing else to do.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn