Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Stefa (Sarah) Sprecher Kupfer - July 24, 1987

Religious Life

What was your home life, was it an Orthodox home?

We kept kosher, of course, most people were Orthodox, we kept kosher and Shabbat, my father went to shul. The store was closed, holidays were observed.

How would you have told that it was a very Jewish town, you said it was very Jewish?

Well, you could see in the street, a lot of Jews were wearing streimlach, and beards and ear locks, and even my cousins, some of my cousins were wearing long ear locks, and the heads were always covered, my grandmother wore sheitel--my aunt wore a sheitel.

Did your mother?

My mother did not.

What was a Friday like, a Friday night?

Friday night was wonderful. We would go to shul and come back and we would have a Friday meal and you would sing zemirot and Shalom Aleichem and it was just wonderful. Just wonderful.

Did you sing?

I'd sing along a little bit.

Do you remember the song?

A little.

I won't ask you to sing.

No, don't ask me to sing.

What would happen, you would have dinner, fish the whole...

The whole spiel, fish and chicken soup, and chicken and noodles and tsimmes and compote and...

And then you would sing and then what?

Well, it was evening.

And Saturday?

Saturday's summertime was especially nice. My father would go to an early minyan and come home and have lunch and my father, my mother and I would go for long walks in the meadows, there were meadows not far from our house. And it was so beautiful, so peaceful, it was so green and open and nice and we would go for long, long walks. Especially summer time and spring it was beautiful.

This was before your sister was born?

This was before my sister was born.


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