The Birthday (A Narrative of a Jewish World That No Longer Exists)
Published in Issue #34 Translated from Russian by Alex Gordon subscribe to unlock the full storyAfter the 1917 abolition of the Pale of Settlement in Russia, Jews began to settle everywhere, in both the central and peripheral cities of the USSR. Assimilation proceeded apace, but antisemitism also grew and strengthened. Therefore, even in the most provincial Russian cities, where there were few Jews, the Jews found each other and intensely communicated with each other, warming themselves spiritually in cold Russia. But they spoke less and less Yiddish and more Russian, sometimes ashamed of their Jewishness and always laughing at each other.
Frieda Spielman, a longtime friend of my family, knew the rules of etiquette. She, like my family, was born and raised in a Jewish shtetl, of which there were many in early and mid-twentieth century Ukraine. Frieda imagined herself to be much higher on the social ladder, smarter, and more cultured than her fellow co-religionists. Her husband Nathan knew how to “twirl”, as we said — that is, to do business. My uncle Grisha also tried his hand at business, but, apparently they “twirled” in different directions, because Grisha was poor, and remained poor, until the end of his short life, whereas Nathan succeeded. Nathan’s family — comprised of his wife Frieda and his daughter Tamara, who was the same age as me — was relatively wealthy. They lived in a nice apartment and had money. Nathan got his girls, as he called them, imported clothes, which were unavailable in Soviet Russia in the stores. Frieda was a good and skilled hostess. She never worked anywhere outside the...
Subscribe now to keep reading
Please enter your email to log in or create a new account.