Religious Traditions

[Text: Growing up in Siedlce, Poland, David describes the religious traditions in his family, including attending synagogue (shul) and preparing for the Sabbath.] 

David Feldman: My father, he was more religious but not ultra-religious. He used to wear a hat, a normal hat, a tie and a suit to go to work. And Saturdays, holidays, always we went to shul to pray. My mother used to light candles every Friday night to make Shabbos, gefilte fish, whatever it is so on, and always try to save up for Shabbat to have a proper meal and so on. And I remember we used to come home from shul, we used to have a cholent. I was usually the guy that went to the bakery to pick up the cholent. And oh, I remember him after eating the cholent, after eating the lunch after synagogue, he was a very learned guy. He went to yeshiva, but he was not ultra-religious, but he knew how to pray the Gemara. I don't know, Gemara is the books of the Torah. In big books we had about ... from my mother’s side, he left my mother about, I don’t know, 35 or 40 of them. Our whole wall was [full]. He used to take out one of those Gemara often, standing up at the table, and in a loud voice used to read the translation of the Gemara. That was always in Shabbat afternoon, it is often done. Maybe after that, he maybe laid down for a rest or something.