Pictures of Jewish Home-Life Fifty Years AgoTrager, Hannah
Religion
Pictures of Jewish Home-Life Fifty Years Ago
Trager, Hannah
Children -- Palestine; Jerusalem -- Social life and customs; Jews -- Social life and customs
"The evening of the day on which we arrived was Friday; there was a
clear moonlight such as you would not often see in England, and it was
very warm, too; so we and our visitors sat in the courtyard. All eagerly
asked us many questions, till quite late; and thus the evening passed
very quickly and pleasantly.
"After prayers on Sabbath some people sent a bottle of wine and a most
delicious pudding, which is made nowhere but in Jerusalem. It tastes
like milk and honey, with other tasty things mixed up in it. Others sent
a lovely sponge cake, coated with different-coloured sugar-icing: many
other good things were also given to us; and they lasted us for nearly a
month.
"Later in the day the people who sent the eatables paid us visits, and
ate some of the good things. It is rather a nice custom, I think, for
new arrivals to have no bother to prepare food for their visitors, as it
gives them time to enjoy their company. What a lot of talking there was!
The men discussed several things with Father, while the women wanted to
know many things about England which Mother could tell them. The boys
and girls could not take their eyes off our clothes, so much did they
admire them! It was quite amusing, the funny questions they asked us
about them. They all promised to help us look for a dwelling; and they
kept their promise. I can tell you it was a great help and comfort to us
that they did, for I don't know what would have become of us out here,
away from our old friends, where the ways of living are so different
from what we have been used to. Whether it will always be so or not, of
course I can't say--time alone will show.
"Very soon afterwards they found us a vacant dwelling, which Father was
very thankful to get, and in my next letter I will tell you something of
our life after we had moved in; but I must tell you more of what
happened when we were staying with our kind host. The first afternoon,
one of our visitors insisted on our I going to her home; so, when I and
our youngsters arrived, we were taken to a room, and in it was a table
covered with lovely apricots, and delicious-looking pastries and jams;
also wine which only cost 3d. a bottle, so it is very nearly as cheap as
buying water. When they handed us some of the good things we naturally
took them and ate them.
"Suddenly I saw our host's children move away from us saying: 'She is a
Shiksa,' and 'He is a Shakitz,' and they kept on whispering and pointing
to us. I could not think what we had done to make them act in such a
way, and so asked their mother. She answered: 'They are surprised to see
you eating without making a Brocha (a blessing), for our children unless
they first make a Brocha never taste anything.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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