We were not a religious family, but we celebrated the most important holidays. The store was closed, and we all went to the Neolog synagogue in Fabric. My mother would light the candles on Friday evenings, especially when my grandmother was present. During the winter, we had dinner with goodies made of goose meat. The size of the liver was always brought up in conversation. We cooked only with goose fat until 1938, when my father had a gallstone attack, and then we also started cooking with oil. The goose fat was procured from two women, one from Iosefin, the other from Fabric; they supplied the families who did not slaughter enough geese to meet their own needs.
When we were in primary school, we attended religion class twice a week, in the afternoon. The cantor's assistant, Mr. Rosenthal, was teaching at the Romanian school on Titu Maiorescu street (Bárány utca) for the students of the three Romanian elementary schools in the neighbourhood. I was already ambitious at that time; I still remember what I learned back then. Between 1931 and 1939, the religion class in high school was held by Rabbi Drechsler, once a week, for Jewish students from the eight high school classes.
