We were raised very religious, we were extreme
Orthodox. My father was a ritual bath owner, they called it a mikvah,
and we had to be an example in the community because we had to observe all the laws,
and we were raised very religious, we observed all the holidays. Passover we had separate dishes, and
then us girls were not allowed to wear short sleeves. We used to cheat and roll them up,
when we were away from the house, and we were not allowed to wear bobby socks, we had to wear long
stockings. On the sabbath we were not allowed to tear paper or use money or walk too far,
and of course, we were extreme kosher. Only kosher food, and we went to Jewish schools,
and we were not allowed to date, we cheated with that. We were not allowed to be Zionists.
[Interviewer]
Tell me about that, you were not allowed to do... [Penina] No, religious Jews were not allowed to be
Zionists, they were supposed to wait for messiah to come. And my father forbade us to be Zionist,
but the Zionist youth movement, the general Zionist youth movement was very strong in our
city, and we all secretly belonged to it. And my oldest sister was very active, and
we were still a little bit too young, but she used to go to meetings regularly. And
my father forbade her to go, and sometimes we would prop up the pillows in the bed pretend
that my sister was undercover sleeping... [Interviewer] so she would sneak out?
[Penina] She would sneak out. My father locked the doors make sure she didn't go out, but she would
sneak out through the window to go to a Zionist youth group meeting. And she even had certificates
to go to Palestine in 1938, but my father forbade her from going, and her friends all went and they
survived the war and live in Palestine. [Interviewer] And what about your
activities did you have Zionistic feelings? [Penina] Well, we were very Zionist oriented,
and we children, we used to go to the meetings, and not as much for the younger one. My sister's
four years older, so we used to go to the meetings and learn the songs and sing and hope for that in
the future we will be settling in Palestine, we will make Aliyah, one of these days and we will
establish a kibbutz. So we were always with that hope that we will someday, we'll go and
learned all the songs, and used to take classes to study a little bit the history of Palestine.
We used to go to synagogue regularly, and my parents,
you know every day and Shabbat, and we observed the holidays very intensely,
and we were all very oriented to the observance but we cheated.
[Interviewer] But did you enjoy it? [Penina] Yes, we as children we all
enjoyed it. We rebelled against certain customs and ceremonies, we thought it was too much.