מאגר סיפורי מורשת

My Grammy’s Life Story

Judith Green was born on October 7, 1940 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Her parents were Jewish and lived in a city with not a lot of Jews. She had a big family with a lot of cousins and they celebrated holidays together. She remembers being Jewish at young age. When she was four years old, she remembers that her parents took her to see Santa Claus. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said that she did not celebrate Christmas because she was Jewish. He was surprised.

When she was four years old, her father went to serve in World War II. She and her mother went to live with her grandparents in Manchester, New Hampshire. Her grandparents spoke Yiddish in the house. She considered her world a Jewish world. Other families had grandparents who spoke Italian or Polish. She did not think it was weird to have a foreign language spoken in the house, but it reminded her she was Jewish.

On Saturdays, her family would go to temple while many of her neighbors went to church on Sunday. On Wednesday, the kids in her school would all go to Catholic school. She went to religious school. This was a further reminder that she was Jewish and that other kids had a different religion. She never thought of this as bad, because she liked being Jewish, especially celebrating the holidays.

Her favorite holiday was Rosh Hashana. She had the best memories and her birthday was close by. No one was wealthy and everyone was allowed to get a new item of clothing. She was fond of weather in the fall in New England. She remembers the neighborhood kids collected chestnuts. Boys used their chestnuts to throw at one another. Girls used their chestnuts to make necklaces. She also liked that it was a time to start fresh. She wanted to start the New Year and do an even better job in the coming year than you did before.

Passover was another one of her favorite holidays. She had Passover with her mother’s family. Her grandfather knew the Haggadah by heart. The children sat at a different table than the adults. She sat with all of her cousins. Since her grandfather was so observant, they had to wait through the whole prayer before they can eat. My grandmother could not wait for the matzah ball soup! The kitchen smelled of great fragrance. They even made homemade gefiltefish. The best part was that everyone stayed over so they could have another Seder the next night.

One thing that my grandmother remembers about her early Passovers was that her father was serving in the army in Europe as a doctor in the army hospital. She missed him alot and when it was time for Elijah to visit during the Seder, she imagined that that Elijah was her father, returning home from the war. One time, the door blew open from the wind and everyone thought it was Elijah and my grandmother thought it was her father. But it was just the wind.

My grandmother currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts and visits us occasionally. But she always loves spending time with us over the holidays. My grandmother came to visit us during my first Rosh Hashanah when I was a baby. When everyone was looking in to my baby carriage during the services, she proudly told people "That’s my grandson!”

A quote that describes her childhood is "My world was a Jewish world.” My grandmother has many rich Jewish memories.

To this day, she proudly keeps her Jewish identity as an active member of her congregation. She frequently receives Aliyahs in her synagogue. During her life, she has managed to stay young by her Jewish identity, and I have enjoyed writing this report and learning more about her Jewish life.

Enrichment

 Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎, literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (Hebrew: יוֹם תְּרוּעָה‎), literally "day [of] shouting/blasting", sometimes translated as the Feast of Trumpets. It is the first of the High Holy Days (Hebrew: יָמִים נוֹרָאִים‎ Yamim Nora'im, lit. "Days of Awe") specified by Leviticus 23:23-32, which usually occur in the early autumn of the Northern Hemispher

תשע"ו, 2012