מאגר סיפורי מורשת

My grandfather was born in 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland.

My grandpa thinks that An important part of being Jewish is to believe that everyone is created in the image of g-d (בצלם אלוהימ.) And everyone has equal rights.

When my grandpa (David Freishtat) was 12 years old, his sister, Mitsi Freishtat was 18 years old. (Nowadays her name is Mitzi swan.) My grandpa's sister was a student at the University of Maryland. In 1948, African Americans were not allowed in the same tennis court as white people played. In July 11th, 1948, my grandpa and his sister decided to go to the tennis court with an African American. Her name was Mary Coffee. Once they got there, they did not get to even hit a ball before the police came. This made my grandpa feel proud to be a Jew and he felt a big sense of his Jewish identity, and who he was. H.l. Mencken wrote about this, it was his last story before he died. It will always be remembered.

To learn more about this you can click on this link: Tennis Everyone?

My grandpa's grandpa was a very orthodox Jew. He was a Rabbi in the Jewish part of town. When he had my grandpa's dad, he did not turn out as orthodox as my grandpa's grandpa. He was Jewish but he did not celebrate Shabbat or do anything like that.

When my grandpa was little, my grandpas grandpa would take his hand and bring him to the synagogue, but then his parents came, held his hand and  took him out of the synagogue.This was a big fight that was going on in their family. My grandpa's grandpa would also take him to Hebrew school and the same thing would go on.

After a while, my grandpa went to Yiddish school, where he learned Yiddish. He had a Yiddish bar mitzvah which is like a bar mitzvah but in Yiddish. And when he stood there in front of everyone talking in Yiddish, he could see how proud his perants and grandpa and every one surrounding him was. That is the moment When he first felt a sense of his Jewish identity.

הזוית האישית

My grandpa's favorite tradition is Passover when all the family goes to my grandpa's house and celebrates. He likes it because all of our family lives in different places and it's a chance to meet all together.