KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
and always wore a beautiful hat and fine clothes. Their house was quite elegant and modern, with indoor bathrooms, which were a rarity at the time. My mother was always nervous when the Goldmans were in- vited to our house for a special occasion. She used our finest china and linens, and wore her finest clothes and jewelry. I suppose she wanted to be on a social par with Mrs. Goldman. In another way, however, I think that my mother felt luckier than Mrs. Goldman. Our family had three lovely children, while the Goldmans were, unfortunately, childless. My father’s business partner, Abraham Pikovsky, a distinguished local businessman, lived in a large house near the mill outside of town. At some point, he had owned the business and the land it stood on. My father bought into the business when it was still small, and it developed steadily after he came on board. Pikovsky had two children, a son named Josef (Yonie) and a younger daughter, and many relatives in Ludvipol. We had a good relationship with our rabbi, Rabbi Akiva Chazan. He and his family lived atop a hill near us, looking down at our place. We would pass his house on the way to the market square. In the summer, they kept all of their windows and doors open, so we occasionally had a chance to chat with him as we passed. His wife, the rebbitsin , sold baking yeast from her house to supplement the rabbi’s income, and though we did most of our shopping in a grocery store, we bought our yeast from her. On Fridays, we always brought our pot of cholent , a one-pot Shabbes meal of meat, potatoes, beans, and other ingredients, to the rebbitsin to be baked in her oven. I am sure that my father found a dignified way to help the rabbi financially; he had a large family with many children who needed food and clothing. Perhaps the rebbitsin was paid for baking the whole town’s cholent, or perhaps the town’s support of the rabbi and his family included such essential services as this. I spent a lot of time at the home my best friend, Eli Kleinman, the youngest child and only son of Yeshua Kleinman. Eli and
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