Devorah (Dora’s Stepmother) and Michael Chomut 1935?
ANOTHER FORCED MARRIAGE
Dora Shooster - “Mine [sic] stepmother’s brother, Moshe, lost his wife as well. He was left with three children in another town called Yeurich. So, my stepmother only wanted to take revenge on me because she was forced to marry a widower, that I should also marry a widower even though I was only fifteen. My father told me, ‘You will have to marry.’ So, I thought, Where should I go from here? What should I do with myself? I says to my father, ‘Whatever you are going to make, like a wedding, will have to cost you something. Why don’t you send me to America instead? Just buy the ticket. You don’t have to give me nothing.’ Whatever my mother left, the clothes, the jewelry, was still in the house, locked up. I was already 15 years old. He would never let me even look at it. He did not budge.
So, I thought of a scheme. In the old coun- try, they don’t wait for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur to go to schul. They go to schul every morning three times a day. It was the building next to us. Everybody knew my father had an expensive seat, called the Mizrach. Seats that faced east towards Jerusalem were the most coveted. You have to be able to afford to sit in those seats. So, I went to the Shochet. The one who kills the cows, the Kosher slaughter for the Jewish people. In the old country, they have respect for all people. They don’t call you just she or he; they give you a title like Shochet. I say to him, ‘Where do I go from here?’ He says, ‘I’ll try to talk to your father.’ But, it didn’t do no good.
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