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Individual Reminiscences
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Carole Gold
Both my mother and father's parents were Polish. They emigrated to England to escape the pogroms and anti-Semitic persecution in the 1880s in Europe. My parents were born in England and after they got married, lived in Stamford Hill.
My parents kept kosher although they were not otherwise religious people. In 1965, I turned 21 and it was that year I got married. My husband, Barry, was also Jewish. We lived in Ilford and then Wembley. In 1977 Barry’s work took us to Andover in Hampshire and so we moved to Newbury in Berkshire for seven years, and then later on we moved to Reading. |
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We lived in Berkshire for almost 30 years and both became very active in the Reading Synagogue and community, and it was there that I learnt more about Judaism through the community.
We moved to Cambridge in 2005 and contacted the Jewish community here. I am now on the CJRA and Welfare committees and edit the CJRA magazine which goes out three times a year.
My son, Spencer, and daughter Belinda were born in Reading and both attended Leicester University, although there is a four year age difference. They both have many mixed race friends and while at University Spencer would often help his Muslim friend by letting her know which way was East so that she could complete her prayers.
My Name
I was named after Carole Lombard, an American actress who was married to Clarke Gable. My second name is Ann and my Hebrew name is Hannah, after my maternal great-grandmother.
In the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish tradition a child is named after a grandparent or member of the family who has passed away, in this way the name lives on in the second generation.
In the Sephardic (Oriental Jewish) tradition, they name a newborn after a member of the family who is still alive.
The photograph below shows me riding on the back of my father, Sidney. In this picture I am 8 years old. My parents divorced two years later when I was 10 and I lost touch with my father for the next 15 years as he remarried. I am an only child and always wanted to get in touch with him. which I did through a friend when I was 25 and married. When my daughter, Belinda, was 2 years old, I took a picture of my daughter on my father's back and when it was printed we realised that it was identical to the one of me and my father. After meeting my father again I got to know my father’s side of the family and we now have regular reunions.
Click image to enlarge |
MY OBJECT
This is a doyley which was crocheted by my maternal grandmother, whom I called Buba. After my parents were divorced, Buba looked after me quite a bit as we had no contact with my father or my father’s side of the family. My Buba, which is a Yiddish word, had 8 children (my aunt and uncles) and we would all meet up for family gatherings at Buba’s house. These doyleys were dotted all over Buba’s house and were passed on to her children. I then inherited some from my mother. |
SPECIAL FOOD
For our lunch today I have brought in traditional Jewish bread with caraway/rye seeds called Rye Bread made with cream cheese and pickled cucumber and chopped herring into open sandwiches. This is food from my past and present. I used to eat these kind of sandwiches with my mother and Buba in their homes when I was a child. This is Jewish food which originates from Poland but can now be found around the world as Jewish people took it with them to Israel and wherever else they settled in the world.
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