Dorothy Kraus Memoir - Contact with Gentiles

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Dorothy Kraus Memoir

Contact with Gentiles
Contact with the Goyim (Gentiles) was limited strictly to the necessities.

The peasant would come to the Jewish stores to buy yardage and trinkets, sugar, salt, and other simple items. The Jew would go to the Gentile to have his horse shod, his harness fixed, to buy fruits and eggs -- though many Jewish families kept chickens in their yards. They hired a Gentile washerwoman or girl to help with the cleaning before Pesach (Passover), New Year's, and other High Holidays. But all Jewish families needed the help of a Shabbos Goy (Sabbath Gentile). His task was to turn off the lamp on Friday night and make fire in the oven on Saturday morning. For the Jew must do no work on the holy day.

Editor's Notes: The limited contact between Jews and Gentiles in Wysokie was in spite of the close physical proximity of members of the two groups. For example, Jews did not need to go more than a few steps to get a horse shod -- there is evidence that the blacksmith shop was located among the Jewish houses alongside the river around this time. There was reciprocity, too: there is evidence that Jews provided essential functions to the Christian community on Sundays.

This material is from Original Page 2.

Page Last Updated: 28-Aug-2012