I was born in Beirut in…(19)43. We lived with my cousin’s family. We lived in a house with five bedrooms. Above us, there was another house (apartment) with five or six rooms. But every room had one family in it. And in this way, there were many houses (apartments) with several rooms (sharing) one kitchen, and how did they live? They lived very well. Now, one…started at 10 o’clock for example, another at 9 o'clock. There was also only one bathroom. In the common area of the floor. When I was born, the first three-four years, maybe until I was nine years old, there was no refrigerator, no gas…no refrigerator, no gas…no washing machine, no dishwasher, no oven. How did they live? We were…my mother would sometimes ask us, me and my sisters, two kids before me, to knead the dough for the bread. And…then they would roll it at home, they would make the loaf, like pita. They would make a loaf and put it on big trays, like this table you saw. They put…if we said six seven scoops. Then, on a white sheet…(they put a bit of) flour and shake it again and again until […]. They would make bread twice a week. And sent it to the oven, the Arabic oven. They would designate every one, every plate, which family (it belonged to) and how many loaves. Many times, […] if we sent 40 loaves, 38 would return, or 37. As in, from every plate, the person running the community oven would take one or take two.

The school was…Alliance Israelite Universelle, which was…its centre was in Paris. There were teachers…for Hebrew, there were teachers from Israel. One…Mademoiselle Tawil, Mademoiselle Sofer…I don’t know if she was from Israel. And the principal (male), and the principal (female), Monsieur and Madame Silver…there was also Monsieur Pinto, Madame Pinto, two principals of Alliance. But…when…[…] at Alliance, Madame and Monsieur Penso passed away, may they rest in peace. Then they brought another principal…I don’t know where from, if he was from Paris or from another place, to teach French. The Alliance Israelite, I mean…it had Jewish students. There were a few non-Jewish students…the children of the Arabic language teachers. They would teach French, Arabic, Hebrew and reading and writing…I mean writing…even if the child was three years old. Normally four years old. There were people who would dare approach the principal (saying), “please, this child is smart. He’s smart, even if he isn’t four years old yet. Try him! Try him!” He entered (the school). Three years old! Soon, (they’ll be putting a child aged) two and a half years! But (at age) three years, we would read and write in three languages. In the sixth grade, I mean, middle school, English - they added English (classes). And classes…I learned at Alliance, but there was also…branches (streams). There were branches for girls for the middle school. In the sixth grade. Branches…they were called ecole populaire. And there was the director Madame Pichoto. (It was) only girls. But it wasn’t in the same building as Alliance. Alliance went up to the brevet, I mean middle school, and after the ecole populaire they would do middle school in Alliance. In the building. There was also…Talmud Torah. Talmud Torah…they taught more religion. But they also taught French, Arabic and Hebrew in a building close to the synagogue. And…also to middle school. Then they went to Alliance. Talmud Torah was only for boys. Ecole populare was only for girls, until sixth grade, and after they went to Alliance for brevet. Brevet…was like the baccalaureate…but three years earlier. The end of middle school…the end of middle school. After, in sixth grade, those who left school…there were people who left school when they were twelve years old. They paid money for Alliance but at Alliance they took (fees) according to the father’s income. There were people who stopped at sixth grade. At sixth grade there was a diploma called “certificate”. End of primary school. And why did they do this? Because even if they left school when they were twelve or thirteen years old, so they could then go to work…if one left (school), he would have something in his hand. He would have a certificate, diploma. He’d have a certificate in his hand (saying) that he was educated. He didn’t remain without knowledge. And that’s the good thing about Alliance Israelite. They had it in Iran, in Turkey, they were in Lebanon, in Syria, in Morocco, and Algeria…they all had the Alliance Israelite Schools.

As soon as they would finish the brevet - it was like this in Lebanon - as soon as they would finish the brevet, many would go to study stenography. Do you know what stenography is? They would go study stenography to work in…offices. Or they would go study a trade. This man (would study) hairdressing, and that one…(something else). Mainly, (they would become) merchants…I mean, (they would study) commerce. But commerce…accounting, they would study to be accountants and open a small store. And…later, but there was the merchant market. In the merchant market there were many Jewish merchants. And those merchants’ job was…children, in the their shops…either there would be sufficient work for the child until he got married […]…or he would study…would complete his studies…complete his studies at non-Jewish schools. There was the Protestant school for girls. The French Lycee for girls and boys. College de la Sagesse of the parish. And the Soeurs de la Besançon of the nuns. There was also a school for the Jews, whoever wanted to complete their studies would pay…pay […]. But the Beirut committee…the committee is the president of the community, the chief of the community…

There was the Wadi…a neighbourhood which was mostly Jewish. But there were Jews…a bit further. In neighbourhoods where Muslims lived, (for example) Sabra, there were no Jews there. 

The Jews had…the Wadi. And close to the sea too there were also residents. They were kind of clustered together. They weren’t very divided. Later…but in the heart of the Wadi, it wasn’t just Jews. There were Christians. There were Muslims. There were Alawites. Like in Hosh Ayass. The Hosh was very big. And there were several buildings. But the majority knew each other. But in Hosh Ayass there were also Kurds. Kurds…Muslims. I didn’t know that there were Kurdish Jews. Later, when we grew up, we learned and heard that there was (a thing called) Kurdistan and Jews there. Like the Kurds who were opposite us, their voices were always loud and they were continuously fighting. We had neighbours here, they were very kind hearted. But what (was the issue)? They were continuously fighting. They raised their voices. Once my cousin from America came to visit me. We were sitting on the balcony, doing preparations for my son’s wedding, and she said to me “do you hear her!? You didn’t change a thing.”. When they would be arguing in Beirut, in Hosh Ayass, a distance of…from here to […], about the distance of half a kilometre from our house, we would hear them arguing all the way in our house. They would…my father would circumcise their sons. When they wanted to scare the kids, they’d say to them “I’ll call the circumciser now! Listen to (obey) (my) word!”. There were also…in the Wadi…for who would we make coffee? For everybody who came! Whether it was the plumber, the plumber. Whether it was a tradesperson. If it were one of those people, it (bringing coffee) was a given. If it were, I mean, an unknown man - a cup of coffee was a must. Our neighbour was a seamstress. A Christian seamstress. She would sew bridal trousseaus. Later…