There was a lancing-school or two in Antomir, but
they were attended by young mechanics of the coarser type. To be
sure, there were plenty of young Jews in our town who did live
"like Gentiles," who called the girls of their acquaintance "young
ladies," took off their hats to them, took them out for a walk in the
public park, and danced with them, just like the nobles or the
army officers of my birthplace. But then these fellows spoke
Russian instead of Yiddish and altogether they belonged to a
world far removed from mine. Many of these "modern" young
Jews went to high school and wore pretty uniforms with
silver-plated buttons and silver lace.
To me they were apostates, sinners in Israel. And yet I could not
think of them without a lurking feeling of envy. The Gentile
books they studied and their social relations with girls who were
dressed "like young noblewomen" piqued my keenest curiosity
and made me feel small and wretched
The orthodox Jewish faith practically excludes woman from
religious life.
Attending divine service is not obligatory for her, and those of the
sex who wish to do so are allowed to follow the devotions not in
the synagogue proper, but through little windows or peepholes in
the wall of an adjoining room.
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