Mr. Ruby.

was pretty well liked, and maybe some people would get the impression that he was a big shot but actually I don't think he ever went out of the way to try to show people he was a big shot.
However, maybe I didn't notice it because I am his brother. And he was my older brother, and so maybe I just didn't notice it.

Mr. Griffin.

I wonder if you can explain what seems to be on the one hand signs of his obsessions about being a Jew, such as you pointed out as fighting the Bundists and things like that, and on the other hand, what appears to be a lack of regular devotion to going to church services every week and keeping the religious home, and so forth?

Mr. Ruby.

Well, the reason for that is I am more or less the same way as I explained before because in the breaking up of our home we were drawn away from this life, you see. I was living with--on a farm--I was living with gentile people and there wasn't any synagogue there to go to, and so we drifted away from the services. And because before that we used to go to the Hebrew
school, before our home was broken up, we all went to Hebrew school.

Mr. Griffin.

Did you learn Hebrew?

Mr. Ruby.

Oh, sure. Jack and--we went only until our home was broken up.

Mr. Griffin.

When you were living in your home, did your parents keep a kosher home?

Mr. Ruby.

Oh, yes; definitely.

Mr. Griffin.

It was a kosher home?

Mr. Ruby.

Oh, yes; definitely. Oh, sure.

Mr. Griffin.

To what extent was it a kosher home?

Mr. Ruby.

We would call it orthodox, you know, change of dishes and all that.

Mr. Griffin.

Dietary rules?

Mr. Ruby.

Sure; that is right. Sure, sure. But, of course, when we----

Mr. Griffin.

What language was spoken in the home?

Mr. Ruby.

To our parents Yiddish, you would call it.

Mr. Griffin.

Did your parents speak English?

Mr. Ruby.

Very little; very few words.

Mr. Griffin.

Are you willing to make this statement that your conversations with your parents were always in Yiddish?

Mr. Ruby.

No, no; I can't say that because my father spoke a little English.

Mr. Griffin.

How about with your mother?

Mr. Ruby.

My mother I would say in her conversations she threw in a word here or there in English; about 95 percent was Yiddish. My father picked up more English words because, in fact, he was working as a carpenter, and being out among English-speaking people more than, more so than my mother who was home all the time, he had an opportunity to learn some English words.

Mr. Griffin.

Now, when the children got older, the family continued to live together, as I understand it, there was a home where all of the unmarried children and the parents lived?

Mr. Ruby.

Yes.

Mr. Griffin.

In that home up until the time that your mother died, did you observe, were the dietary practices observed all the time?

Mr. Ruby.

Oh, yes; sure. Every Passover we changed the dishes, and so on.

Mr. Griffin.

Yes; but that is just once a year. What about on a daily basis, did you observe every day the dietary----

Mr. Ruby.

Well, you don't observe it every day.

Mr. Griffin.

Well, some homes do.

Mr. Ruby.

I don't understand.

Mr. Griffin.

Some homes keep separate dishes for meat and dairy products.

Mr. Ruby.

Yes; we had separate dishes until my mother passed away.

Mr. Griffin.

How about the regularity of attending church services, temple services, did you go every week to temple services?

Mr. Ruby.

No, no; not all of us. I know I didn't. My sisters did. My sister did.

Mr. Griffin.

Which sister?

Mr. Ruby.

Marion. My father did until he became ill, you know, and then he passed away.