Ester
Born: 1950, Georgia
Mother Tongue: Georgian
Grandchildren: Roni, Yuval, Tomer, Maya, Tami, Jossi, Odel
They call her: Bebi
I came to Israel when I was 21 and left my mother behind in Georgia. It was only then that I started to cook. I had no need to before that because my mother would take care of everything in the kitchen. It was just from watching my mother deliver these incredible feasts on a daily basis that I gleaned my culinary know-how. This dish was one my mother would make often and it reminds me of the home I grew up in. I’ve never been back to Georgia since I left. What was my home city has now become a part of Russia. It no longer exists, sadly.
Cooking is important in life because it is a preservation of your tradition. It isn’t just for the sake of putting food on the table for our loved ones, but for remembering our mothers and our grandmothers. It was crucial to me to cook as my mother did so that I could feel her closer to me. I also want my family, my children and grandchildren to really know Georgian food. When I cook Georgian food, my past comes to me and the people from my past, too.
I was just twelve when I met my husband and he was twenty. I know this is not the done thing now. He wanted me a lot more than I wanted him. In fact, I threw an entire bottle of water on him when we first met and he made clear his intentions. I was far too young, so at the beginning I really didn't want to get married. He was handsome but I wanted to go to school. Still, it was really essential for me to marry another Jew and my family were happy with him, so that's how it happened for me. He had just seen me and then asked my father for the OK. Our family were very religious.
I didn't end up going to school, of course. Let's say I attended the school of life. I was cooking for a family in my early twenties. I was just lucky to have found someone that was as sociable as I am. Alexander loved travelling and having guests over. He kept life interesting. When he died, the lights went out for me but I am trying to live on. I keep cooking and working and I just keep going for the family.
When I moved from Georgia to Israel, it was just my husband and I. I felt completely alone because we had to leave everyone behind. The ideology was what brought us here, the idea that finally there would be a place where we would “belong”. The Israeli dream. We were excited to come but on arrival, it was not what I expected.
I came from a communist country to a capitalist country and it wasn't what I was used to. We started absolutely from scratch and had nothing. We were rich in Georgia but coming into Israel, we couldn't bring anything with us. My gold and any valuables were all left behind. The Georgian government wouldn't allow us to take anything with us. It was a communist nation and what we had earned in the country, we had to leave behind. It was so mentally challenging to go from running a restaurant and owning a business to having nothing.
When we arrived, my husband worked as a builder, laying the roads of Israel. It was very hard work and we went from being very rich to incredibly poor. We knew it would be difficult but we didn't imagine just how many financial difficulties we’d have in our new, promised land. I also only knew a couple of words in Hebrew. At the time, the Jews that came in from Europe were the best Jews in the hierarchy and those Jews coming from the middle east were seen as the lowest level of Jew. It's still very much like this now. The Europeans are seen as better. I really do believe that love, respect and kindness are the most important characteristics a person should have in life. We could all do with a little bit more of each.
