"Itt nagyon szépen fogadtak, (...) nagy volt az összetartás"
„I Was Very Well Received Here, (...) There Was a Lot of Solidarity”

Life History Interview with Yehudit Cohen

Summary/Abstract: The study is part of a larger research project, the main aim of which is to examine, using the oral history method, identity changes, multiple attachments, and deeper aspects of integration strategies of Jews who migrated from South Slovakia to Israel. The paper develops the life story of Yehudit Cohen (née Judit Grünfeld) on the basis of a biographical interview conducted in Israel. Judit's family is one of those Jews from Dunaszerdahely (Dunajská Streda) who were born in Czechoslovakia, but in the 1960s they too immigrated to Israel, i.e. made Aliyah. During the life history interview, the interviewee tells of her parents' destiny events leading up to the period of the Holocaust. Both of them were deported, but they were among the few Jews who returned to Dunaszerdahely. Anti-Semitism continued to be present in Czechoslovakia during the party-state years, so the family moved to Israel (made aliyah) in 1963 in the hope of a better future. The paper describes the difficulties of the initial years in Israel, the most problematic of which was learning Hebrew. It also shows how relatives and acquaintances coming from Czechoslovakia, especially from Dunaszerdahely, helped each other a great deal after the Aliyah. The study also highlights Judit's multiple identities, mainly through her multiple language skills and her preparation of Central European dishes, within which her Israeli identity dominates.

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