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Family Is All That Matters 20 slaughtered by slitting its neck and then the carcass was hung to allow the blood to drain. All the blood had to drain out before the chicken was considered kosher to eat. Iosif would take the butchered chicken, wrapped in a newspaper and bound with twine, home where his mother or aunt would pluck the feathers and cut the chicken into pieces for the family's dinner. The soest feathers of the chicken—the down—were saved and used to fill pillows and blankets. The big dinner table was set with the best linens and dishes. Shlomo would bless Above: Ida, Iosif, and Rosa in Shtetl Graiding, Ukraine, 1925. the wine and challah. Some families prefer to tear the challah while others prefer to cut it with a knife. The tradition of the Volsuns is to tear the bread and pass a piece to everyone at the table. The next day, the entire family would attend Saturday morning services at the synagogue. It was customary of Shlomo and Hava every Shabbat to invite strangers to dinner. Frequently they were poor people or hobos. This charity was considered "tzedakah," or an act of loving kindness, and the family took it seriously. Iosif remembers a equent guest, who was dirty and dressed like a homeless person. The family called this guest "Chamberlain." Was he named aer the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain? Iosif could not be sure. "My father took Chamberlain to the washhouse for a bath and a haircut," Iosif recalls. "My mother would give him some clothes. He never talked. For many Shabbat dinners, I never heard his voice. Not once. One night, right at the table with all the children, he started crying. It was very upsetting. Aer that, Chamberlain started talking, and once he started, he couldn't be stopped." Chamberlain said he had a wife and four kids. All the children were killed in the pogroms. He himself was beaten and le for dead. He spent many days in the hospital before he was able to walk. "His mental state was never the same aer that," Iosif says. "My mother and father felt sorry for him." Iosif remembers coming home with his father on Shabbat and enjoying the aernoon together. Shlomo would tell the children Torah stories, making the patriarchs and matriarchs come alive. No lights were allowed in the house until three stars came out, signaling the end of Shabbat. All of Shlomo Volsun's children have a common memory of their father celebrating not only Shabbat, but other Jewish holidays as well. He would give the children presents on Passover. The presents were equently

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