Casgliadau Arlein

Oral history recording with Gilda Golten collected as part of The Hineni Project, an insight into the life and stories of a Jewish community in all its diversity. Hineni was a collaborative project between Cardiff Reform Synagogue and Butetown History & Arts Centre.

I was born in the East End of London in 1937. My original name was Golda but everyone’s always called me Gilda. My mother came from Poland and my father came from Russia, and it was a second marriage for both of them. My father was fifty-five when I was born so I always knew him as an old man, and when I walked down the streets with my dad, people always thought I was his granddaughter. My family was in the tailoring trade and had a workshop behind the house. We lived from day-to-day, but I always felt very happy and loved, so it wasn’t a chore for me to have to help. I stayed on in school ‘til I was sixteen. I did the Commercial School Certificate but didn’t like shorthand. I went for an interview in the City of London and came back very upset. I said to my dad, “They didn’t take me on because I’ve got such a Jewish name”, which was Yeselevsky. My father, who had been brought up like a yeshiva boy, took out a chumash and showed me a page from the creation story in Genesis. He said, “You see that God doesn’t say this day was good. So it’s the wrong day for you and you will get a job – don’t worry about it.” And that was my dad; he found a good reason to make you feel happy. Eventually I got a job in Petticoat Lane in an office. My boss was wonderful, and I worked there twelve years before I left to get married. Everybody was always trying to get me married off. I was introduced to Ivan through my aunt, who’d met his uncle, and Ivan came from Cardiff to London to meet me. We went out in the West End and then started phoning and writing letters. Then we were travelling at weekends. I didn’t work Friday afternoons but I worked Sunday mornings. One weekend I would come to Cardiff and one weekend he would come to London, and it took five hours in those days to get from Paddington to Cardiff. We got married in 1965 in Great Garden Street Synagogue off the Whitechapel Road. We settled in Cardiff and had a flat in Whitchurch and had two boys. Ivan knew I came from an Orthodox background and that it was a very strong part of me. I kept a kosher home and kept all the festivals, but I did work and ride on Saturday because at the time I had to. We joined the Reform because I thought if we joined the Orthodox shul, Ivan and the two boys would be downstairs and I’d be upstairs. So I thought to myself nobody’s going to stop what I do in my house so we joined the Reform, and the boys went to Hebrew classes and I went to shul more regularly, and for all the holidays and festivals. I got involved with the Ladies Guild and preparing food for the kiddushim. I love to help and to be there for somebody if I can. I go to shul more now since Ivan died. I enjoy it and get solace from it. I love the music, and it makes me feel good, even if I feel bad. Sometimes when you’re by yourself, even it’s better than when you go with a friend and chat. I love it – it’s part of my extended family.