"There was our kenesa, I have it in the photo there. We used to go to the kenesa to pray on Saturdays. The women were on the second floor, the men were downstairs, there were children, a lot of children." — "Did you use to go there since childhood?" — "Later, later, there was a movement against religion here, that there was no need for religion, and so on... They made a warehouse out of this kenesa, and then they built this house and demolished the kenesa, ruined it. Our people, however, took everything from there, and we passed it on to Crimea, we took the equipment. And that was it. And there was silence in the kenesa. And then there were no more Karaites because they all died. I am the only one left."
"They also invited me to come home for the holidays. For matzah, to try matzah. We would go, as all the people were going, and so did we. We went because there was a service in the kenesa, and after the service, one would invite another, and another would invite the next. There were not all that many Karaites, but... across the river, in Zalukva, and here." — "What else did you cook?" — "We had matzah, a kind of paska. Barabolianyk, maybe a roast chicken. No pork, we didn't eat pork. But chicken, some veal... We baked our own matzah. Matzah is a round paska. My father would slaughter a calf on Passover. We used to make products from that veal. Didn't waste it. We were waiting for that day because of matzah. We used to bake matzah, the round kind." — "How is matzah made?" — "It took dough and a technology to make matzah. The dough was somehow, I don't remember, there was matzah made with smetana, there was matzah made with milk, with water. The one with water was used because, during Passover, we are not allowed to eat bread... The one with water was grated for flour, used instead of bread. And matzah was made with sour cream or with milk. They cut it to use in broth, grated it, and it was not allowed to eat bread during Passover. <...> And now pork... Once, pork was not allowed to be eaten, but now, pork goes too."
"The Soviet period gave young people education, and everything, and life. I can't say anything bad, I'm glad that it happened." — "And how did your community accept Independence Day and Ukraine's independence in general?" — "We accepted it just like everybody else. Where do you go to complain? We certainly did accept it. And we understand that it is necessary. There was never any notion of us being against it." — "So you supported it?" — "Of course we did. As the saying goes: 'We would not fight against the wind'."
"I don't know. I know that I have to remain human and adapt to any situation, to anyone: Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish..." — "How would you like yourself to be known: Karaite, Ukrainian?" — "There is a song: 'Karai edim, karai barmen' — I was a Karaite and will stay a Karaite. That's what I said in Karaite. 'Karai edim, karai barmen'. 'Barmen' means 'I was and will be a Karaite." — "If the circumstances were different, would you still speak Karaite all the time and support Karaite traditions?" — "If there was someone to speak with, why wouldn't I? I would speak. I respect the Karaites." — "Can you imagine, ideally, how you would support the Karaite community if you had such opportunities? <...> How would you like it to be?" — "What can I want at this age? If I were younger, I would, of course, think about something. But now... I'm already dreaming, I'm thinking about going to the next world, not about some kind of... <...> I can remember how it used to be. What can we speculate about anymore? When we are no longer any good." — "But you always remain a Karaite?" — "I do. There was this song: 'Karai edim, karai barmen, i karai ba elme klymem." That is, "I was a Karaite, and I want to die a Karaite." This was a Karaite song. <...> 'Elme' means 'to die' in Karaite."
Semen (Shimon) Moiseyovych Mortkovych is the last representative of the Karaite community of Halych. He was born in 1940 in Halych, Ivano-Frankivsk Region, into a Karaite family. His mother lost her sight early, so he lived with his aunt in the village of Zalukva until he was in the 5th grade. After that, his parents took him back to Halych, where he completed eight grades of secondary school. In 1958, he finished driving courses. In 1959, he was drafted into the Soviet army. He served in the Orenburg Region (now the Russian Federation), but in 1962 he was discharged for health reasons and returned home. He married a Ukrainian woman against the will of his parents. From 1969 to 1973, he studied at the Ivano-Frankivsk Automobile and Road Technical College. He spent his entire life behind the wheel: a driver for state security agencies, a chauffeur for the head of the district consumer union, and a collection driver for a bank. After the demolition of the kenesa (Karaite house of worship) in 1986 and until Ukraine declared its independence, he sheltered some Karaite relics at home. He retired in 2001. From 2001 to 2012, the Mortkovych family lived in Haifa, Israel. Since 2012, Semen Mortkovych and his wife have been living in Halych, looking after the Karaite cemetery.
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