Skip to main content

“Superstition is Super Russian”

Object day Berlin: Esther Tchlakichvili

“Show us your story!” – Beginning in 2017, the Jewish participants in the Object Days project have answered this invitation by recounting their migration stories.

Young woman with dark, long hair

Esther Tchlakichvili, born in Salzgitter, Germany, in 1995.
Studying to become a schoolteacher of German and Russian.
Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Stephan Pramme

My father is a writer and dramaturge and my mother is a potter. They emigrated from Moscow twenty-five years ago because of the high crime rate. They didn’t want to raise kids there.

What I associate with my parents’ country is not so much objects as things like superstition. That you have to knock on the table three times so that something doesn’t happen. And my parents and grandparents seriously believe that! If you ask me, that’s super Russian. I just don’t get it. I always think, “Come on, people! Nothing will happen if you don’t knock on wood!”

Links to other topics that may be of interest to you

Share, Newsletter, Feedback