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My father's family lived in Uman. My grandfather on my father's side, Mendel Rubinshtein, was born in Uman in the 1850s. He died in 1914. My grandmother, Beila Rubinshtein, was born in Uman in 1854. My grandmother took an active part in public life. My father told me that she was a Zionist when he was a child (I don't know any details about her activities)and did charity work at the children's home for Jewish children. She was always involved in some other activities. She was very sociable. Even as an old woman she was still beautiful. She wore a brown wig. I don't know whether she wore a wig due to her religiosity or because she wanted to hide her thin hair when she was old. She had an artificial eye, which gave her a strange expression. I felt awkward in my grandmother's presence. She was very sociable. During her visits she made acquaintances and often went out. She died in Uman in 1931.
Uman was a small provincial town in Cherkassy province. In the 17th century Uman belonged to Poland; to the Polish family of Prince Pototski. Pototski built the Sofievka park in Uman, named after Prince Pototski's wife Sofia, a Greek woman. This park is a beautiful creation of park architecture. There is a cascade of lakes, beautiful fountains and sculptures in this park. It's a remarkable place of interest, even nowadays. In 1793 Uman became a part of the Russian Empire. There were Jews, Ukrainians and Poles in Uman. Jews were mainly craftsmen. Uman was in the Pale of Settlement [1], so many of them lived in this town. There were several synagogues, an Orthodox Christian church and a Catholic cathedral. There were grammar schools and Russian and Jewish secondary schools. At the end of the 19th century a railroad was built in Uman to provide transportation to Kiev and Odessa.
My father didn't tell me anything about the house of his parents. When I grew up I went to Uman. I looked at the old houses and talked with old Jews that had lived in Uman before the war hoping that one of them would have known the Rubinshtein family. But none of them did.
My father, Peter Rubinshtein, who was named Pesach at birth, was the youngest child and the only son in the family. He was born in 1889. He had three sisters: Zina, Sonia and Rita. I only know that they were older than my father. My aunts were pretty and cheerful women. They all knew Yiddish, but they almost always spoke Russian. They finished a Russian lower secondary school in Uman. Sonia studied at the accounting school and got a job later. Zina got married to the chief engineer of the distillery in Kharkov and was a housewife. She took her husband's last name: Skupnik. Rita, whose married name was Shapiro, was a housewife.
My father's parents must have been religious like all traditional Jewish families in small towns. My father told me very little about his life in Uman, and I just put together the bits and pieces of information that I got.
My father studied at cheder. He didn't enjoy studying. He missed classes and misbehaved during lessons asking the melamed all kinds of questions. His teacher used to tell my father to take off his shoes to keep him from running away. My father escaped barefoot. He never accepted religion, not even in his childhood. He said he didn't learn one single prayer by heart although he had a good memory. He wasn't interested in religious books, but he read a lot of fiction. My father attended cheder until he turned 13. He had a bar mitzvah, and his parents arranged a party at home on this occasion.
My father's parents celebrated Jewish holidays. My father said that he always managed to get the food that my grandmother made for the festive dinner at the end of fasting on Yom Kippur and ate as much as he could. His parents told him off but he was stubborn. I don't know whether my grandparents celebrated Sabbath. I believe they did.
My father was eager to study. At the age of 13 he went to the 1st grade of the Russian grammar school in Uman. He studied so well that he passed his exams for the first two years of school without even attending the 2nd year. He finished 8 years of grammar school in 3 years at the age of 16. He finished it with honors. It enabled him to enter any higher educational institution in tsarist Russia without entrance exams. He entered the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Psychology at Novorossiysk University [1,200 km from Kiev in the south of Russia]. At that time the percentage of Jews at higher educational institutions wasn't to exceed five percent [2] of the total number of students. My father graduated from both faculties in 1911. He had only one 'good' mark in Russian literature and 'excellent' in all other subjects at both faculties. My father was one of the best students at the university and he was offered a job as a lecturer. The only condition was for him to accept Christian faith and get baptized. My father refused and got a job in Vilnius, where he could become a lecturer without getting baptized. He lectured on philosophy at the grammar school in Vilnius. He worked in Vilnius until 1915.
Uman was a small provincial town in Cherkassy province. In the 17th century Uman belonged to Poland; to the Polish family of Prince Pototski. Pototski built the Sofievka park in Uman, named after Prince Pototski's wife Sofia, a Greek woman. This park is a beautiful creation of park architecture. There is a cascade of lakes, beautiful fountains and sculptures in this park. It's a remarkable place of interest, even nowadays. In 1793 Uman became a part of the Russian Empire. There were Jews, Ukrainians and Poles in Uman. Jews were mainly craftsmen. Uman was in the Pale of Settlement [1], so many of them lived in this town. There were several synagogues, an Orthodox Christian church and a Catholic cathedral. There were grammar schools and Russian and Jewish secondary schools. At the end of the 19th century a railroad was built in Uman to provide transportation to Kiev and Odessa.
My father didn't tell me anything about the house of his parents. When I grew up I went to Uman. I looked at the old houses and talked with old Jews that had lived in Uman before the war hoping that one of them would have known the Rubinshtein family. But none of them did.
My father, Peter Rubinshtein, who was named Pesach at birth, was the youngest child and the only son in the family. He was born in 1889. He had three sisters: Zina, Sonia and Rita. I only know that they were older than my father. My aunts were pretty and cheerful women. They all knew Yiddish, but they almost always spoke Russian. They finished a Russian lower secondary school in Uman. Sonia studied at the accounting school and got a job later. Zina got married to the chief engineer of the distillery in Kharkov and was a housewife. She took her husband's last name: Skupnik. Rita, whose married name was Shapiro, was a housewife.
My father's parents must have been religious like all traditional Jewish families in small towns. My father told me very little about his life in Uman, and I just put together the bits and pieces of information that I got.
My father studied at cheder. He didn't enjoy studying. He missed classes and misbehaved during lessons asking the melamed all kinds of questions. His teacher used to tell my father to take off his shoes to keep him from running away. My father escaped barefoot. He never accepted religion, not even in his childhood. He said he didn't learn one single prayer by heart although he had a good memory. He wasn't interested in religious books, but he read a lot of fiction. My father attended cheder until he turned 13. He had a bar mitzvah, and his parents arranged a party at home on this occasion.
My father's parents celebrated Jewish holidays. My father said that he always managed to get the food that my grandmother made for the festive dinner at the end of fasting on Yom Kippur and ate as much as he could. His parents told him off but he was stubborn. I don't know whether my grandparents celebrated Sabbath. I believe they did.
My father was eager to study. At the age of 13 he went to the 1st grade of the Russian grammar school in Uman. He studied so well that he passed his exams for the first two years of school without even attending the 2nd year. He finished 8 years of grammar school in 3 years at the age of 16. He finished it with honors. It enabled him to enter any higher educational institution in tsarist Russia without entrance exams. He entered the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Psychology at Novorossiysk University [1,200 km from Kiev in the south of Russia]. At that time the percentage of Jews at higher educational institutions wasn't to exceed five percent [2] of the total number of students. My father graduated from both faculties in 1911. He had only one 'good' mark in Russian literature and 'excellent' in all other subjects at both faculties. My father was one of the best students at the university and he was offered a job as a lecturer. The only condition was for him to accept Christian faith and get baptized. My father refused and got a job in Vilnius, where he could become a lecturer without getting baptized. He lectured on philosophy at the grammar school in Vilnius. He worked in Vilnius until 1915.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
izolda rubinshtein
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