I worked as a surgeon/ophthalmologist. The hospital where I was sent was a complete mess and I took over my job with great enthusiasm. I operated on patients with various problems: I helped at baby delivery, went to the taiga, when workers were injured, and provided treatment to all kinds of patients.
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Displaying 47791 - 47820 of 50826 results
David Wainshelboim
I made friends in Siberia. One of my friends worked at the power plant and Sasha Kligma, another friend, was procurer at the shipyard. They were both Jews. We were friends and supported each other: my friends refurbished my room. We also celebrated Jewish holidays. I started fasting on Yom Kippur in 1943, when I got to know that my parents perished, and I still observe this fast.
However, I was eager to become a scientist and master my professional skills of surgeon/ophthalmologist. I wrote to the Odessa Ophthalmologic Institute, headed by the great eye-doctor Filatov, and received an invitation to a course of training in this institute in early 1953. [Filatov, Vladimir Petrovich (1875 - 1956): academician, outstanding Russian ophthalmologist and surgeon. He developed methods of skin plastics, transplantation and therapy methods. He created the theory of biogenic stimulators.] This was the period of the outburst of the case of the ‘Kremlin poisoning doctors’ [29]. Fortunately, Filatov and his followers weren’t affected by this case. I got a warm welcome in Odessa; I received a room at the dormitory of the institute and started my training. I remember the announcement of the death of Stalin in 1953, and how we sighed with relief. We understood that this was to put an end to the persecution of our colleagues.
In Kishinev I went to work at the trachomatous clinic. I was a doctor and often went to Moldovan villages to visit patients with trachoma: it’s an eye disease resulting from lack of vitamins. It’s common in poor countries. Later I went to work at the Kishinev ophthalmologic hospital. I was a surgeon and worked there till I retired. I got along well with patients and colleagues. I performed the most difficult operations and my opinion was important. I earned well. At least I managed to support myself and my sister.
After perestroika [30] when departures were allowed, Uncle Genia and Sarrah moved there at once. My sister, her husband and their daughter Nelia moved to Israel later. My sister lives in Jerusalem now. Her husband died. Her daughter Nelia is a teacher of Physics at school.
I’ve always remained a Jew, though I am not religious. However, I celebrated holidays and fasted on Yom Kippur. On Pesach my friends – by the way, most of them are Jews – brought me matzah. I sometimes go to the synagogue on holidays, and I always go to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah. I sort of see all of my loved ones there, I develop the feeling of quietude...
I went on vacation every three-four years. I was fond of my work and always felt reluctant to leave it. I spent vacations at the seashore or in the mountains, or traveled around the country. I’ve never considered Soviet holidays as such, they were just days off for me. I visited my sister or friends to sit at the table together and socialize.
I’ve always been interested in everything going on in Israel. I listened to the forbidden radio stations ‘Radio Europe’, ‘Free Europe’ [31] to hear the words of truth about Israel. I never considered departure, probably because I’ve been alone, and it’s hard to overcome difficulties if you have no family.
Every two-three years I visited the place where my parents and grandmother died. The obelisk installed there in 1943 is gone. There is a huge plant at the place where they died. Though local authorities state that they hauled the remains to the cemetery, the cemetery is abandoned and nobody takes care of it. I met a woman there. Her surname is Pinskaya. Her mother left her as a baby on the road side and a Ukrainian woman picked her. Only when she grew up, did the girl hear about where she came from. She was the only survivor of the massacre in Alchevsk. She and I try to convince the local authorities to restore the monument, but it seems nobody else cares about it and things are still where they were before.
I was hardly affected by the changes that happened in the USSR in 1991, and the establishment of independent Moldova [32]. My work was important for any state.
Hesed [33] provides assistance to me. It has also paid for the refurbishment of my apartment. However, I’m not a passive member of the Jewish community, I consult patients at Hesed, help them to choose glasses. I often attend meetings of the Association of Jewish organizations of Moldova, read new publications related to the history of Jews of Kishinev.
My paternal great-grandfather, Avrum Wainshelboim, moved to Bessarabia [2] from some place in Russia in the early 19th century, escaping from recruitment to the tsarist army: young people were regimented for the 25-year army service at the time. Knowing about the liberal attitude towards Jews in Bessarabia, my great-grandfather Avrum moved to Kishinev [Chisinau in Moldovan]. He became a melamed, teaching Jewish children.
My grandfather may have finished a commercial school. He was an educated man. He worked as an accountant in a private company during the tsarist regime before 1918 and during the Romanian regimes [3] after World War I.
On Friday, when their children and their families joined them for celebrations [of Sabbath], there was always a crispy tablecloth on the table, fancy crockery, wine glasses, red kosher wine, mouth watering challah that my grandmother baked in the big stove in the kitchen, and silver candle stands. My grandmother Bobtsia lit candles before Sabbath.
Grandfather Mehl was a religious Jew; he had his own seat in the synagogue. I don’t know which synagogue this was. There were over 60 synagogues in Kishinev and they belonged to [were maintained by] the craftsmen guilds.
My father, Moisey Wainshelboim, was born in 1895. He finished a cheder, a Jewish gymnasium [lyceum] and then grandfather Mehl sent him to Saint Petersburg where my father entered the Psycho-neurological College named after Behterev [Institute of positive psychotherapy, trans-cultural therapy and psychosomatic medicine named after Behterev, Vladimir Mihailovich (1857-1927), Russian neurologist and psychiatrist]. After three years of study he returned to Kishinev in 1916 due to the aggravated political situation. My father didn’t study for a few years during the Civil War [10]. Upon the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania he resumed his studies at the Medical Faculty of Iasi University. He graduated from it in 1924. Around this time he met my mother and they got married.
My grandfather was short, wore a kippah or a yarmulka, had a beard and mustache, but despite his plain appearance, my grandfather was known for his intelligence and prudence. My grandfather was very religious. He went to the synagogue on Friday, Saturday and on holidays. On weekdays he prayed at home with his tallit and tefillin on. Grandfather Avrum died in 1930. My grandmother Sarrah, a quiet and kind woman always wearing a dark dress, a snow-white apron and a matching kerchief, moved in with us.
The oldest in the family was my mother’s sister Tania, born in 1888. All I remember about her is that she was married and worked in trade. Aunt Tania and her son Mikhail failed to evacuate in 1941. They perished in the ghetto in Kishinev [11], and her husband perished at the front.
My mother, Nena Selewskaya, was born in 1900. After finishing a gymnasium she went to Kharkov [today Ukraine] where she entered the Medical College. In 1918 she had to quit the college since Kharkov and Kishinev happened to belong to different states. Mama stayed in Kishinev.
She met my father in 1920. Actually, my grandfathers Avrum and Mehl, who went to the synagogue together, arranged for their children to get married. My parents got married in 1922. They had a traditional Jewish wedding, but all I know is that they stood under the chuppah in the central synagogue in Kishinev. Zirelson, the rabbi of Kishinev, conducted their wedding ceremony. I still have this certificate of my parents’ wedding.
There were four rooms in the apartment: a living room, my parents’ bedroom, the children’s rooms and my grandmother Sarrah’s room. The rooms were nicely furnished with dark polished furniture; there were velvet drapes on the windows, and a fringed tablecloth on the table. I liked playing hide-and-seek behind it.
My family mostly spoke Yiddish at home.
My grandmother observed Jewish traditions and taught my sister to know them. I remember Sabbath: my grandmother lit candles in a high silver candle-stand saying her blessings. There was challah, wine, chicken, tsimes [fruit-and-vegetable stew typically prepared for Sabbath], cookies on the table, covered with a starched tablecloth. On Saturday no work was done at home. There was a holiday dinner: gefilte fish [filled fish balls in sauce], chicken broth, potato pancakes, and stew with prunes. It was kept in the stove since Friday. My father and mother went to the synagogue on Saturday, though they belonged to a more democratic generation of Jewish intelligentsia. The synagogue was most likely the place where they could feel themselves Jewish, socialize with their friends and discuss the latest news with them.
On Yom Kippur my parents and grandmother fasted and I enjoyed stealing food from the cupboard, though nobody forbade me to eat [Editor’s note: children under the age of nine don’t fast, then they start fasting little by little. Boys start to fast as long as adults do by the age of thirteen, girls from twelve], and I couldn’t wait till the delicious dinner after the fasting. I remember a number of fall holidays followed by Simchat Torah. I went to the synagogue with my parents and saw old Jews carrying a scroll of the Torah in the street. On holidays we usually visited Grandfather Mehl. This was a traditional family gathering.
I remember Pesach, when my grandfather reclined on fancy cushions conducting seder [as the first Kiddush at seder has to be recited by reclining on something soft, some use cushions for making this position more comfortable]. I asked him about the history of the holiday. At home we also prepared for Pesach: cleaned the house thoroughly and removed the remaining bread crumbs [mitzvah of biur chametz]. I remember the koshering of crockery, when the stones burning hot were placed in a tub and then the crockery was placed there. Children got new clothes for the holiday and Mama got a new dress. The feeling of the holiday arrived, when a huge basket with matzah covered with fresh napkins was delivered from the synagogue. The smell of matzah spread all over the house. After the first seder at my grandfather’s Mama also made holiday dinners on the following days.
I remember Purim. I liked the whipping top and on Chanukkah I liked the gifts and money that children were given. In my boyhood I took part in the carnival procession on Purim.
Kishinev was a rather big town, when I was a child. It had a Moldovan, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, Polish population. We lived in the Jewish area in the central part of the town. Jews were involved in crafts and trades. There were also Jewish doctors and lawyers. According to some data Jews constituted about 80,000 before the Great Patriotic War [Editor’s note: In 1930 the 41,405 Jews living in Kishinev constituted over 36 percent of the total population numbering 114,896. Under Soviet rule, from July 1940 to July 1941, the number of Jews in the city increased to an estimated 60,000.]. There were up to 65 synagogues and prayer houses in the town. Besides religious establishments there were Jewish schools for boys and girls, children’s homes for orphan children and children from poor families, elderly people’s homes, a Jewish hospital and a developed charity network. Young Jewish people were fond of Zionist ideas.
Though we observed traditions and celebrated holidays, my father gave the priority to science and education. My father belonged to the progressive Jewish intelligentsia. He worked in the Jewish Health Organization, this organization was financed by the Joint [12]. My father worked as a children’s doctor [pediatrician] there. I remember staying in his office at times. His visitors were children and their mothers. His work was much needed and so was the organization supporting poor Jewish families and mothers in Bessarabia. Mothers were provided with consultations, baby food and medications for free.
In summer children went to special camps and recreation houses in rural areas. My sister or I didn’t go there. My father would have never taken advantage of his position to arrange for his children’s recreation. Mama and we rented a room in a village for the summer.
Zoya Shapochnik
My parental grandfather, Haim Shapochnik, was born in Moldova, in the small town Leovo [about 70km from Kishinev, on the Romanian border] in 1875. He wasn’t a very educated man. He only finished cheder. I don’t know about my grandfather’s kin. I don’t even know how many siblings he had. I knew his nephew Isaac Shapochnik. He lived in Kishinev after the war and worked as an accountant.