Family
of Rav Itzhak Meir Glaser
1. Rav Itzhak Meir Glaser & Gitl Perelman
Itzhak Meir Glaser, my great-grandfather,
was born in 1886, in Kupel, Ukraine. His parents were Rav Iehudah Leib Glaser and Sima Roinik.
Iehudah Leib was born in 1855 in Kupel. Ieguda Leib was a famous Rav and a gifted writer and wrote a book about successful sexual relations between husband and wife. Bertha, my grandmother and the eldest granddaughter of Iehudah Leib, told me, that a book has named "Rose and thorn" and is still kept in St. Petersburg Public Library of Academy of Science.
Iehudah Leib and Sima had a few sons, including Itzhak (I do not know the names of all others) and daughters Pesja, Hava and Rivka (Rebekkah). About 1912 or 1913, before WWI, Iehudah Leib got sick and his sons brought him to Vienna, Austria, the nearest city that happened to have X-Ray. He was diagnosed with cancer and told to have a surgery. As Bertha told me, after discussion between him and his sons it was decided do not have a surgery. Iehudah Leib died before Russian Revolution of 1917.
After his death his widow Sima and three daughters stayed with Itzhak Meir family. Itzhak Meir became rabbi of Kupel.
Gitl Perelman was born in 1885 in Vishgorodok, Ternopol gubernia, in the family of a rich (by the Kupel standards) merchant. Her mother name was Pearl. It was arranged marriage between Gitl and Itzhak Meir, but after the wedding they have fell in love and had 8 children, the first of whom was Bertha, my grandmother. Bertha told me, that she often noticed in the morning that parents' wooden bed was disbanded. They really loved each other.
Itzhak Meir and Pearl survived Russian Civil war and went through the hard period of Russian history to 1941, including the starvation of 1933 and were killed by the Germans in 1942.
When WWII began, the eldest children: Michael, Leib, Yenta, Rachel and Zalman lived in another cities of USSR, and Bertha (Bubaleh) was in GULAG, but Itzhak Meir stayed on with his wife, his youngest children twins Pearl and Josef and the Jews of Kupel. Germans occupied Kupel in the autumn of 1941. There was no way for Jews to escape.
Gitl was killed on May 5, 1942 according Bertha’s diary (see copy of diary page attached). We don’t know how. I just can tell that I have repeating dream for years: I am in big gated yard in sonny day; there is a grass some place; I see a woman following by a man in high soldier’s boots and civilian jacket; that man is pushing the woman to her back making her hurry up; I am taking a hammer, run for this man and beating him to his neck from behind, because I want him leave this woman alone; and I’m waking up.
Germans and local Ukrainians killed Itzhak Meir on September 11, 1942. It was First day of Rosh Hashanah. Germans loved to make executions on Jewish holidays. Along with Itzhak Meir there were killed his daughter Pearl and other Jews of Kupel. Of Joseph, Pearl’s twin, there is currently no available evidence. To this day it is not known, whether or not he was killed along with his family. We can hope that he run away and somehow went to the West and lived his life somewhere out of USSR.
Rav Itzhak Meir, the last rabbi and the last Glaser of Kupel, sacrificed his life for his Jewish community. We have evidence, a letter dated 1944.
In 1944 my grandmother, Bertha Glaser, got the letter from the Red Army soldier Moisey Adler regarding horrible death of her father Rav Itzhak Meir Glaser and all other Jews of Kupel in 1942.
ThatMoiseyAdlerwas the habitant of Kupel and the old friend of Bertha and he knew my grandmother before the War.
He visited Kupel soon after its liberation and met only alive Jewish family of Shlema Kravets and learned what happened with Kupel’ Jews and talked with local Ukrainians and saw the grave. No one more Jew was left alive. He found Bertha’s letter in the pile given him by Shlema Kravets and learned her address and had sent her a letter telling what happened to her family.
Bertha got this letter in 1944, in Siberia and saved it till her death in 1990.
After her I keep this letter safe.There is the text of an original letter, translated from Russian into English by my brother Vadim Bolshakov, the great-grandson of Rav Itzhak Meir Glaser.
Leninsk-Kuznetk
Kemerovo Region
48 Furmanova Street
Makagon E.A. (for Beba)
p.p.s. 05397 Adler M.
04.06.44
Hello Beba!
By God’s will I found out where you are, after all these 17 years during which we have not seen each other (since 1927). That is what happened… Being on a trip, I felt a strong desire to see again my native Kupel. You know, I left in 1927 for Odessa to study. After that I joined my family, which went to Crimea “on land”. Then I graduated from Moscow State University and worked in Moscow. I have not been back to Kupel during this time. I almost lost my contact with old…..Shleib. …………. …………….
By the way, now I lost contact with him.
I saw in Kupel the only one person from our people who stayed alive – Shlema Kravets with his wife and two children. He gave me to read up to 200 letters written by Kupel’s people asking about their relatives. Thus I acquired several addresses I was interested in; your address was among them.
Beba, the sad news I bring to you. From your relatives, memory of which is dear to me too, no one survived. I heard about your father’s tragedy. When the Germans came, they first of all started to humiliate him to show their despise to all Jewish community.
They tried to force him to commit some unholy acts, when he refused they tortured him. The old man managed to escape and hid. Then the Germans took 51 hostages and announced that if your father does not show up the people will be executed. Having heard about that, your father voluntarily turned himself in to save the people. However, the butchers killed the hostages including your father.
He is buried on the Jewish cemetery. 51 people were crammed into a tiny room on top of each other, so a majority of the people suffocated over the night. Only the very top layer of people survived. However, they did not live long and were killed in a planned mass murder. That is how died your father, whose death was a real act of martyrdom for his community.
Beba, do not cry. Let the deaths of our dear people inspire us in our fight with the butchers.
Beba, I am not going to write much. I already wrote you above about myself. If you want to know more, I will write about that in my next letter. Please, write me a detailed letter with a description of your life during these 16-17 years and about your family.
I am going to stop here. Be healthy and happy.
Regards to your family. Moisei
Who killed Jews of Kupel?
Khaim Beider, Yiddish writer, who was born in Kupel in 1922 and died in New York in December 2003, told me, that he went to Kupel after the war and talked to local people.
There was one real good Ukrainian woman, her name was Anna. She took care of Jewish mass grave. Anna told him that all Jews of Kupel, except for those who’s been taking to Volochisk for mass murder, were killed by local Ukrainians. She said to Beider: “No one German killed no one Jew in Kupel. Local Ukrainian Policemen killed them all.”
She also told him that there was 18 Jews, who were hidden by friendly Ukrainians neighbors almost to the end of German occupation, but they were hunted down by local anti-Semites and betrayed. They all were killed by Ukrainian policemen. Anna brought Beider to the mass grave of those 18 last ones.
There are some stories telling among former Kupel’s Jews. It says that Ukrainian man, who kept Shlema Kravets family in some hideout, got seduced by German promise to give two bags of salt (50 kg each) to anyone who betrays hidden Jew.
He simply multiplied 2 bags by 4 members of Shlema’s family and realized all of a sudden that he could be a rich man. So, he walked to police. On his way in fields he met his former neighbor and being asked where he’s going, told him whole plan. That man happened to be a partisan (rebel man). He told this traitor,that he would bury him and his family in this salt of betrayal. It obviously changed traitor’s plans and he turned back home. Schema’s family survived. There is a letter of Shlema Kravets dated
1.1. Bertha Glaser & Nison Makogon
My grandmother Bertha Glaser
was born Khaja-Dvoira Glaser on April 2, 1909 in Vishgorodok, Ternopol Gubernia, Ukraine.
She had a nickname: Bubaleh. Her parents changed her name when she got ill in the age of 3, because according to old Jewish believe you can trick death by changing sick child name by another name, and child survived.
When she told me this story, she sad, that in her opinion she survived because of doctors help, but still. She was non-religious at all; her life experience brought her to that point. And she did not believe even in fate. Grandma used to say: there is no fate, but only man’s will.
As Bubaleh grew up, she changed her name to Bertha. In the family everybody called her Beba.
She was an active member of the right wing of the underground movement Hechalutz and worked in so-called commune (Jewish kibbutz in reality, it was located at the south of Byelorussia) to prepare youth to go to Palestine. After commune liquidation in 1928 (she was warned day before by some friend about that NKVD action and flew away) she went to Moscow and legally worked in the telephone station on information desk, her work number was “3”.
But her real job was to work with Ekaterina Peshkova (first wife of Maksim Gorky, the famous Russian writer; Ekaterina was the head of Committee of Help of Political Prisoners) and Peshkova’s associate Maxim L. Vinover in order to help arrested comrades, send them food, clothes and money to prisons and camps and inform their relatives where they were kept. Also, as Tova Perelstein (old Kupel habitant and closest friend of Glaser family, she is 90 year old now and lives in Israel, her phone in Israel is 972-3-731-2070) witnesses, she got some people to Palestine through Peshkova's Committee. That procedure was called “exchange”, because for some arrested Zionists prison term was exchanged for permission to leave! (one of the Stalin’s mysteries) Soviet Union and move to Palestine. Person, who got “exchange”, was even granted a foreign passport and free ticket. Beba has met Nison Makogon, my grandfather, and they had their only daughter Sara, born in March 25, 1932. After Sara’s birth Bertha and Nison moved to Ukraine. They lived in Chasov-Yar, small town at the East Ukraine and Nison worked on local metal factory in supply department.
Nison Makogon
was born in 1906. He was an active member of Hechalutz and got arrested for that first time in 1934, before Bertha got arrested. He was sentenced to the work camp located on Far East of Russia.
The prisoners worked on so-called Baikal-Amur Magisterial (Main Line) – trans-Siberia railroad. It was first soviet attempt to build this strategically railroad. In the time of WW11 railroad was demolished and rails were used for tanks, then in 70-th it was build again.
Nison worked as a manager of supply department and sent home the letters about beautiful land shafts. He wrote Bertha: “We will meet again when we’ll grow old already”. They never had a chance to see each other again in this life. Nison came home in 1936, when Bertha was arrested and kept in Alma-Ata, the capitol of Kazakhstan (South-East republic of USSR). He was arrested second and last time on December 31, 1937 and never came back. Nison was shouted in NKVD on April 26, 1938.
After first arrest of Nison and Bertha in 1935 Eva Makogon, Nison’s mother got her granddaughter Sara (3 years old at that time) to stay with her and her daughters' Anna family. This way she saved Sara from governments' so-called “Child Home” for the children of the prisoners.
Anna and her husband Solomon Ravich were lived in Slavjansk, Ukraine. They worked as bookkeepers and had daughter Israelita born in 1938 and son Anshel (later renamed himself as Alexander) born on February 27, 1947. They all took good care of Sara.
After arrest Bertha was kept in Vladimir Central Prison, and then sentenced to live and work far away, in Alma-Ata, under NKVD total control. NKVD gave her few days to visit her family as a political prisoner before to go to Alma-Ata and there is her picture with her daughter Sara just before leaving, when she didn’t know if she’s going to see her daughter again.
Then, since 1937, Stalin had cut off the special regime for political prisoners and Bertha among thousands comrades has been sentenced to GULAG for 5 years. She was kept in concentration camp in Reshoti, Siberia, Krasnojarsk region until 1942.
There were horrible existence conditions for all prisoners and very hard work with practically no food and medical help. A lot of people had died because of starvation in front of Bertha, especially former communists, because their families left them officially. Grandma told me, that death was so common, it happened every day in very easy way – like she was sitting and talking to some woman, and turned around just for a minute to somebody, and when she turned back, that poor woman was already dead. But Bertha sometimes got the food and clothes packages from her sister Yenta Gorenshtein, so she could survive.
In 1942 Bertha’s term with GULAG was done, but the jailers didn’t let her go. They made her work as a guard of the vegetable field belonged to concentration camp. So, her sister Yenta (she lived in Novosibirsk) went to that camp to ask to release Bertha as a sick person. She was so lucky not to be arrested, thanks to only reason that a commander of the camp happened to be a Jew. He had brought her home to stay one night with his family and gave her short meeting with Bertha another day. That commander had a wife and a kid and he put them on the very high risk by doing so.
Yenta told me, that she couldn’t stop crying, when she got look at Bertha, she was in so bad shape that time and very, very hungry.
Yenta left the camp area not arrested and in few months grandma was released with a lot of restrictions: she could not live in city or town, only on the villages and she should be checked out every week in the local militia. Finally she reunited with her only daughter Sara.
In October 1941, when Germans came closer, her daughter Sara was evacuated with her grandmother Eva Makogon family to Leninsk-Kuznetskiy, Kemerovo region, West Siberia. Another Eva’s son Joseph got a permission to evacuate his family from Donetsk, but his Russian wife decided to stay with their son (and they survived occupation) so he gave up this space to his mother and her family. After Bertha’s release from GULAG in 1942 they all reunited.
Because it was not permitted for Bertha to live in the most of the towns and cities after the imprisonment, so she lived in some village in 7 kilometers from Leninsk-Kuznetskiy and walked that distance every day off to see her daughter.
By the end of WWII and very long years after Yenta and David Gorenshtein admitted Bertha with daughter Sara to stay in their 2-rooms apartment in Novosibirsk.
Till 1953 Bertha had to register her passport in some villages near Novosibirsk, because it was restricted for her to live in the city. In 1953 Sara was already the German language teacher in the evening school for soldiers returning from WWII and with help of some of her students she arranged “clean” passport for her mother Bertha. That student happened to work in a passport department of the local militia. So, from that very moment Bertha could live and work in Novosibirsk without fear. She worked, as a sales person in the small grocery store, where she was the only worker and did all job needed, including loading and unloading heavy boxes.
In 1966 Bertha got marriage proposal from retired bookkeeper Solomon Ravich, widower of Anna Makogon, the sister of Bertha’s first husband Nison. They got married and lived as happy as possible in Kramatorsk, Ukraine till Solomon Ravich death on January 16, 1988.
Bertha (Bubaleh) died in peace in her bed on August 30, 1990 in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, attended only by me that day. All of a sudden about 11:30 P.M. she got high palpitation and heart fibrillation and when Emergency Help Car arrived in 20-25 minutes she was already dead. In 1.5 month before she had a stroke, spent a month in the hospital and it was third week at home.
Her last day was very warm and sunny and she seemed to feel better. She almost couldn’t speak after the stroke and when I went to her to kiss good night, she pointed her nightgown and smiled. What happened, that day I made a big laundry, brought some clothe to the yard to dry and back to apartment. So, I didn’t iron my own nightgowns jet and so I put on hers clean one. I explained her that and said that I going to wash it tomorrow, but she did let me know by gestures that she’s giving me it as a gift. I still have this nightgown, her last gift.
1.1.1. Sara Makogon & Yuri Bolshakov
My mother Sara Makogon
was born on March 25, 1932, in some small railroad station of Moscow’s suburb. Her mother Bertha was on her way to Moscow’s clinic to deliver, but her water broke in the train car; so she got off the train on the station, which fortunately had a clinic nearby. In 15 minutes she got Sara delivered.
When Sara was 2.5 years old, her parents were arrested for the first time and she had never seen her parents together anymore. NKVD separated them and their cases. Her father Nison was arrested second and last time on December 31, 1937, in New Year evening and never came back. Sara remembers that episode. The family was informed (after several requests) that he died because of heart disease in 1944. In 1998 Sara got finally his death certificate through Slugba Bezpeki (Ukrainian KGB). It says: cause of death – shout on April 26, 1938.
In 1942 Sara’s mother Bertha got released from concentration camp in East Siberia and they has been reunited in t. Leninsk-Kuznetsk, Kemerovo region, West Siberia, where Makogon & Ravich families were set for evacuation. After WWII she lived in Novosibirsk with her mother Bertha and her aunt Yenta Gorenshtein. In 1949 she passed exams and was admitted in Novosibirsk Foreign Languages Institute (German Faculty) and graduated in 1953. She got teacher diploma and worked for 39 years as high school German teacher and also as a Principal associate.
My father Yuri Bolshakov
was born on March 25, 1929. He was fourth son in Russian country family. His parents – Ivan and Anna could hardly read and write, but they gave the best education for all their four kids. Yuri completed law faculty of Kazan State University and got attorney position in Novosibirsk. In 1953 he met Sara in Novosibirsk Foreign Languages Institute, where he came to pass post-doctorate exam in foreign language. They had fallen in love, got married and had daughter Nina in 1954 and son Vadim in 1959. Yuri did receive his PhD in History in Gorky, Russia, in 1976. He died on May 5, 1982 in Kazan after second stroke.
In 1972 Sara and Yuri had divorced and Sara with children moved to West Siberia, town Belovo of Kemerovo District, where she got a job as high school German teacher and state one bedroom apartment. She worked in the same school #80 till her retirement in 1990.
In 1990 Sara moved to Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Her daughter Nina has bought grandmothers’ apartment for her from the owner – state factory, and she lived there till her immigration to USA in June 1998.
Now Sara lives in New York with her daughter Nina and makes very good company for her. She worked in Russia as a schoolteacher for 39 years but her Russian pension is equal $45.00 a month, so she’s getting SSI and food stamps and Medicaid from USA government as legal refugee over 65 years old. It’s not enough to survive alone anyway, but living together with Nina makes it possible.
1.1.1.1. Nina Bolshakova
It’s me. I
was born on March 3, in Novosibirsk, Russia.
I completed high school of town Belovo of Kemerovo district of West Siberia in and passed exams and got admitted in Chemical Technology Faculty of Tomsk State Polytechnic Institute. In 1973 I changed for another faculty in the same Institute: Industrial Management Faculty and in February 1977 got Diploma of Mechanical Engineering with specialty in Industrial Management. In April 1977 I got a job as Engineer in Scientific Research and Design Technological Institute of Machine Building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. In 1986 I did received PhD in Economics in Institute of Industrial Economics in Donetsk, Ukraine. I worked as Senior Scientist, Assistant Professor, teacher of Industrial Management and Accounting, etc.
In 1989 I got involved in Kramatorsk Group for Support of Perestroika and was elected in Kramatorsk City Board. In 1991 I was elected by Kramatorsk City Board as a head of Kramatorsk City Board Commission of Inventory and Requisition of Property of Kramatorsk Committee of Communist Party and did this historical job with great pleasure.
In 1998 I immigrated in to USA with my mother Sara. It was common immigrant story, hard work and no help, the despair and the hope. Now, in 2003 I work as full charge bookkeeper in private Real Estate company and also part-time as a teacher of Computerized Accounting in small proprietary school in Brooklyn. In 2002 I got New York State license as vocational school teacher. So it’s what I’m doing for the living now and I am writing the Glaser’s history also.
1.1.1.2. Vadim Bolshakov & Svetlana Gapon
Vadim Bolshakov
was born Vadim Bolshakov on March 15, 1959, in Kazan, Russia. He finished high school with Gold Medal in 1976 and passed exams to Tomsk State University, West Siberia.
On April 2, 1986 Vadim had the daughter Dina Bolshakova. Vadim finished university in 1983 and in 1985 went to Leningrad for post-doctorate education and got PhD in biology. In 1989 he divorced Olga and married Svetlana Gapon.
Now Vadim is professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital. He received his PH.D Degree in neuroscience from Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry in St. Petersburg, Russia. He then did postdoctoral research with Steve Siegelbaum and Eric Kandel at Columbia University. Vadim is an expert in the field of learning and memory. He has published many key articles on cellular mechanisms of learning. He has received the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fellowship Award in Neurosciences. Vadim lives with Svetlana Gapon in Boston, he is a full professor at Harvard.
1.1.1.2.1. Dina Bolshakova
Dina Bolshakova
was born on April 2, 1986, in Tomsk, West Siberia, Russia. In 2001 she passed exams to musical college in Saints Petersburg, Russia. Dina is a gifted cellist, she is a member of a string quartet and famous Mstislav Rostropovich on some musical event in Gatchina, Russia in 2002 noted her and promised her great musical future. She loves to read and to swim in the see and she is a very good girl. Let see what she’ll make of herself.
Dina finished Berlin conservatory in 2012.
1.2. Rochaleh Glaser & Israel Zenter
Rochaleh Glaser
was born Rochaleh Glaser on, 19xx, in ax, ax (probably Kupel, Ukraine). She died on May 2, 1988 in Vladivostok, USSR (Russia).
Israel Zenter was born in 1909 in Kirovograd, Ukraine and died on January 9, 1968 in Birobidgan, USSR (Russia).
Rochaleh and Israel met each other in 1936 in Birobidgan, Far East of Russia, where they both came to build Jewish State (as per fake USSR government offer) along with thousand’s of Russian Jews hoping for Jewish land. They got into the same “hotel”, where they met. On March 13, 1941 their son Vladimir was born, and on December 9, 1944 they had daughter Eugena, and on June 16, 1947 they had daughter Tatiana, and on March 2, 1953 they had daughter Polina (after Pearl killed by Germans).
In WWII Israel Zenter was a Captain of Red Army and served on Chinese board as army engineer to build jet airports for war with Japan. Rochaleh worked in army hospital as bookkeeper. After war was finished they lived in Birobidgan and then moved to c. Vladivostok and worked in the same fields. Rochale never saw her sisters anymore because they couldn’t afford a railroad ticket to Far East or to East Europe.
1.2.1. Tatiana Zenter
Tatiana
was born Tatiana Glaser on June 16, 1947. She was a teacher in Russia and used to live in Siberia and Ural region. She was married twice and got divorced and also as well as marriages she survived cancer. She has very warm personality. Tatiana has one son Eugene. Now, in 2003, she lives in Israel.
2002 address: Israel, Haifa
1.2.1.1. Eugene & Maria Rozenberg
Eugene was born Eugene on May 16, 1968. He completed high school in Vladivostok in 1987. He got navy mechanic diploma in Vladivostok, Russia. In 1992 he immigrated to Israel with his mother Tatiana. Eugene is running his own carpet business now.
Maria Rozenberg was born in Russia on May 16, 1978. They have met in Haifa and got married on May 16, 2002 in Haifa, Israel. On the wedding party all Israeli relatives were present and had fun.
They had divorced in 2010 and Eugene moved back to Russia thereafter. He lives in St.Petersburg now.
1.2.2. Vladimir Zenter
Vladimir was born on March 13, 1941 in Birobidgan, Far East Russia. He got high education in Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, West Siberia and was the engineer in energy field and reached top management position in East Siberia, Republic of Sakha. He filed out for immigration to Israel and got all pares to go already, when he suddenly died on May 23, 1991 in the age of 53.
He was married twice: for the first time in Tomsk with Lilia (had a son with Lilia) and for the second and last time with Alexandra Cheganova (Sasha). With Sasha he had son Igor Zenter. Sasha got two citizenships of Russia and Israel and split her time in between Moscow and Haifa now.
1.2.2.1. Unknown son of Vladimir Zenter
Vladimir Zenter has been married to Lilia at first. They got married and lived in Tomsk, West Siberia. They had a son, whose name I don’t know for now. Then, in 1965 Vladimir met Sasha in a train (family story) and got involved with her. He divorced Lilia and married Sasha. Lost connection with his first son.
1.2.2.2. Igor Zenter & Marina Vogdanova
Igor was born on October 28, 1966 in Birobidgan, Far East of Russia. He married Marina Vogdanova, who was born in September 15, 1971and they immigrated in Israel in 1993. They have daughter Valerie, born in Israel on June 6, 2000.
They moved to Canada in 2001 and set up in Toronto. He’s working as a programmer. I called him twice and he rejected all my questions about his brother and his family and then didn't make any contacts with me. Cut all connection with Jewish part of his family for no clear reason.
2002 address: Canada
2002 phone: 1-905-417-7804
2002 email: igor.zenter@simpatico.ca
1.2.2.2.1. Valerie Zenter
She lives in Canada with her parents now and I don’t know anything about her for now, but I wish her the best.
1.2.3. Eugena Zenter & Michael Prus
Eugena Zenter was born on December 9, 1944 in Birobidgan, Russia. She completed Medical School and received MD Diploma. She got married and has son Michael. Now she is living with her husband in t. Kirovskoe, close to Vladivostok and works as a doctor on famous Russian resort Shmakovka. She is working as a Doctor for the resort clinic now.
1.2.3.1. Michael was born on March 23, 1984 in Vladivostok, Russia. Now, in 2002 he is a student of business law in University of Vladivostok. Now, in 2012, he is one of the top officers in cement producing corporation in Vladivostok and married. His wife is very lovely.
1.2.4. Polina Zenter & Valentin Mitrokhin
Polina was born on March 2, 1953. She has been named after her aunt Pearl, killed by Germans. She used to work as a technology engineer, now she is a sales person in the department store.
Valentin Mitrokhin is working as a technology engineer on a metal factory. They are living in Arsamas, Russia and have only son Yuri.
1.2.4.1. Yuri Mitrokhin
Yuri is a student of weapon faculty of Moscow Technical University, so-called “Baumanka”(2003).
1.2.3. Michael Glaser & Katya Sokolovskaya
Michael Glaser
was born Mechel Glaser on February 13, 1912, in Kupel, Ukraine.
He was an active member of Hashomer Hatzair and was sentenced to GULAG twice for his Zionist activity before WWII.
Michael was a soldier of Red Army in WWII and served in an army intelligence squad. He was wounded to his head in the battlefield behind the Germans line and went unconscious. Russian soldier, his comrade, brought him out to the soviet side. Before WWII that soldier was a floor manager of the bed factory in Leningrad; his last name was Krovatkin (?), as uncle Michael told me. Michael had spent 2 years in the army hospitals and got status as the war disabled veteran. He had some tiny piece of metal in his head to his death.
He was well educated, mostly self-educated. He could speak and read and write Yiddish and Hebrew as well as Russian and Ukrainian. He lived in t. Gorodicthe, Ukraine with his wife Katya after WWII and worked as a bookkeeper. It was a time in Ukraine when official reports should be done in Ukrainian. Unfortunately, it was only Michael who could write grammatically correct Ukrainian in that office filled of ethnic Ukrainians. No questions, he was very gifted writer; his letters to Bertha were no less than beautiful essays.
Michael was very clever man, loved life and people, and used to say before taking in a 100gr of Russian vodka at the dinner time: “If I could not drink, smoke and make love with women, I don’t have a pity for such life; I may give it up for Russia”.
Michael lived last years of his life with his daughter Bella’s family in Odessa, Ukraine and died there on May 13, 1992.
Katya was born Gitl Sokolovskaya on August 26, 1909 in s. Nova Bug, Ukraine and died on April 6, 1985 in t. Goroditche, Ukraine. She was beautiful women and very good mother. They had two children: Bella and Alexander.
1.2.3.1 Bella Glaser & Efim Sokol
Bella Glaser
was born on March 16, 1936 in Nova Bug, Ukraine. Efim Sokol was born on November 12, 1937 in Odessa, Ukraine. They have met in Odessa and got married in October 1961. Bella worked on a metal plant as an engineer.
2002 address: Malinovskogo St. 1, apt. #91 Odessa 65059 Ukraine
2002 phone: 380-482-611407
1.2.3.1.1 Rimma Sokol & Saveliy Lipkin
Rimma was born on April 14, 1964 in Odessa, Ukraine. Saveliy Lipkin was born in 1962. They got married in Odessa in 1986. In these days they run pizzeria business and manage about 14 locations in Odessa. Saveliy is a gifted self-made businessman. They have only daughter Ulia.
2002 email:
1.2.3.1.1.1 Ulia
Lipkina
Ulia was born in Odessa, Ukraine on May 31, 1987. She is a high school student now in 2003 and dreams to be a web designer.
2002 address: She is living in Odessa, Ukraine with her parents.
1.2.3.2. Alexander Glaser
Alexander Glaser
was born on October 31, 1947in Voronzevo-Gorodisthe, Cherkassy district, Ukraine. He lives in Odessa, Ukraine and works in Jewish Community Charity Center "Good business" as a district supervisor.
Sasha moved to Germany in 2005.
1.2.4. Yenta Glaser & David Gorenshtein
Yenta Glaser
was born on August 21, 1915, in Kupel, Ukraine. She and Rachel were the students of Kiev State University, when there was a horrible starvation in Ukraine in 1933. So they quit university and stayed for hours in the long lines to get bread and send it along with other food, what they could get, to Kupel for the family, and all family members survived that time. She married David Gorenshtein in 1940.
David Gorenshtein was born on January 10, 1912. They had only daughter Ira, born on November 20, 1946. David worked as engineer on some metal factory and Yenta was insurance agent. They lived in Novosibirsk, West Siberia, Russia and helped Bertha Glaser to survive GULAG by sending her some food and clothe. In 1942 Bertha’s term with GULAG was done, but the jailers didn’t let her go. They made her work as a guard of the vegetable field belonged to the concentration camp.
So, Yenta went to that camp to ask to release Bertha as a sick person. She was lucky not to be arrested, for only reason that a commander of the camp happened to be a Jew. He brought her home to stay one night with his family and gave her short meeting with Bertha another day. Yenta told me, that she couldn’t stop crying, when she got look at Bertha. Bertha was in so bad shape that time and very, very hungry.
After Bertha’s release from GULAG in 1942 and by the end of WWII and even long years after Yenta and David admitted her with daughter Sara to stay in their 2-rooms apartment for years, till Bertha’s second marriage in 1966.
Yenta and David immigrated to Israel in 1991 and lived in Haifa, where Yenta died in March 11, 1997. David Gorenshtein still lives in Haifa with his daughter Ira and her family and G-d blessed him with good working brain and healthy (compare to his age) body.
1.2.4.1. Ira Gorenshtein and Yakov Belitzky
Ira was born in Novosibirsk, Russia in 1946. She was the very attractive girl and had a lot of men run around. She did receive an Economist Diploma in Novosibirsk Institute of Communication.
Yakov Belitzky was born on April 25, 1946. He was a high school sport teacher. They have met in Novosibirsk in the swimming pool and got married on March 26, 1974 in Novosibirsk and had only son Ilia.
Ira, Yakov and Ilia immigrated in Israel with David and Yenta Gorenshtein on May 1991. Nina Bolshakova accompanied them in Sheremetevo airport in Moscow that time. She was impressed seen a lot of Jews all together and for the first time in her life got feelings she belongs to real and very special people. Now they live in Haifa and Ira is working as a metal laborer on metal factory and Yakov is working as a security guard in supermarket.
1.2.4.1.1. Ilia Belitzky
Ilia were born in Novosibirsk on October 20, 1977. He was a very bright boy and now he is the lieutenant of Army of Israel. He received his engineering Diploma in Technion, Haifa and signed 6 years contract with the military. Ilia is a patriot of Israel. He is a lieutenant of Israeli Army and serving as aeronautic engineer.
1.2.5. Leib Glaser & Jenya Kupietz
Leib Glaser
was born Leib Glaser on November 25, 1917, in Kupel, Ukraine. He was a soldier of Red Army in WWII and then worked as electrician to his retirement. Leib was sentenced to GULAG after WWII in Vladivostok, when he tried to sell some shoes to help his sister Rachel to feed her children. After his release he went to Ukraine and married Jenya Kupietz, sister of Elke Kupietz, by proposal.
Jenya Kupietz
was born Jenya Kupietz on August 21, 1922. She worked as a bookkeeper in the department store. They lived in Poltava, Ukraine and had the only daughter Polina. Leib and Jenya immigrated to Israel in 1996 and died there: Jenya - on August 28, 1998 and Leib – on October 5, 1998.
1.2.5.1. Polina Glaser
Polina was born in Poltava, Ukraine on August 24, 1953. She got Diploma in Economics in Kharkov and worked as an economist in Kharkov and Poltava. Polina died on October 15, 1994 in Poltava, Ukraine because of cancer.
1.2.6. Zalman Glaser & Sonja Livshitz
Zalman Glaser
was born Zalman Glaser on July 15, 1919 in Kupel, Ukraine. It was Russian Civil War that time. Kupel changed authority every second week: one day it was Reds, another day Whites and next morning it was some Ukrainian country gang taking over the settlement. Bertha told Nina that she remembers how she with her father in the night time went to the doctor to call him to help mother to deliver Zalman and some Polish soldiers got them but the officer got them free to go.
Zalman got Medical school Diploma and was an army doctor in Red Army in World War II. After WWII he married Sonja Livshitz. She was born on June 15, 1997 and worked as school English & German teacher. They had 2 sons: Joseph and Eugene. As army doctor, he served in Far East on the border with China till his retirement. Then they moved to Riga, Latvia (former USSR), where he died on July 30, 1978. Sonja moved to Israel and died there on June 15, 1997.
1.2.6.1. Joseph Glaser & Svetlana Press
Joseph Glaser
was born Joseph Glaser on April 21, 1947. He got PhD in Physic in Russia and worked as a Professor in technical college in c. Novokuznetsk, Russia. Svetlana Press was born on May 25, 1949.
They have met in Tomsk, West Siberia, when they were students of Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and got married on August 26, 1972. They have two children: daughter Elena and son Stanislav. In 1999 they immigrated to Israel and living and working in Haifa. Now Joseph is working in the field of Physics of Plasma in some private research company and Svetlana worked as technician in Haifa Technical University, so-called Technion.
2002 address: Haifa, Israel
2002 phone: 972-4-8-820-3521
2002 email:
1.2.6.1.1. Elena Glazer & Stanislav Gourevich
Elena was born as Elena Glaser in Birobidgan, Russia, on June 4, 1973. Stanislav Gourevich was born on May 27, 1973. They were high school sweethearts. Elena completed the faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of Novokuznetsk University and faculty of History of Tomsk University; Stanislav has completed the faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of Novokuznetsk University. They got married on June 25, 1994 in Novokuznetsk, West Siberia and hade daughter Yana Gourevich. They are living in Haifa, Israel and working in the computer field: Stanislav is a programmer and Elena is a program tester.
2002 address: Israel.
2002 phone: 054-945140; 054-945139
2002 email: Elena@mercury.co.iil, Stan@mercury.co.il
1.2.6.1.1.1 Yana Gourevich
Yana was born on January 27, 1995 and lives in Rehovot, Israel with her parents, Elena and Stanislav Gurevich. She is just nice little girl, bright and funny.
3.2.6.1.2. Stanislav Glaser
2002 address: Israel.
1.2.6.2. Eugene Glaser & Luba Zeitlina
Eugene Glaser was born on July 11, 1950.
Luba Zeitlina was born on August 17, 1953.
They were married in 1977, in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1990 they immigrated to Israel. They have two children: son Stanislav and daughter Anna.
2002 phone: 972-6-622-4101
2002 email:
1.2.6.2.1. Stanislav Glaser
Stanislav Glaser was born on June 13, 1981 in Leningrad, Russia. He is a student of Jerusalem Technical Institute and specializes in programming.
1.2.6.2.2. Anna Glaser
Anna was born Hanna Glaser on May 24, 1983 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, Russia. She completed high school in Haifa in 2002 and going to take some college.
1.2.7. & 1.2.8. Pearl and Joseph Glaser
Pearl and Joseph Glaser
were born in 1924, in Kupel, Ukraine.
Joseph and Pearl were twins.
Germans killed Pearl and Joseph with their father and all other Kupel Jews on September 11, 1942.
Pearl and Joseph were admitted to Kiev University before WWII. They were very good school students with the highest score. Who knows, what they could make in this life. They were killed so young.
P.S. It’s all I know about my family for now. My relatives are not easy to get in touch; they are not returning calls and e-mails and not willing to write anything about their lives. Russian Jews are not as open as Americans ones. I am going to learn more and add it to my study if G-d’s will.
