At school

Stories and photographs taken in classrooms between 1910 to 1967

Moisey Goihberg

Photo taken in: Kyiv 1967 - Interviewer: Zhanna Litinskaya

My daughter Natalia performing at an academic concert at the music school. She tried to enter the Kyiv Conservatory after finishing music school. At that time, though, it was next to impossible for a Jew to enter a cultural institution, especially in Ukraine. She had to go to the Sverdlovsk Conservatory in Russia instead. Natalia became a pianist and returned to Kyiv where she works in a concert organization.

Sonia Leiderman

Photo taken in: Mohyliv-Podilskyi – 1940 Interviewer: Ella Levitskaya

The school canteen during our celebration of May Day. I am at the back, sitting at the first table from the left looking at the camera. I was a sociable girl at school and it was hard for me to sit still for our 45 minute lessons. The teacher always had to talk with mama about me turning around and talking to other children.

Zinaida Leibovich

Photo taken in: Kamyanets-Podilskyi – 1923 Interviewer: Zhanna Litinskaya

My mother Shprintse Altman in kindergarten. She is in the back row wearing a white bow in her hair. She was born in 1919 and went to a mixed kindergarten for both Ukrainian and Jewish children.

Leonid Rozenfeld

Photo taken in: Bohuslav 1910 - Interviewer: Zhanna Litinskaya

My mother, Dora Ozerianskaya, sitting in the center, with her friends during their last year of school. After finishing grammar school, she went to Kyiv to study at a private dentistry school and became a licensed dentist.

Zhenia Kriss

Photo taken in: Kyiv – 1934 Interviewer: Zhanna Litinskaya

My classmates and I in the 7th grade. I am sitting first from right. I went to a Russian secondary school, but there were children of all nationalities there and we were all friends. My parents wanted me to go to a Russian instead of a Jewish school so I wouldn’t have language problems later in Soviet higher education institutions. I was secretary of our Komsomol unit and took part in district and town Olympiads in chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

Iyah Dziekovskaya

Photo taken in: Izmail – 1948 Interviewer: Natalia Fomina

Me, first on the right, with two of my school friends. This photo was taken in Izmail in 1948 while I was studying at school #2 for girls. We were experimenting with magnets for our physics lesson.

Grigoriy Fihtman

Photo taken in: Vinnytsia – 1966 Interviewer: Natalia Fomina

Me, standing in center, with a group of fellow performers at the regional show of amateur performers. At the time I was working as a teacher at a school in Komarhorod village in the Vinnytsia region. Along with colleagues from our school, I participated in the final concert of the show that year.

Lilya Finberg

Photo taken in: Kyiv 1932 - Interviewer: Tatyana Chayka

Near the center of this photo wearing a cap is my husband, Kushel Finberg. This photo was taken in the school yard of school 70, where he was attending seventh grade at the time.