This is my father Litman Volok. This photo was taken in Cinislia in 1918. The inscription says: The person in this photo really exists.
My father was born in Vladimirets, in the Russian Empire in 1878. He finished a yeshivah and taught Hebrew and traditions. He spoke fluent Russian. My parents got married in the early 1900s. My father was in the tsarist army for four years during World War I, but I don’t know whether he took part in combat action. He returned home in 1918. At that time my parents lived in Cimislia in Bessarabia. By that time my parents had five children. My oldest brother Zelik was born in 1903 in Vladimirets, my second brother Boruch-Nathan was born in Cimislia in 1905, my older sister Tuba, whom we called Tania, was born in 1907, and the next two brothers, Mikhail and David, were born one after another.
In 1920 our family moved to Bolgrad. My father taught Hebrew in a Jewish school called Tarbut in Bessarabia. We had a blue box where my parents dropped money for the fund of Israel, this contribution was called Keren Kayemet, which means that my parents were Zionists. My father didn't go to the synagogue every day, but he fasted on Yom Kippur, went to the synagogue on holidays and strictly observed traditions. I remember his words: 'Traditions have kept us as a nation. Traditions are most important.'
