Elina Falkenshtein’s family

Here you can see four generations of my family: from left to right are my grandmother Hannah Borovika, my mother Dina Falkova, nee Borovika, me, and my daughter Marina Falkenshtein.

My grandmother had three children Yasha, Moisey and my mother Dina. After the war my mother worked in regular and evening schools and gave lectures at the Teacher Training Institute. She was elected - with no scientific degrees - an associate member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the Soviet Union.

I devoted my entire life to pedagogy, and worked in many schools in Riga as well as at the Institute for Teacher Training. For the last ten years, however, I've been working in Riga's Jewish school. I was this school's vice-principal, in charge of academics, and the deputy director. Now I teach mathematics. To be honest, I've always been more interested in the work of a pedagogue than mathematics.

My daughter Marina was born in 1957. She graduated from the Latvian University, the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, with a degree in programming. She now works as an elementary school teacher in the Jewish school in Riga.