Itsik Rubel and his grandson Yankel Rubel

This is my parental great-grandfather Itsik Rubel, and his grandson Yankel Rubel, my father’s elder brother. The picture was taken in Rezina in 1913.

Rubel was the surname of my paternal great-grandfather. The surname, which looked more like a nickname, was passed on to my grandfather, then to my father and then to me. Great-grandfather Itsik Rubel was born in the 1840s in the town of Rezina. He lived there all his life. Itsik was involved in agriculture and mostly in viniculture. He had a large vineyard with vintage variety. Great-grandfather worked mostly by himself, occasionally hiring workers during the harvest time. He made wine and then sold it to the marketers from Kishinev at a wholesale price. Itsik had his own house, though it was rather small and modest, not to say poor.
I don’t remember Great-grandfather Itsik very well. He died in 1930, when I was a small girl.

Itsik and Charna Rubel had many children. I know hardly anything about them. My grandfather Abram Rubel was born in 1870 in Rezina. He got married rather early, which was traditional for the Jews. Abram had nine children. I only knew my father's eldest brother Yankel. The thing is that in 1913 Grandfather Abram left for Argentina to look for a job and a better living for his children. Some of the elder children left with him, and Grandmother Nehama with the rest of the children joined them in a couple of years. That is why I never met my grandparents, my uncles and aunts. Only the eldest son Yankel, born in 1892, and my father Shapsha were so much against the departure to Argentina that Grandfather Abram got upset with them and left without his elder sons. Father and Yankel also were frustrated that they parted with the family and didn’t keep in touch with them for a long time. Only ten years later did they start to correspond with the family.