Brana Tucarman with her children Iosif Samuel and Raschela

In the center of the photo is my paternal grandmother, Brana Tucarman, with two of her children: my father, Iosif Samoil Tucarman and one of his sisters, Raschela Gruber, nee Tucarman.

I never met my paternal grandparents. My grandmother’s name was Brana Tucarman, nee Herscu, and my grandfather’s Iancu Tucarman. My father had two sisters – Raschela Gruber, nee Tucarman, and Mali Crowen, nee Tucarman – and a brother, Iulius Tucarman. They left the country: Raschela moved to Canada, and Mali to America. I have foggy memories about my aunt Raschela. She had three children: Iancu, Fenny, and Bernice. Fenny lives in Paris.

My father was born in Iasi in 1889. He owned a grocery store, then a ferrous and nonferrous metal shop. He went about his business in the shop and saw to the house as well. He was very good at it. He was the warden of the Haim Hoffman synagogue located behind our house. He kept the Jewish tradition in the sense that he would go to the synagogue every Friday evening, on Saturdays, yearly holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

Photos from this interviewee