Salvator Israel with his parents and his sister Rene

This is my husband Salvator Israel, his mother Leontin Israel, nee Demayo, his father Marko Israel and his sister Rene. The photo was taken in Budapest around 1928, when Salvator and his sisters were studying in France. Marko Israel (sitting first from right) was a respected merchant in Plovdiv and he married a Hungarian Sephardi Jew named Leontin Demayo (sitting on the left), who had lived in Budapest and Vienna before the marriage. They met in Vienna on one of Marko's business trips, they got married and Leontin came to live in Bulgaria. I didn't meet my mother-in-law Leontin, because she died young, but I know that my husband, her son, was very attached to her. She was a very nice, respected and beautiful woman. My husband Salvator Israel (standing first from left) was born in 1908 in Plovdiv. He wanted to become an agronomy specialist, but his father didn't allow him to and sent him to France to study medicine. Salvator went to study in France, Montpelier, and graduated in Paris as a medical doctor. He lived in France for ten years and after he graduated, he became an assistant at the university. Then he had to go back to Bulgaria, because he couldn't support himself. He had five sisters - Rashel, Sarika, Rene, Elizabeth and Hanika. The one in the photo is Rene (standing first from right) who went to live in Israel after World War II. Rene got married to Iosif Israel, who was a first cousin of hers, son of her father's brother. Everyone was against their marriage, but they did it at the cost of not having any children, because of the blood relationship between them. My husband's father, Marko Israel, was a very strict man, but he was not able to prevent their marriage. When they lived in Bulgaria, Iosif was a very respected lawyer.

Photos from this interviewee