Sara Perelmut

This is the oldest photo of my family, the Perelmut family. It was taken in Bialystok in 1930. It's my grandmother, my father's mother, Sara Perelmut. Her maiden name was Bortner. This photo is signed on the back in Russian: ?To my dear children, for a keepsake, from your dear Sara.? I have got this photo thanks to my two aunts: Mania and Ania, from Moscow. I am in possesion of many pictures that were saved by my family in Moscow. And it happened because my parents used to send many pictures and letters to them before the war broke out. And all those pictures were saved. The ones we had in our home in Bialystok got lost, naturally. After the war I found out that my two aunts kept our family archives. I was really happy to get those precious things back. My grandmother wore a wig. And she wrote beautifully in Russian. On lands under Russian partition the local residents used, depending on their nationality, Polish, Yiddish, Ukrainian language, knowledge of Russian was also common. These Jewish families paid a lot of attention to education. It's a Jewish trait, after all. When you talk about Jews, you say they're clever, talented, intelligent - it is so, but, after all, that's two thousand years of learning. A habit of learning. And you can see that pays off, from generation to generation.