This is me (first from left), my granddaughter Dana Kanalis and my daughter Tatiana Miakushkina. This photo was taken at Dana's wedding in Jerusalem in 2001.
In 1998 Dana went to study in Israel under the Program NAALE-16 [Educational program for Jewish pupils from the former USSR]. Dana finished a boarding school for girls in Jerusalem. She is religious: she prays, celebrates all holidays and follows the kashrut. In 2001 she got married. Her husband Aurelio Kanalis also came to study in Israel under the NAALE-16 program. He studied at the boarding school for boys. He is a religious boy: he wears a kippah and observes traditions.
Before the wedding the rabbi that was to conduct the wedding ceremony checked my granddaughter's documents since her father and grandfather were Russian. He called me in Odessa and spoke Yiddish to me. Perhaps, she thought that if I answered in Yiddish he could trust the documents. Anyway, when we came to Jerusalem he looked at me and said that he had no more doubts! Finally the dream of my early youth came true: I saw the Promised Land with my own eyes. I met my cousin Eta and the friends of my childhood and youth in Riga I did not see for ages.
There were many guests at the Dana's wedding: men and women sat separately. It was a merry and beautiful wedding. I danced and danced and forgot my age. I recalled my sister Rebecca's wedding once in Riga and my heart rejoiced: our family returned to the traditions of our people.
