Jacob Sherman

This is my father's brother Jacob Sherman. The photo was taken in Moscow by Otto Renar in 1896.

Father and his younger brother Biniumin learned tinsmith skills from Grandfather. Both of them worked. Father's brother Jacob left for Moscow before the revolution, when Estonia was part of the Russian empire. He was taught tailoring there. Jacob became one of the best tailors in Moscow. With time, he had his own salon, located at Kuznetsk most, in the center of Moscow. By the way, that atelier is still there. After the Revolution of 1917 Estonia commenced its struggle for independence and as a result the First Estonian Republic was declared, so Jacob turned out to be abroad and could not return to Estonia.

First, Father helped him, sent parcels with food as people in Russia were starving at that time. Then Jacob stopped keeping in touch with his relatives residing in Estonia because for citizens of the USSR it was dangerous to correspond with relatives abroad. Of course, after the revolution Jacob's atelier was sequestrated and nationalized, but he still kept on working there and did not change his work place.

We knew that Jacob was married, had two daughters. I did not know any of them. We managed to find them and they came to their house after the Great Patriotic War, but they did not want to see us as it was the time when people were afraid to meet foreigners. We were foreigners for them, though Estonia was already Soviet, but they could not overcome that fear.