Ronny Sheyn-Kuznetsova

That’s me. The picture was taken during my stay in Munich, Germany, where I went to visit my daughter, in 2000.

My daughter, Margarita Kasper, observes Jewish traditions. When she lived in Novosibirsk and the Jewish community was open there, my daughter Margarita went there. Unfortunately, my daughter didn’t stay in Estonia. There were difficulties in processing her citizenship. It took so long. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore and immigrated to Germany with her family.

My daughter works in her basic professional education. Her husband Alexander also found a job. Her daughter Rosa goes to school. My granddaughter is a good girl. Recently, in 2003, Margarita gave birth to another child, son Ronald. My daughter says that he was named after me, Ronny, Ronchik.

When Rosa turned 13 last year, I was in Germany. I went to see her bat mitzvah. I gave her a mezuzah. I was happy to see my granddaughter. She’s a very nice girl. I love her very much. She goes to the Jewish community. Everybody loves her. Rosa sings in the choir of the community and I have the records of their choir. She sings Jewish songs and reads in Ivrit.

They have a reformed community, where the rabbi is a woman. Frau Rabbiner came to like Rosa and she taught her how to read in Ivrit. She said that she was the first child who eagerly studied the letters; Rosa was very little at that time.

So, in our family we have a literate girl, who is smarter than her granny when it comes to the knowledge of Jewish traditions. She knows everything, the dates of the holidays, what prayers to read and how. In summer Rosa stayed in our place. Every Saturday she lit candles and read the prayer. Both of us do that, but Rosa is at the lead.