Alex, Gizela and Eliezer Anski

In the photo from left to right are: my sister Gizela's son, Alex, Gizela and her husband Eliezer Anski. On the back of the photo there is the stamp of the photo studio: PHOTO ERDE - EFRAIM ERDE TEL AVIV 55 ALLENBY RD. cor. Brennet. AUG 1955. The picture was taken in August 1955. There's an inscription in pen: 'Be careful the one, who would laugh when seeing this photo. I said that I wanted to be serious in this photo, and in the end, as a result of my attempts not to laugh, just look at me. In fact I?m not as dark and ugly as I am in this photo. Moreover it was taken in the evening and there wasn?t enough lighting. Yet, my haircut is the latest fashion. Gizela' Once again Gizela radiates the good spirit and makes everyone laugh, even her husband Eliezer, who is initially non-communicative. My eldest sister was talented, ambitious and intelligent. She made a brilliant artistic career with appearances in Israel and the USA. She graduated from a Bulgarian elementary, junior high and high school. After graduation she initially worked in the famous dress atelier of Otto Seiner on Lege Street. There she sewed, cut, and worked as a model and sometimes, because imagination was among her greatest gifts, she designed her own clothes. As early as her work in Otto Seiner's fashion atelier she used to play in the Jewish amateur theater together with Leo Konforti, Bitush Davidov, Milka Mandil, Nichko Benbasat. There she met her future husband, Eliezer Asher Anski, who was a director. Leo Konforti, with whom they were close friends, most probably introduced her to some leading actors of the time. She attracted their attention and later she appeared on the stage of the National Theater with Ruzha Delcheva, Magda Kolchakova and Ivanka Dimitrova. It's difficult for me to name the theater plays she performed, although I have seen them all. Nor can I remember the years when I watched them. She knew many people from Sofia's artistic Bohemian circles. The people mentioned above often visited us. She was always the center of attention in these merry companies: she sang, told funny stories, recited poems by Smirnenski, Botev, Vaptsarov, and others. She got married around 1939 to Eliezer Asher Anski. He was a Sephardi Jew. His family was well-off. They owned an apartment on the corner of Tsar Boris and Tsar Simeon Street. He was always quiet, reticent, and uncommunicative; maybe sort of a calm background to the 'bright' Gizela, who always shone. Probably it was due to his character that he couldn't achieve a good career as a director. Later, when in 1948 their whole family moved to Israel, he changed his profession and started making art mosaics. Gizela and her husband were two complete opposites. Eliezer adored Gizela and immensely loved their son Alex, who was born in 1940. In Sofia they lived at first in a lodging on Sofronii Street and after that they moved to Eliezer's own apartment. When they left for Israel, their son Alex also started appearing on the theater stage as early as a little boy. He also made a good artistic career and now is a famous actor in the Abima National Israeli Theater of Tel Aviv. His artistic talent, a continuation of his parents' gift, was also revealed when he starred in a radio show addressed to mothers of Israeli soldiers which was meant to keep their spirits high.