This is my paternal grandmother Esther Averbuch, nee Goldshtein. This photo was taken in Bogopol' in the 1880s.
My grandmother was born in Bogopol' in 1854. She got married in 1885 at the age of 31 which was rather late for those times. My grandmother Esther came from a religious Jewish family and was very religious herself.
I remember my grandmother Esther well. She dressed like all other women in the town. She wore long dark skirts and dark shirts. In winter she wore woolen clothes and in summer - fustian. She never wore light colors and even at home she wore a kerchief. Grandmother Esther observed the kashrut. She didn't trust mother or the housemaid to do food for her. She bought her quarter of a chicken from one and the same seller, I guess. My grandmother observed Sabbath. She didn't go to the synagogue when I remember her, because she was very old. She had religious books. She prayed from the Siddur, read the Torah in Hebrew regularly and knew the weekly sections by heart.
Grandmother Esther died in 1938 and was buried in the 3rd Jewish cemetery in Odessa.
Esther Averbuch
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