My daughter Tamara and her husband Iosif Budnik photographed on their wedding day in Lvov in 1960.
After finishing a secondary school my daughter Tamara entered Mechanic Faculty in Lvov Polytechnic Institute. She finished school with a gold medal and had no problems with admission to the Institute regardless of existing anti-Semitism. Tamara worked as an engineer in a scientific research institute in Lvov. When she was a student she met Joseph Budnik, a nice Jewish guy, a senior student. Joseph was born in Kiev in 1935. His parents Raya and Michael Budnik were engineers. Tamara and Joseph got married in 1960. There were about 100 guests at their wedding party: relatives, their fellow students and former classmates. There was no huppah at the wedding - in those years it wasn't customary, but there was a Jewish band playing at the wedding party welcoming guests with Jewish wedding tunes. In 1962 Tamara and Joseph's daughter Lubochka was born. My daughter and Joseph get along very well.
Joseph began his career as an engineer upon graduation and became deputy director of the "Electron" Association in Lvov. Electron was a big manufacturer of TV sets and other appliances in the former USSR. Joseph made a good career, provided well for the family and we never considered emigration to other countries.
In 1990s, during perestroika period, many enterprises were closed. First my daughter and then my son-in-law lost their jobs. Joseph is a pensioner and Tamara is a volunteer at the local Hesed - she helps Hesed employees to do their work. My granddaughter Luba went to Israel in 1994 under a students' exchange program. In Israel she got married. She has a daughter (she is my great-granddaughter) named Diane. Tamara and her husband visited her in Israel and we've taken a firm decision to move to Israel even though the country is on the verge of a war, but I feel like going home and living among our own people. I look forward to the time when I won't hear "zhydovka" or "zhydy" any longer. Some people explain that many people living in Lvov came from Poland and "zhyd" means "Jew" in Polish, but I still believe that they use this word intentionally to abuse Jewish people.
