Hava Goldshtein’s aunts Hava Goldshtein and Duba Goldshtein

Hava Goldshtein’s aunts Hava Goldshtein and Duba Goldshtein

My father's sisters Hava (left) and Duba Goldshtein photographed in Yassy before Duba's wedding in 1912. My father's parents, whom I never saw, Moisey and Golda Goldshtein, were born in 1860s, in the town of Yassy in Bessarabia that belonged to Romania before 1939. There was a big Jewish community in Yassy before WWII. There were 10 synagogues, yeshyva, few cheders and a number of stores selling kosher products. Jews were mainly involved in crafts and trade. My grandfather Moisey was wealthy. He didn't study in grammar school may be he go to cheder in the childhood, but he was smart and business-oriented. He inherited a fur factory and in due time expanded his business and opened a shop and a store in the factory. Besides, he owned an apartment building in the center of the town for lease where his family lived in a 6-room apartment. My grandparents were religious. Every morning grandfather went to the synagogue near their house. My grandmother went to the synagogue on Saturday. They spoke Yiddish in the family, but they also spoke fluent Romanian. They strictly followed all Jewish traditions. There were seven children in the family: my father had four brothers and two sisters. The boys studied in cheder, all children finished a grammar school. I know very little about my father's brothers or his parents. In 1914 when WWI began my father went to the Romanian army. He was at the front and was captured and sent to a camp for prisoners-of-war in Poltava, a provincial town in the center of Ukraine in 300 kms from Kiev. My father was in captivity between 1915 and 1917. My father got married in Poltava in 1918 after he was released from captivity. My parents couldn’t go to Romania where my father’s family lived since after 1917 the Soviet authorities didn’t allow Soviet citizens to leave the country. Duba, my father's older sister, born in 1890, married a rich Jew from Yassy after finishing grammar school. They had two children. Her husband owned a garment shop. Their son, I don't remember his name, took over his father's business. He became a tailor. I have no information about their daughter. My father's sister Hava, born in 1896, finished grammar school. She was single at the period when we heard from them - before middle 1930s. Regretfully, this is all I know about them.
Open this page