Henrich Kurizkes and his family

This photo of our family was taken at our holiday home in the suburb of Tallinn in summer 2005, when our children and their families were visiting us. From left to right, front row: grandson Matas, my daughter Tatiana's older son, with his son Povilas, his daughter Ione, my wife Miriam, myself, our grandson Simas' daughter Leya on my lap, Simas' wife, Simas. Second row: Matas' wife Kristina, our granddaughters Esther and Rosa, Alexander's daughters, our daughter Tatiana and her husband Rimantas. Third row: our son Alexander and his wife Margarita. Tatiana entered the Faculty of Russian Philology at Tartu University after finishing school. During her studies Tatiana married Rimantas Duda, a Lithuanian. Her marital surname is Dudiene. In 1976 her first son, Matas, was born and Tatiana became an external student. She finished her studies and in 1978 her second son, Simas, was born. She went to work at the library in the polytechnic college. My daughter and her family live in Vilnius. She now has three grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and soon there will be a fourth. My daughter and her family celebrate all Jewish holidays: Pesach, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. She follows all rules like we did in our household. Her sons and their wives respect Jewish traditions. They also celebrate Catholic traditions, for my daughter's husband. Our grandchildren have Master's degrees. They graduated from the Academy of Arts in Vilnius, and the older grandson is working for his Doctor's degree. He is very modest and hardworking. He has a daughter, Ione, born in 2000, and a son, Povilas, who is one and a half years old. Simas has a daughter called Leya, who is three and a half years old. My daughter's family visits us every year and we visit them. Alexander graduated from Tallinn Teachers? Training Institute. His specialty is ?Physics and vocational training.?. Upon graduation he was sent to work at a general education school. When a new, big vocational school opened in Tallinn, he was offered the position of teacher of physics and vocational training. He was a tutor in the electrical mechanics group. Alexander loves children and his job. He communicates with his students? parents. When his graduates received diplomas and school certificates they gave flowers to Alexander and thanked him for his effort. There were so many flowers that he had to take a taxi to bring them home. His students and their parents thanked him for his guidance. My son married Margarita Rubinstein, a Jewish girl, born in Tallinn. Of course, my wife and I would have accepted any choice our son made, but the fact that he married a Jewish girl was very important to us. Margarita graduated from the Plumbers? Faculty of the polytechnic college with honors and worked at a design institute. She is very talented and draws well. Their first child, Rosa, was born in Tallinn in 1983. In 1990 our daughter-in-law's family decided to move to Israel. It was her parents, her sister and her husband, and Margarita's uncle and his family. Alexander and Margarita also decided to move there. They needed our consent for their departure to be certified by the notary. We had no doubts about it and had all the necessary documents issued. Though we still worked and might have had problems resulting from their departure, we would never have done anything to jeopardize their happiness. Our son and his wife and daughter Rosa started taking Hebrew classes. Rosa did very well and in no time she was already helping them with the language. Our son's family settled in Ashdod. Our second granddaughter Esther was born in Israel in 1993. Our granddaughters are very nice girls. Rosa is very talented and intelligent: she finished two years of the high school course in one year; she served in the army; she is a university student and also has a job. Esther studies in high school. My son's family is doing very well and I hope they will be all right in the future.