Isaac Gragerov with his family

My wife Zhenia, our children Irina and Alexandr and I on our son's 12th birthday in 1965 in Kiev. Irina was born in 1948 and Alexandr in 1953. They were not raised Jewish, but they have always identified themselves as Jews and are proud of it. I can't say that either of my children directly faced anti-Semitism. They both went to study in Moscow, because at that time it was practically impossible for a Jew to enter higher educational institutions, especially the university, in Kiev. Irina entered the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University. Upon graduation she returned to Kiev. She met Yuri Malitin at university, a Jewish man, a very nice and decent young man. They soon got married. Irina and Yuri work and live in Kiev. They have two children: Andrei graduated from the Biological Faculty of Kiev University, and Alexandra is in 10th grade of school at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Our son Alexandr graduated from the Faculty of Biophysics at the Moscow Institute of Technical Physics. He became a specialist in molecular genetics and defended a thesis for Candidate of Science. In the 1990s Alexandr went to work in America. He worked in New York, Chicago and Washington. Now he lives in Seattle and is head of department, working on the development of new medications. Alexandr's wife is an architect. Their daughter Masha studies at an art school. She had her own exhibitions, and she dreams of becoming a designer. I've had a good life. I had work that I liked. In 1970 I defended my doctoral thesis. I studied the mechanism of chemical reactions all my life. I had students that defended their thesis, and I can say that I established my own school. I retired when I was 73. I've been happy in my personal life, too. My wife and me are very close and very much in love with one another. We always liked to celebrate Soviet holidays. We've had friends of various nationalities. We liked to get together and sing beautiful Soviet songs. We've read a lot and went to the theatre, art exhibitions and concerts.