Iyah Dziekovskaya’s maternal great grandfather Isaac Varshavskiy

This is my maternal great grandfather Isaac Varshavskiy. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1890.

My great grandfather Isaac Varshavskiy, born to the family of rabbi Zelman Varshavskiy in Odessa in 1832. My great grandfather was a Jewish writer, linguist and public activist. [Editor's note: Isaac Varshavskiy is the author of many books, scientific works and manuals in the Jewish, German and Russian languages.  He promoted secular education of Jews in Odessa].  My mother lived in the family of her grandfather until she turned 6 years of age. She loved them dearly and remembered well.  My grandfather studied languages, particularly ancient languages. According to my mother my grandfather knew over twenty languages that he learned on his own. Only after he turned fifty he invited a teacher to study another ancient language. Besides his literary and scientific activities my grandfather was doing charity. He was either chairman or a member of the Odessa Jewish Charity Fund.  His family lived in the house in 3, Malaya Arnautskaya Street, where poor Jewish families resided on charity. My mother said that my great grandfather was infinitely humble.  He even died somehow quietly. He usually lied down after having the first course waiting for the second. So he died between the first and the second courses in 1903. Quietly and calmly, nobody even knew. They came into the room - and he was there, lying. My great grandfather was buried in the second Jewish cemetery that was ruined in the 1960s.