Meyer Levin

This is my father Meyer Levin. The picture was taken for his Latvian passport. The photograph was taken in Riga in 1928. My father went to a Russian lyceum in Riga. Probably the rest of the children also studied there, I can't say for sure. Having graduated from the lyceum my father entered Riga University. I don't know which department. At that time there was an admittance quota for Jews in institutions of higher education, i.e. 5 percent out of the overall number of students. Upon graduation from the university, my father spent some time in Paris, France. I don't know anything about that period of his life. I don't know how my parents met. I know for sure that it wasn't a pre-arranged marriage. They must have had a traditional Jewish wedding, as both my paternal and maternal grandparents were religious and wouldn't have agreed to a secular wedding. At that time my grandparents' opinion was of importance. After the wedding my parents rented an apartment. It was a big four-room apartment in downtown. My mother kept working after getting married. I was born in 1933.