Yefim Kurizkes

This is my paternal grandfather, Yefim Kurizkes. This photo was taken in Narva in the 1910s. My paternal grandfather's common name was Yefim Kurizkes. Of course, he had a Jewish name as well. I think it was Haim. My grandmother's name was Miriam, but I don?t know her maiden name. They were both born in Estonia, but I don?t know where exactly. I know very little about my grandfather, while I knew my grandmother quite well. My father's family lived in Narva, a town in Estonia. Narva is on the border with Russia and the majority of its residents spoke Russian. In my father's family they spoke Yiddish and Russian. I don?t have any information about what my grandfather did for a living. As for my grandmother, she had her own business selling paper that she purchased somewhere in Russia. My grandmother made tours of offices and shops offering her commodity and receiving orders. Her assistant delivered paper on a cart. Of course, one couldn't become rich from this business, but my grandmother provided quite well for the family. My father's parents had three children. The oldest girl's name was Raya, my father Lazar, born in 1894, came next, and the youngest was his sister Rosa. My father's parents were not Orthodox Jews, but they observed all Jewish traditions in the family. In those times it was impossible to imagine a Jewish family that didn't celebrate Sabbath or Jewish holidays and didn't raise their children as Jews. My grandfather and grandmother went to the synagogue on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. My grandfather died in Tallinn in 1920. He was buried following the Jewish tradition in the Jewish cemetery in Tallinn. After my grandfather died my grandmother lived in Tartu, in her daughter Raya's home. My grandmother died in the late 1930s. She was also buried following the Jewish tradition in the Jewish cemetery in Tartu.