My mother's sister Basia, her husband Aron and their daughter Manya. Photo made in Birobijan in the late 1930s.
In the middle of 30s the Jewish Autonomous Region (its capital - Birobijan) was formed in the Far East and the Jewish people were called to move there. Aron and basia and their children went to Birobijan. Aron worked as a carpenter. They received an apartment. However, their 1st year there was hard - their younger daughter died. Later Manya, another girl, was born. Their children studied in the Jewish school in Birobijan. There was no anti-Semitism there even during the most difficult years for Soviet Jews. Basia, Aron and their children loved their new Motherland and lived there all their life.
Basia died around 1980. Aron and the older children also died. Mania, Basia's younger daughter, lives in Birobijan. She has 2 grown up daughters and grandchildren. In the middle of 50s Manya visited us and stayed with us some time. She played the accordeon very well and sang Jewish songs. When she and my mother were singing in Yiddish, all our neighbors came to listen to them. When my sisters Tsylia and Rosa decide to emigrate to Israel (around 1978) Manya wrote a letter calling them traitors. She wrote that she was terminating any relationship with them.