The Starodub Jewish community's Rabbi issued this birth certificate to my mother on March 31 1916.
In the register book of the Jews born in Starodub in 1906, there is a note, 'Estra Levitin was born on March 4, 1906.'
My mother told me that she was actually born at the end of 1905, but entries into the register were delayed due to pogroms.
She was the youngest daughter in a family with four other children: two sons and two daughters.
Estra's mother died early in 1914 and she was raised by her older sisters who really spoiled her.
Estra graduated from high school in Starodub in 1924 and left for Leningrad to continue her studies, the only one in the family to do so.
Each summer she continued to work in the fields of the collective farm.
In 1927 she graduated from the Mordvinovski agricultural school, having specialized in agricultural techniques.
She had dreamed of becoming an agronomist, working with crops, but in 1926 the school changed its specialty to animal husbandry.
After graduating, Mama worked at various livestock farms as a laboratory assistant for milk and milk product analysis:
in Peterhof, Pella, Starodub, and at the Leningrad milk testing station.
This work didn't make her happy, but finding work as an agronomist with her zoo-technology degree was not possible in Leningrad.
