Dora Goldenberg

This is my parental grandmother Dora Goldenberg.

The picture was taken in Simferopol in 1880s.

I do not know when my parental grandfather, Adolf Goldenberg, passed away. All I know that he deceased before I was born. Grandfather lived in Simferopol.

He was bourgeois, owned a house at Gogolevskaya Street, and sold things. I do not know exactly what he sold. Grandfather was married twice. I do not know anything about his first wife. She must have died. I also have no information about his education.

I remember my parental grandmother Dora Goldenberg (maiden name Malinskaya) very well. Judging from the service record of her father I assume that she was born in 1860 in Simferopol. She had elder brother Avrum Itsek born in 1852 and a sister Leya born in 1854. I did not know them.

Grandmother also had the elder brother Moses Malinskiy. He lived in France. Michel left for France long before revolution in Russia. He was married to a French lady. He worked as a doctor.

When my father studied in Paris, he stayed with Michel. I do not remember Michel, because when my father and I went to France in the period of 1925-1926 my tonsils were removed in his hospital.

Later on when my father died in 1938 we did not keep touch. That is why I do know much about him.

My grandmother also had a brother named Osip. He lived in Moscow. Unfortunately, there is little I know about him. I saw two of his daughters. One of them went to Michel in France. She graduate from dentistry institute there and became a doctor.

Grandmother remained on her own after her husband's death. Only God knows how she could have managed to raise and maintain five children by herself. When they left Simferopol, her house was liquidated for some reason and she wandered from one child to another.

She meandered moving from city to city, and from house to house. She went to Mikhail in Yuzovka [about 1200 to the south from Moscow] , then to Alexander in Simferopol, then to her daughter Adelaida in Moscow, then to her son Semion in Leningrad.

She went to the families where her grandchildren were born. Sometimes she stayed with us in Sevastopol. Grandmother was unemployed, she was a housewife. She was a wonderful home-maker. She was an excellent cook.

After lunch she went into physical exercise. Sevastopol is situated in a mountainous area, on the Black Sea coast. Often she used to stroll with us along Sevastopol and its outskirts. I cannot say I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. She mostly went to those children, who needed her help.

My mother was a house-wife, besides we had a house-keeper. So, there was no need in grandmother's help. I do not know what kind of education she got, but she used to write literately and was well-mannered. She must have finished lyceum.

Neither she nor grandfather appeared to be religious. I do not remember grandmother broach religious topics. She never observed Sabbath or other traditions. All her children were either unreligious like my father, or started professing other beliefs. Grandmother suddenly died 1931 in our house.

She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Sevastopol. There were a lot of people at grandmother's funeral. All relatives got together- her children with their wives, children and grandchildren.