My son Ànatoly and me are celebrating his birthday: he turned 28. We are in the Jewish restaurant ‘Pearl’ on Vasilievsky Island. The restaurant is decorated with Jewish symbols: menorahs, magen David above the door. The tablecloth is white and blue, candles are burning. Perfect Jewish traditional cuisine. However, when they gave us the menu written in Russian letters, the names of dishes were completely unfamiliar, and we had to resort to the help of a waitress.
My son Anatoly was born in 1973. My children have not received a Jewish education, but realize their Jewish roots, Anatoly – on his father’s side, and Vitaly – on both his father’s and mother’s side. Vitaly immigrated to the USA when he was 19, completed a university in Boston and became a programmer. We have managed to keep warm relations with him. He has never been to Russia since. We exchange letters and telephone calls, congratulating each other on Jewish holidays, which he observes, not being religious. Vitaly is married, but has no children so far.
My son Anatoly first obtained basic legal education in a sort of vocational school. It means he received the right to act as a legal adviser, but not as a judge or lawyer. He was very much attracted to the legal profession. It might have got something to do with his genes, and so he continued to study in the Faculty of Law of Leningrad University. Now he has two professions according to his military ticket: driver and lawyer. He is not officially married and has no children. So I have no grandchildren yet. We regularly meet with Anatoly, we recently celebrated his birthday in the Jewish restaurant ‘Pearl’ in Vasilievsky Island.
