Shelly and Michal Beniesh with their aunt Sultana Yulzari

This is a photo of me with my nieces Shelly and Michal Beniesh. Shelly is to the left and Michal is to the right of me. The photo was taken in 2000 in Ruse.

Shelly and Michal are the daughters of my brother Samuel Sinto Beniesh, who founded a family in Israel and lived in Tel Aviv until he died 12 years ago.

My brother studied in a polytechnic high school in Varna. But he didn’t manage to receive higher education. He was a tradesman in Bulgaria. He immigrated to Israel in 1949 and had two families there. As a matter of fact, he married in Bulgaria and from his native Ruse he moved for a while to Sofia, where his first wife was from. Unfortunately I have no idea what my brother did for a living in Sofia. The only thing I remember is that in Ruse he helped out in our dad’s shop and produced small jewelry items, such as small mirrors, for example, which he sold. His first wife died in a car crash.

He remarried but his second wife also died, of leukemia. He had two daughters, both are from his second marriage, I think. The first – is married, with three children, already grown up. The second one didn’t marry, but she has a child. An adopted girl. My brother’s elder daughter is called Shelly and her husband – Freddy. Their three children are Nelly, Shay and Roman. The second daughter, Michal, works as a teacher at the University in Jerusalem, but I don’t know her subject.

In Israel, my brother Sami worked as an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was in charge of the people repatriated back to Israel, but I don’t know what exactly his occupation was. In any case, I think he mastered Arabic. He died in 1992 in an old people’s home, but I can’t say where exactly. Before that, however, he lived with his family in Bat Yam.

At present both my brother's daughters Shelly and Michal Beniesh live in Israel together with their families. We still keep in touch. They came to visit us and I visited them twice - in 1959 and the second time was in 1960. I have never had any problems concerning political matters or any other problems connected with my trips to Israel or keeping the relationship with the nearest and dearest.