Yefim and Leonid Raygorodetsky, and Boris Vaza

These are my cousins (from upper row, left to right): Yefim Raygorodetsky, Boris Vaza and Leonid Raygorodetsky, David Raygorodetsky and Boris Shafran. The photo was made in Kiev in 1957, when I was studying in Uzhgorod. In the beginning of the 1950s, the negative attitude toward the Jews intensified. The Jewish students knew that the path to institutes and universities was closed to us. In Kiev, I never would have entered the institute, because there were certain quotas for Jewish students. That is why in 1954 I had to go to university in Uzhgorod. My mother, Sarah Loshak, had been an official at the passport department of the police department. In 1951, however, she was fired for being Jewish.