Moisey Shlemovich's family

This is a picture of my father's family. Sitting are my grandfather and grandmother Boruch and Beilia Shlemovich; standing are my father's siblings Sarah Shnaiderman [nee Shlemovich], Iosif Shlemovich and Shprintsia Baron [nee Shlemovich]. This photo was taken in Kamenets-Podolsk on 20th February 1926 on the occasion of Iosif's visit. My grandfather was born in Zhvantsy in the 1870s. I know very little about his family. His father was a tailor and my grandfather was helping him from his childhood years on. When my grandfather mastered this profession and could provide for the family, he married my grandmother, Beila Shlemovich. She came from Zhvantsy and was two or three years younger than my grandfather. She came from a poor family with many children. She didn't have a dowry, but my grandfather didn't care. They had a Jewish wedding with a rabbi. I remember my grandparents' house. It wasn't very big, but it was a solid stone building. There was a shed and a small kitchen garden behind the house. In front of the house there was a flower garden with two or three fruit trees. There was an annex behind the house, which served as my grandfather's shop. There was an entrance door in the center of the house. The house was divided into two parts. There were three rooms and a kitchen on the left, and a small store on the right. They sold clothes made by my grandfather. He had two or three seamstresses working for him. He was rather wealthy. My grandfather worked, and my grandmother was a housewife. My father's family was religious. There was a synagogue not far from the house, and my grandparents went there on Saturdays and on holidays. My grandfather also prayed at home. He had his tallit and tefillin. They celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The boys had their bar mitzvah at 13, and the girls had their bat mitzvah at 12. They followed the kashrut in the family, so they had separate dishes for dairy and meat products. My grandparents wore casual clothes. My grandfather had a small beard. My grandmother didn't wear a wig or a shawl. She usually wore her hair in a knot and had a beautiful hairdo on holidays. She only wore a shawl when she went to the synagogue. She liked jewelry and often wore some. My father was born in Zhvantsy in 1899 and his brother, Iosif, followed in 1903. Iosif married a local girl from a rich family in Zhvantsy. When collectivization began, Iosif's wife and her parents were deported to Siberia. Iosif loved his wife and, although he didn't have to, he followed her. They settled down in Novosibirsk.