The picture was taken in Rogachyov in 1921.
This is my mother Rosalia during her studies in the Jewish school, in the upper grade; she is sitting second to the left in the second row.
She is 17 here. Children did not wear uniforms then, they were wearing casual clothes.
Mother has a bow on her dress; since grandfather was a tailor, he gave mother advice about how to dress.
The class teacher, wearing spectacles and looking very strict, is sitting to the right from my mother. There is also another one of the teachers present in the photo, she is sitting fifth to the left in the second row.
The school was located in a Jewish shtetl in a beautiful place on the bank of the Dnepr river.
Many people still come to spend their vacations in this area. Jews had a lot of cows and hens in that place.
They had a family atmosphere in that shtetl, everybody knew each other.
My mother’s name was Rosalia Mikhailovna Khlevner, nee Goldina. She was born in Rogachyov in 1903. She attended a Jewish school and finished six grades.
She knew Yiddish and wrote in Yiddish, but she had to speak Russian all her life. Before the Great Patriotic War she was a housewife, raising her children.
My parents lived in a small town and knew each other since their childhood. Mother was very beautiful and was a success among men, she attracted men’s attention.
Even a rich nepman courted her. Father tried to attract my mother’s attention. And he did.
They got married in 1924. There was a wedding ceremony; I have seen the album with wedding pictures. They had a wedding according to the Jewish tradition, with a chuppah.
Later my parents added other pictures to the album. It was a very beautiful album with a memorable inscription for the wedding.
I had seen it before World War II, but it disappeared after the war.
