Leib and Esther Averbuch

Leib and Esther Averbuch

This is a picture of my paternal grandfather Leib Averbuch and my grandmother Esther Averbuch, nee Goldshtein. This photo was taken before their wedding in Bogopol', in the 1880s. My paternal grandmother was born in Bogopol', in Podolsk province, in 1854. My paternal grandfather was born in Kishinev in 1865, he studied in cheder. My grandparents got married in 1885 and settled down in Bogopol'. Grandfather Leib was a gabbai at the synagogue. He didn't have any other job. My grandmother was the breadwinner in the family, she lent money to Christians. My grandparents were very religious. They spoke Yiddish at home. Grandfather Leib wore a beard and mustache. He didn't have payes, but he had whiskers. He wore a kaftan and a yarmulka to the synagogue. This is what my father told me, because I didn't know my grandfather. He died in 1905 in a fire accident at the age of 40. Grandfather was asleep when his house caught fire. He must have suffocated in the smoke. After this accident, the family moved to Odessa. My grandparents had two sons and two daughters. I do remember my grandmother Esther well. She dressed like all other women in the town. She wore long dark skirts and dark shirts. In winter she wore woolen clothes and in summer - fustian. She never wore light colors and even at home she wore a kerchief. Grandmother Esther observed the kashrut. She didn't trust mother or the housemaid to do food for her. She bought her quarter of a chicken from one and the same seller, I guess. My grandmother observed Sabbath. She didn't go to the synagogue when I remember her, because she was very old. She had religious books. She prayed from the Siddur, read the Torah in Hebrew regularly and knew the weekly sections by heart. Grandmother Esther died in 1938 and was buried in the 3rd Jewish cemetery in Odessa.
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