Yakov Leibovich's family

This is my son Yakov Leibovich's family. This photo was taken in Belogorsk in 1987. From left to right: my son Yakov Leibovich, his daughter Olga Leibovich, his son Andrei Leibovich, his wife Valentina Leibovich.

Yasha finished school in 1966. I wished he became a doctor, but in Kishinev, due to the state anti-Semitism, it was difficult for Jews to enter the Medical College. He went to Tyumen in Russia, where they have oil fields. He entered the Tyumen Medical College. However, he studied there for one year and then said he couldn't be a doctor. He couldn't stand blood and couldn't work in the dissection room. At that time a Higher Engineering Military School opened in Tyumen. Yasha entered it. This was what he had dreamed of since childhood. He only went to the Medical College for my sake. After finishing school he was offered to choose his future job between Khabarovsk, Moscow and central Asia at the mandatory job assignment session. However, a Jewish military could make no career in Moscow, and Central Asia was too different. So he went to Khabarovsk. He didn't return to Kishinev, but he visited me every year.

My son got married at the age of 29 in 1978. He was serving in Belogorsk Amur region. He married Valentina Madiarkina, a Russian girl from Belogorsk. Valentina graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Pedagogical College, but she had such a thin voice that she couldn't work at a school. She went to work as chief of the Soyuzpechat office, and later she had an administrative job in the district educational department. I didn't mind her being Russian, no! As soon as I received my son's letter with a complete description, as they say, I wrote them a whole page of a greeting telegram. I didn't care about the nationality of my daughter-in-law, but I cared about what kind of person she was. Some time later they visited me. Valentina was worth all the nice words that I wrote in my telegram. She deserved to be my son's wife. I love her dearly. In 1979 my grandson Andrei was born, and in 1986, my granddaughter Olga. Andrei followed into his father's footsteps. He graduated from a higher engineering military school in Cheliabinsk and now he is a captain of the Russian army. Olga is a student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages in the Pedagogical College in Blagoveschensk.