מאגר סיפורי מורשת

My grandmother was born in Siberia 1950. She was born in Siberia because her parents could not find jobs in Moscow. They finished Moscow University but there were no jobs for Jews in the capital. However they came back in a few years and she grew up in Moscow.

She went to a non Jewish school, because there were no Jewish schools around. She was not religious at that time because people then did not know much about religion and it was forbidden. She got a pet dog and she named it Egrik which is the sign y of math in Russian. She named it that because she liked math. My grandmother’s favorite subjects in school were math, science and gym class. She liked reading and doing gymnastics in her free time. She would also help her mom cook and she would take care of her little brother.

While she was growing up World War II had just ended. The leadership of the Soviet Union was against Jews. On Purim, March 3, 1953, Joseph Stalin, the head of the Soviet Union died. It was a happy day for the Jews who lived in the Soviet Union.

My grandmother met my grandfather when she was at medical school and he was studying math at Moscow University. They would spend time at her house until very late at night. They dated for a year, and then decided to get married. In 1970 they got married, and so she got her new last name Ginis.

In 1978 my grandmother wanted to leave the Soviet Union with her family but could not because it was not allowed for Jews to leave the country. By then she was married to my grandfather Boris Ginis and had two children. The Jews did not have any connection to the outside world. She became a refusnik which is a person who is refused the right to immigrate to Israel. She waited for eight years for permission to leave the country. During that time she had a new baby born, and became religious. When her and my grandfather became religious they had a secret Chuppah in 1980. She also ran a secret kindergarten for Jewish kids; my mom was one of them.

Gorbachev was about 60 years old when he decided to make Russia more of a free place, so he became president and he let all the Jews out of Russia. My grandmother left Russia. She and her family wanted to go straight to Israel but her parents who got permission earlier to leave Russia were in America and she wanted to see them. So they moved to America.

Tt first when she came to America she worked as a scientist. After she got her PHD she worked at the same time as a teacher in college. in 2000 her mother died. When she made aliya in 2003, she continued working as a scientist that made medicine in TEVA.

Now she is retired and spends her free time with her grandchildren and cooking, she is also programing a special game for kids on the iphone

My grandparents have three children, one of them is my mother, and 7 grandchildren. My grandmother also owns a dog.

Here is a funny story about my grandmother

When my grandmother went to medical school they had to cut different animals. She was told to cut a dog, but she did not want to . my grandmother rescued the dog. She could not keep it in her house so she gave it to my grandfather to keep. (This is when they were not married yet, and my grandfather lived by himself.) My grandfather had a messy room so after one night all the clothes that were on the floor were chewed up by the dog

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