Leonid Khaneikh
Transportation Engineer & Author - Richmond Hill
Tell us about yourself.
I am the oldest “refrizheratorschik” (railroad refrigerator engineer) of the former Soviet Union. At least, this is how I was introduced to the Minister of Railways at a conference which I once attended. I worked at railways since 1954 — that is, since the inception of the industry in the Ministry of Railways, and was promoted to the rank "Honored Railwayman USSR”. But when it became known that my kids left for Israel, may career became “railroaded”, as they say.
Where is your family from, and how long have you live in Ontario?
My father is from the city of Gomel, in Belarus, and my mother is from the White Smolensk province. I was born in Moscow, in a communal apartment very reminiscent of the one on which Mikhail Kazakov satirized in his famous film "Pokrovsky Gates". Only in our apartment there were not four families living like in the film, but seven! Can you imagine what was going on in the kitchen, which hosted seven women?!
I have been living in Ontario since 2002, in Richmond Hill, where we settled after arrival.
Why did you choose to live in Richmond Hill?
My children live here, and I came to help after the birth of their third child, our beloved granddaughter.
What do you do in your free time? Do you have any hobbies?
I have a hobby, since 2008 when I published my first book called "My Answers." This book is an attempt to provide answers to questions raised by people in everyday life. To date, I am the author of nearly fifty essays, tackling questions from a variety of aspects of life: politics, history, economics, nationalism, family life, etc. Now I am retired, but I still work on answers to other popular life questions.
If you were given the opportunity to meet anyone, alive or dead, who would you choose, and why?
I would like to sit at the same table and talk to the poet Igor Guberman, who was born on the same day as me, and we even studied with him at the same university — the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. But since we were in different departments, we never met, which is a shame. I think that the work of Guberman is not fully appreciated by his contemporaries, despite the general, we can say — the national love and popularity he enjoyed. Guberman is the Omar Khayyam of our days.
Do you participate in JRCC programs?
Together with my grandchildren, I participate in celebrations of Jewish holidays, which are held at the JRCC.
What are your future plans?
First and foremost, I plan to carry on with my work of seeking answers to questions that concern humanity.
