Joseph Gelfand
Please tell us a little about your profession.
I am an electrical engineer by profession, at least in terms of the very beginning of my career. Later, fate directed me to commerce, and not from a good life: as you know, life dictates conditions. I worked in a car repair warehouse, and then then moved into the service industry. When the time came for perestroika, my partners and I organized a cooperative - we provided a variety of services, from household to the sale of car parts. Despite having a decent income, the future still seemed uncertain for our family. we packed our bags and left for Canada.
What year was this?
In the 1990s. I had to feed my family, and I could not afford to be selective in terms of the type of work I did – from the production of windows to repair work. Some of my work was connected with the design and manufacture of furniture. I also do interior renovation work in apartments and basements.
Where does your family come from?
My maternal grandfather, Leib Iosifovich, came from the city of Soroca in Bessarabia (Moldova). He said that the rules of the Torah were always observed in their family. Even under the Romanians, my grandfather owned a small kosher butcher shop.
In 1927, during the NEP, his brother and sister fled from Soviet power abroad and, after long wanderings in different countries, settled in Argentina. My grandfather corresponded with them in Yiddish, since they did not know Russian. In 1969, after 42 years of separation, my grandfather received an invitation to visit them.
On June 28, 1940, the Soviet authorities came to Bessarabia, and they saw my grandfather as an accomplice of the Romanian army, since he sold meat, including to the Romanians. With this sentence, his family, including my mother, who was twelve at the time, was exiled to northern Kazakhstan. My mother worked in hard labor, carrying a cauldron (large stone blocks), which undermined her health and left her somewhat handicapped. After the end of the war, hoping for a better life, they returned to Moldova.
In 1949, my mother married Yitzhak Gelfand, originally from Bendery. My father was the eldest son in the family, and at the age of 11 he helped his parents in the evacuation, watching over his younger sisters. His father, since the time of the NEP, was engaged in private activities: he made soap and produced sparkling water. After the war, he wanted to leave for Palestine, for which he collected money for bribes for years. With this money, he went on a cart to give a bribe for permission to leave, but he was attacked by bandits with axes. In 1978, he and the families of his children eventually left for Israel.
One night in 1950, NKVD soldiers came and took away my mother (and at that time she was pregnant), putting her in a Bendery prison for leaving the place of exile and for being the daughter of a collaborator. Her first child was born in prison. With a nursing baby, she was thrown into a freight wagon and exiled to Siberia, where she traveled for a whole month. G‑d helped that all this happened in May, when it was not so cold. My mother ended up in a settlement for prisoners, with the river on one side and the frozen taiga forest on the other. My father left Bendery and went to Siberia to his wife and child. My second brother was born in a dugout. My father bought furs from hunters and processed them for sale. Prisoners were strictly forbidden to move, but since my father was a free settler, he was allowed to leave the settlement. Therefore, he could carry fur skins across the river and sell them. In this way, we managed to save some money. After Stalin's death, they finally left the exile, and I was born in Novokuznetsk as the first free child in the family, and even became the owner of my own stroller.
If you could meet anyone in history, who would it be, and why?
I would like to meet with Emmanuil Semyonovich Roizman, who was the deputy manager of the Gossnab (State Supplies of the USSR), where I worked after the army. This amazing person was my second father and teacher of life - in relationships, in demeanor, in etiquette, in commerce. Gossnab is an organization that supplied the republic with everything necessary. There, everything rested on the talent and efficiency of Emmanuil Semenovich, but, of course, he always remained on the sidelines. Our all-powerful organization had two bases on the sea. And so, in order to provide yourself with convenience and luxuries, it was necessary to “write off” new good things, as already dilapidated - bed linens, carpets, furniture. It was Emmanuil Semenovich who brought the documents for the write-offs.
Do you have any hobbies?
My hobby is to spend my free time with my family and grandchildren.
What are your plans for the future?
In this difficult time, I want peace everywhere, so that our children and grandchildren live happily.
