Family Album: My Jewish Name Golda

This book consists of the memoirs written by my parents, Semyon and Olga; they left us in 2022, five months apart. They were born in Ukraine in ordinary Jewish families at a very difficult time, in the late 1920s. They survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, having been evacuated to “middle of nowhere” in Central Asia; they returned to Ukraine in 1944 after Ukraine was liberated and began a new life starting from zero. They began their adult lives when the Soviet/Stalin’s antisemitic hysteria and mass persecution of Jews flourished…Yes, my parents lived in not-so-simple times, but they lived happy lives because they infinitely loved each other. The books were written in Russian after we immigrated to the USA, and they had time to look at themselves in the past. When they left us, I decided to translate their memoirs into English that their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and future generations would know who my parents were. It was not an easy task. I used Microsoft Word Translate, translating the text back and forth, trying to convey the beauty of their writing which I finally felt in each of their words, in each of their thoughts, in each of their jokes. Unfortunately, comparing my translation to the original, I saw that I was not very successful, but I did the best I could. Their lives, which I observed as a son and also learned about from their memories, inspire me: Love is the most gorgeous and the most priceless thing that we can have. LOVE! Leonid Pekker