Mix & Match

Deal of a Lifetime

Esther Shaindy Leshkowitz

They’d been deported to Siberia during World War II, father and mother, four daughters and a son. There, they spent cold, bitter years, not knowing if, or when, they’d be freed. They suffered greatly on those barren plains, but they were free now, and they needed a place to live.

The family traveled to Seragina, to Tchapanova, and tried to set down roots, but they couldn’t: sometimes the NKVD made trouble, other times, all the Jews had left, and they didn’t want to remain alone.

So they searched, until they heard of Blodvodskoe, a village near Frunze, capital of Kyrgyzstan. There was a group traveling there, a fellow Jew said, and he told of an abundance of butter and cheese and fresh fruit. There was also a market, an opportunity to make parnassah.

I try to imagine them as they went to that country of valleys and lakes, blue mountains visible in the distance, where the locals eyed their beards and peyos with curiosity. They wondered if they were the only Jews in town. Later, when they purchased food and supplies at the market, they met Jews they had known from before, Jews from Galicia and Poland, and they realized with relief they weren’t alone.