Neither family was religious, but the previous generation had been. As I knew them, they were all some variation of socialists/labor Zionists, as were my mom's parents.19

My grandfather and his brother had different last names. One of them was fostered to another family during the Russian revolution in order to save both of them from conscription (apparently, in a family with only one son, the son was sometimes not conscripted). The second family name is Netter. We were never sure which was the original name, but I think it may have been Netter. I never got a chance to talk to my dad about this, but at some point I found a picture of his grandmother, signed by her, as Netter.19

My Dad's parents: Isaac Leon and Reva ( I'm named after my grandfather; my Aunt Rae scrambled the letters in his name and came up with Elissa).20