While still a teenager, my father left Turkey and went to America. He lived in Canada and New York until his mid twenties, when he decided to go home and eventually met and married my mother. She was born and lived in Demotika, Greece.
After a couple of years, my parents decided to go to America, but this time they went to live in Cuba, where they had three sons; Moises, Samuel and Jaime.
I was born in Santiago de Cuba, a town in the eastern part of the island.
After going through an earthquake my father decided to move to Havana.
After a couple of years we moved to Camaguey and then to Manzanillo where I lived until being admitted to Havana University. I graduated with a Dr's degree in Pharmacy and a Dr's degree in Physical Chemistry.
I became the Pharmaceutical Director of a manufacturing plant and a University professor where I taught a course that dealt with Industrial Pharmacy matters.
While attending a function at a University Jewish club I met my future wife, Fanny Blumin. Nine months later we became engaged and then married. This year, G-d willing, we will celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary.
After nineteen months of marriage, on March 1959, our daughter Lucy was born.
On the morning of January 1st 1959, we woke up to discover that during the night the Revolution had deposed the dictator Fulgencio Batista and a new dictator had taken his place.
Fidel Castro had arrived and a new chapter in our lives was about to begin. After a never ending deterioration in all aspects of life in Cuba, and after much agony on my part, we decided to leave the country. This decision involved abandoning all our material belongings as well as memories, language, jobs and family. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Fanny was nine months pregnant with our second daughter. If she would deliver the baby before we were able to leave the country another catastrophe would descend upon us. Fanny, Lucy and I had passports and visas to the United States, but
with the American Embassy closed, and relations between the United States and Cuba broken, we wouldn't be able to get papers for our new baby. We couldn't leave the country.
After much praying and suffering we finally arrived to Miami. There
Fanny promptly delivered our second child Brenda, our American daughter.
While in Miami I worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital. After eighteen months I applied to the University of Southern California. I was accepted and we moved to Los Angeles, California, where we still live.
I graduated U.S.C. with a masters degree and for a second time started my professional career.
I eventually became a professor at the University of Southern California and was appointed Chief of Pharmacy Services for the Los Angeles, County Medical Center, the largest teaching institution in the United States.
My daughter Lucy, a pharmacist, married Robert Blinder, and attorney. They have four children, Jeremy Samuel, Eliana, Michal Simcha and Yakov Moshe. My daughter Brenda, a Dental Hygienist, married Dale Surowitz, who is a C.E.O. (Chief Executive Officer) of two hospitals. They have two children, Mitchell Samuel and Alisa Monique. Both daughters live in Los Angeles.
Now that I am retired we enjoy our family, traveling, acquiring new knowledge and enjoying this beautiful country.
The credit for the idea of researching the family roots belongs to my wife Fanny whose endless energy is constantly looking for new venues.
