Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
It will be the 100th birthday of Baku native, the resident of Israel, Lea Felixovna Prestin-Shapiro, in October. For Jews who were born in the USSR, Lea Felixovna is first of all the daughter of Felix Shapiro (1879-1961), the author of the Hebrew-Russian dictionary published in Moscow in 1963, who played a significant role in preservation of national identity of Soviet Jews. More than 10 years of the difficult life of the prominent teacher were connected with Azerbaijan. The period coincides with the childhood of Lea Felixovna, who has the warmest memories of Baku and Azerbaijan. She mentioned this in her books and numerous interviews to the Israeli mass media.
Lea Felixovna Prstin-Shapiro was born in Baku on October 18, 1913, when her father moved to Baku, after graduation from Kharkov university, to became head of a Jewish secondary religious school. The school was exemplary, children were taught in Hebrew, they were mountain and Ashkenaz Jews. Soon Felix Shapiro became the head of the whole Jews educational system in the Caucasus; he visited many villages and towns of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan. In 1919 he cooperated with the leadership of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic.
Lea Felixovna remembered that when the Soviets came to power, the school was shut down, but the traditionally warm attitude to Jews was maintained in Baku. The minister of education in Azerbaijan was Sergey Kirov’s wife Maria Markus. Due to her support, Felix Shapiro established in Baku “Zhom Commune” – one of the best commune-school in the country. Shapiro’s experience appeared to be unique. In 1924 Nadezhda Krupskaya invited him to Moscow to spread Shapiro’s methods all over the country. But Lenin’s death destroyed the plans, and difficult times came for Shapiro’s family; that is why Lea Felixovna remembers life in Baku as one of the happiest periods of life for her and her father.
Baku contacts of Felix Shapiro led to development of the well-known Russian-Hebrew dictionary. In 1953 the son of the old Baku friend of Shapiro, the deputy director of the Oriental Sciences Institute, proposed to him teaching Hebrew. The developed dictionary for students and grammar textbook played a huge role in life of the Soviet Jews. The Hebrew-Russian dictionary published in 1963 was a rare book and even its photocopy cost a lot of money.
Baku historians are grateful to Lea Felixovna who preserved invaluable archive of her father, including documents connected with Felix Shapiro’s life in Baku.
