Elena (Lena) was born on May 16th, 1938, in the city of Moscow, to Ida, daughter of Isaac of house Koifman and Zus, son of Nahum (Naum) Spivakov. Lena’s parents came to Moscow from the city of Kirovograd in the Ukraine.
The Spivakov family was a large, united clan. Zus had 10 other brothers and sisters, most of whom lived long and kept in close touch with one another. The relationships between Lena and her cousins was also tight and one of them were her best friends.
Holidays and birthdays were most joyously celebrated together with the extended family.
When World War II – or as the Russians named it – “The Great Patriotic War” – broke, Lena’s father was drafted to the AA forces and was initially stationed along the Russian-Polish border, then in the outskirts of Moscow, in a unit defending the city from German air raids. The women and children were evacuated to the rear.
Lena contracted several childhood illnesses, including measles, just when she needed to take the train to the Ural Mountains region, and they were not able to board the train, from fear of infection. In the meantime, bombings of the city commenced and Lena, together with her mother and grandmother, experienced the harsh reality of dread and terror from bombs exploding right next to their home. Eventually, they were able to reach a rear settlement, where they spent their time till the end of the war.
Those were extremely difficult years – Lena’s mother worked as a hospital aid and earned pennies; the money was barely enough to buy food, extremely provisioned. Since then, Ida kept saying: “A woman must study a profession and be economically independent”. Lena’s father returned home only after almost six years. He left when his daughter was eighteen months old and when he came back, he found a girl already in first grade.
Upon returning to Moscow at the end of the war, the family resided in the heart of the city, right in front of the Kremlin. Their tiny house, which was actually an unsound shed, was adjacent to lavish skyscrapers were the elite of the communist party resided.
Lena attended school along girls from privileged families and therefore the academic level was very high. Lena excelled in every possible field: academically, as well as playing the violin, singing, acting and dancing. She wrote poems, edited the school’s daily newspaper and on top of that, was very socially active. She was loved both by her friends and her teachers, a rather unusual combination.
Lena aspired to be a singer, but her parents strictly forbade selecting such an unpractical profession and talked her into registering to a material engineering college.
She graduated in 1959 and at the same year, married Yosef (Yossi) Shechtman, then a structural engineering student.
They wed in a civilian ceremony, since holding religious rituals, such as Huppa, was absolutely forbidden in the Soviet Union. The wedding party was held at a Café close to where their parents lived, with all refreshments made by Lena’s mother, a distinct cook, with the help of other family members.
In 1960, their first daughter was born. She was named Margarita (daisy), after Lena’s grandmother, Bluma (Yiddish for flower).
After graduating, Lena worked for several years as an engineer in a research institute, but at the same time kept learning more and more. She registered to a night college in patent registration and after successfully graduating, transferred to the governmental patent registration office.
Having been fluent in English, knowing her way around many scientific fields and her written abilities
helped Lena drafting opinions of the inventions submitted for patent approval; and if all of that is not enough, Lena also studied librarianship and became a registered bibliographer.
Alongside working and taking care of her family, Lena never stopped enjoying her hobbies: she kept writing poems and participated in a literature class. Some of her creations were published. She also continued singing, but did not perform on stage anymore. She knows all of the arias from famous operas and musicals; her family was her audience.
After the Six Days War, Lena and Yossi’s nationalistic feelings awoke. The seeds of connection to the land of Israel were placed in Lena by the bible stories and tales of the promised land, told by her grandmother. In 1956, an international youth festival was held in Moscow, where Lena first met real, living Israelis. She particularly remembers meeting a beautiful girl named Michal, a member of a folk dancing band. This encounter sparked Lena’s imagination, but at that dark time in the history of the Soviet Union, all ties between Israel and Russia’s Jewry were legally restricted.
In the early 70’s, when the first signs of the Soviet Union opening its gates for outside immigration appeared, Lena and Yossi started planning their Aliya. It was a process conducted in hiding, as most of their relatives were adamantly against the idea. They planned for a prolonged state of waiting, learning Hebrew and at the same time (secretly, of course), attended covert meetings of Aliya activists. They had to resign their workplaces and live by the day. It was a difficult time, filled with uncertainty and fear of arrest. Luckily for them, their wait for an immigration certificate was brief, only a few months. This miracle was possible thanks to the immense pressure exerted by the US government, driven by an extensive campaign of US Jewry who called “Let my people go”. The US conditioned the grain shipment to Russia, which desperately needed it, with the departure of a large number of Jews from the Soviet Union.
On April 16th, 1973, eve of the Seder, Lena, Yossi, Rita and Lena’s parents left the Soviet Union.
At that time, there was no direct flight between Moscow and Israel, so the immigrants had to make an intermediate stop at Vienna. Due to the holiday, they were housed in the Schönau castle, near the city, where they celebrated the Seder. It was a group of 300 immigrants who upheld the holiday tradition for the first time.
In addition to them, many delegates of Israel, serving as diplomats in Austria and adjacent countries, also attended the occasion. It was very moving. Lena addressed the audience on behalf of the immigrants, hoping that next year she’ll be able to speak to them in Hebrew.
Elena tells of the Seder in Vienna (Recorded in the 2018 Seder, Hebrew).
On April 10th the family landed in the Lod airport and was sent to an immigration center in Dimona.
Lena and Yossi explicitly requested to be located in the Negev, determined to make the desert bloom. Only two months passed and Lena already found a job in the library of the electrical faculty of the Ben Gurion university in Beer Sheva. It was then that I profoundly realized what she had always said: “everything a person studies, will serve him in life”. Her mastery of engineering, fluent English and librarianship education helped her successfully start her professional career in Israel.
In addition to her work, with the support of Yossi and their friends Luci and Zeev Bahir, Lena started publishing a weekly newspaper, in Russian, named “Sheva”. She was the one writing most of the articles and editing the newspaper. As part of her journalistic work, Lena interviewed many prominent public officials and politicians, including mayors and ministers such as Rafael Eitan (Raful), Arik Sharon, and others. She went from writing poems to writing prose and published a handful of her stories. In 1976, Lena’s beloved mother passed at the age of 63, following a grave illness. Lena cared for her with unending devotion and Ida’s death laid a grieve blow on her. Three months before her mother passed, Lena found out she was pregnant and in February 1977, her younger daughter was born. She was named Idit, after her grandmother Ida. At this stressed period Lena stopped publishing the newspaper, but later renewed its activity and even added a weekly magazine called “Makor”.
In 1979, the Shechtman family, driven by Zionism, relocated to Mitzpe Ramon, feeling they should contribute more to the population of the Negev. For two years, Lena worked in the “Maxima” chemical factory as an engineer.
In 1981, the family returned to Beer Sheva and Lena started studying towards a P.hd in material engineering in the Ben Gurion university. After two years of working on her research, she felt the
subject was not fascinating enough for her and went on to being a teacher in the technological laboratory center, where she taught metalworking. She was quickly revealed as a distinguished tutor and gained the admiration of her pupils and other staff members. She was appointed deputy manager of the center.
Lena and Yossi were highly politically active. On her sabbatical from the school (instead of studying and resting), she volunteered as the parliamentary aide of Prof. Yuval Neeman, when the “Tehiya” party was elected to the Knesset.
In the early 90’s, a vast immigration wave came from the Soviet Union and thousands of people flocked to Beer Sheva.
In 1991, then mayor Yitzhak Rager approached Lena and requested she would take on the role of manager in the municipal immigrants administration. She accepted the challenge, managed the administration for seven years, and as in any other job – done extremely well.
Those were very exciting, but uneasy years, due to the high pressure. Lena started training frameworks, professional retraining and designated Hebrew study groups for different professionals. Special social groups for specific demographics, such as the elderly, were also established. Lena aided the immigrants not only in the areas of work and school but also gave them an emotional support and lent her ears to their troubles.
As part of her work in the administration, she visited Russia and former soviet states multiple times, where she conducted explanatory activities for potential immigrants, in order to prepare them for what is about to come, locate possible pitfalls and direct them towards relevant training programs. In addition to her formal roles, Lena, alongside Yossi, took it upon herself to help immigrants outside of the working hours. They hosted, often for many days, immigrant families until a suitable housing was found for them and continued escorting them until they settled in in the city, in terms of residence and occupation. It was all done joyously and enthusiastically, with a real sense of mission.
In 1998, Lena retired and is since devoting her time to her family, daughters and grandchildren whom she loves and is very proud of.
Her elder daughter Irit (Margarita) is a doctor, manager of a children’s hospitalization ward in the “Schneider” children medical center. She is married to Ilan Krause, a manager of an internal medicine ward in the “Beilinson” hospital. They have three children: Amir, Michal and Yonata.
Her younger daughter, Idit, is a musician, graduate of the “Rimon” school. She is a conductor, composer, singer and music teacher. Idit
works as deputy manager of the Givatayim conservatory, acts as the musical manager of the handbells ensemble “Inbalim” and performs concerts for children and adults. She is married to Erez Itzkovich who works in the acquisition department of the “Ichilov” hospital. They have one son, Ran.
Lena has a tight connection with her grandchildren, who see her as a close friend and confidant. Her granddaughter Michal’s husband, Moshe, and her grandson Amir’s fiancé, Nofar, have joined Lena’s band of grandchildren. They also love and even admire the special grandmother they gained.