Gelvan Fira (1946)

Gelvan (Gelwan) (née Gotlib) Fira Ilyinichna (21 July 1946, Riga) – chemist.

Fira Gelvan was the daughter of Avraham-Ilya Gotlib (b. 1909, Liepāja) and Sara Gotlib (née Datel) (b. 1909, Tukums).

From 1964 to 1965, she worked as a laboratory assistant at the Riga Central Design Bureau. In 1965–1966, she was a lab technician in the polymer materials department of the Special Design Bureau for the Chemicalisation of the National Economy. In 1967, she worked as an etcher at the Riga Semiconductor Device Plant. From 1967 to 1969, she was a lab controller at the VEF plant. In 1969, she worked as a laboratory assistant at the Latvian Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine. Beginning that year, she also served as an R&D engineer at the Zvaigzne dry-cleaning and dyeing factory.

In 1971, Fira Gelvan graduated from the Latvian State University with a degree in human and animal physiology and qualified as a teacher of biology and chemistry.

She married Isaak Gelvan (b. 1947, Riga), and in 1968 their son, Mark Gelvan, was born in Riga.

In 1973, Fira Gelvan received permission to emigrate to Israel to join her mother’s sister, Iona Vainraikh (née Datel) (b. 1911, Tukums), who had emigrated from Latvia in 1933 to what is now the State of Israel.

Family:

Isaak Gelvan (b. 1947, Riga) – husband
Mark Gelvan (b. 1968, Riga) – son
Avraham-Ilya Gotlib (b. 1909, Liepāja) – father
Sara Gotlib (née Datel) (b. 1909, Tukums) – mother
Herta Vaintrub (née Gotlib) (b. 1952) – sister
Iona Vainraikh (née Datel) (b. 1911, Tukums) – mother’s sister