Zel Lev Abramovich (1954-1985)

Zel (Seel) Lev Abramovich (1954, Riga – 1985, Riga) — engineer.

Lev Zel was born into the family of a worker, Abram Yakovlevich Zel (1919, Riga), and a lawyer, Esther Leibovna Lifshits (née Kuklya) (1918, Rezekne). He graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 13 in 1971. In the same year, he worked as a fitter at Motor Transport Enterprise No. 1 (Riga) and in 1972 as an apprentice fitter at the Riga Lighting Equipment Factory.

From 1972 to 1974, he served in the Soviet Army. Upon returning to Riga, he studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute (1974–1979), where he qualified as a design and process engineer of radio equipment.

He worked at the VEF Production Association (1979–1982, Riga), as a stoker at the Latvian Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics (1982–1984, Riga), as an engineer at the Latvavtodormost Trust (1984), and as a night watchman at the Latkolkhozstroy Motor Transport Enterprise (1984–1985).

In 1985, Lev Zel received permission to emigrate to Israel, where his sister Polina Abramovna Nasteter (née Zel) (b. 1951) had been living since 1973. He died later that year in Riga.

Abram Yakovlevich Zel (1919, Riga) — father
Esther Leibovna Lifshits (née Kuklya) (1918, Rezekne) — mother
Polina Abramovna Nasteter (née Zel) (1951) — sister
Anna Mikhailovna Taukule (née Lifshits) (1942, Sverdlovsk) — maternal half-sister