Lifshits (Lifschitz) (nee Kuklya) Ester Leibovna (born 6 July 1918, Rēzekne) – lawyer.
Ester Lifshits was born into the family of a worker Kuklya Leib Zalmanovich (1875–1940, Rēzekne) and Kuklya (Trifskina) Khanna Ilinichna (according to other data, Gilelevna) (1883, Rēzekne – perished in the Riga Ghetto in 1941). She studied at the 1st Jewish elementary school (1925–1930, Rēzekne) and at the State Jewish Gymnasium (1930–1934, Rēzekne). From 1930 she took part in the underground Komsomol organization; in 1940 she was arrested and, until the amnesty of the same year, held in the prisons of Rēzekne and Daugavpils. In 1940 she worked first as a member of the Rēzekne city Komsomol Committee, then of the Daugavpils city Komsomol Committee. In 1941 (before the Nazi occupation) she studied in preparatory courses at LSU (Riga). She received her legal education during evacuation (1941–1945, Sverdlovsk).
After returning to Riga, she worked as a legal adviser in the City Housing Administration (1945–1948), in military unit No. 95460 (1948–1960), and as a legal adviser and senior contracts-and-claims economist at the Riga Lighting Engineering Plant (1961–1973). Later she worked at the Latvian Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics as an expediter (1975–1980) and elevator operator (1982).
In her first marriage, to Mikhail Borisovich Lifshits (1912, Leningrad – killed at the front in 1941), her daughter Anna Mikhailovna Taukule (nee Lifshits) (1942, Sverdlovsk) was born.
In her second marriage, to Abram Yakovlevich Zel (26 October 1919, Riga), two children were born: Polina Abramovna Nasteter (nee Zel) (1951, Riga) and Lev Abramovich Zel (1954–1985, Riga).
Ester Lifshits received permission to emigrate to Israel in 1985, where her daughter Polina had been living since 1973. However, due to her son’s death in the same year, she departed only in 1987 after receiving a second permit.
Family
Parents:
– Leib Zalmanovich Kuklya (1875–1940) – father
– Khanna Ilinichna / Gilelevna Kuklya (nee Trifskina) (1883–1941) – mother, perished in the Riga Ghetto
Siblings:
– Sholom Leibovich Kuklya(1906, Rēzekne) – brother
– Gesya Leibovna Erig (nee Kuklya) (1908, Rēzekne – 24 Mar 1975, Riga) – sister
– Isai Leibovich Kuklya (1910, Rēzekne – killed at the front, 1941 or 1942) – brother
– Leia Leibovna Brod (nee Kuklya) (1912, Rēzekne) – sister
– Brozgal (nee Kuklya) Basheva (Bashseva) Leibovna (1914, Rēzekne) – sister, emigrated to Israel in 1978
– Mera Leibovna Diner (nee Kuklya) (1919, Rēzekne) – sister
– Zalman Leibovich Kuklya (1922, Rēzekne – killed at the front in 1943) – brother
– Tevel Leibovich Kuklya (1925, Rēzekne) – brother, lived in the USA from 1960
Marriages and children:
– Mikhail Borisovich Lifshits (1912–1941) – first husband
• Anna Mikhailovna Taukule (nee Lifshits) (1942) – daughter
– Abram Yakovlevich Zel (1919) – second husband
• Polina Abramovna Nasteter (nee Zel) (1951) – daughter
• Lev Abramovich Zel (1954–1985) – son