Vainshtein (Weinstein) Leib Meerovich (20 June 1913, Disna, Vilna Governorate, Belarus) – cobbler.

Leib Vainshtein was born into the family of carpenter Meer Khotevich Vainshtein (1884–1916, Disna) and housewife Makhle Lazarevna Vainshtein (1889–1917, Disna). He completed five classes of the local primary school (1928), and upon arriving in Riga worked as a baker’s apprentice at Belkin’s bakery (1929–1940). From 3 July 1941, he was subjected to forced labour in the Riga Ghetto and in the Nazi concentration camps of Stutthof, Buchenwald, and Ransdorf. He was liberated in 1945 from the Theresienstadt concentration camp (then in Czechoslovakia). Upon returning to Riga, he worked as a baker in Osobtorg (1945–1948), then at a bread factory (1948–1952). Later he retrained as a cobbler and worked in the artel “Rīgas apavnieks” (1952–1957), then as an independent cobbler (1957–1972).

From his first marriage to Mira Iosifovna Vainshtein (née Tof), a daughter, Makhle Leibovna Vainshtein (b. 1936), was born. Both were killed in the Riga Ghetto in 1941.

From his second marriage to Sara Elyakimovna Vainshtein (née Yankovich, first marriage – Gavartina) (b. 1913, Riga), a daughter Mira Leibovna Simson (née Vainshtein) (b. 1946, Riga) and a son Meer Leibovich Vainshtein (b. 1949, Riga) were born.

In 1972, Leib Vainshtein received permission to emigrate to Israel, where since 1929 his brother David Meerovich Vainshtein had resided.

N. Voronova

Meer Khotevich Vainshtein (1884–1916) – father
Makhle Lazarevna Vainshtein (1889–1917) – mother
David Meerovich Vainshtein (b. 1911, Disna) – brother
Zalman Meerovich Vainshtein (b. 1915, Disna – killed at the front in WWII in 1944) – brother
Mira Iosifovna Vainshtein (née Tof) (killed in the Riga Ghetto in 1941) – first wife
Makhle Leibovna Vainshtein (b. 1936 – killed in the Riga Ghetto in 1941) – daughter from the first marriage
Sara Elyakimovna Vainshtein (née Yankovich, first marriage – Gavartina) (b. 1913) – second wife
Mira Leibovna Simson (née Vainshtein) (b. 1946) – daughter from the second marriage
Meer Leibovich Vainshtein (b. 1949) – son from the second marriage