Patients at the reception of the Odessa doctor happily giggled, therefore they gave birth easily Bashny.Net

It is no longer clear when Odessa She put her own special imprint on people. Odessa residents themselves say that the city is famous not for its iconic places, but for the geniuses who were destined to live here. And we are not about Leonid Utesov, Misha Yaponchik, Isaac Babel or Mikhail Zhvanetsky, whose talents are undeniable. There are other characters. We just don't know about them.



Editorial "Site" I would love to share the story of Joseph Silberman. This man is Odessa with a capital letter. Her embodiment, soul, archetype. We are sure that only thanks to such people Odessa is known all over the world. And with admiration we begin our retelling.

Gynecologist Joseph Zilberman in his 76 cheerful, fresh and enjoying life. He is one of those Odessans who set this unique folklore tone: after meeting them, people usually immediately run to quote them. A special caste that lives only here. Silberman says he should not have been born.



An unwanted child born on the eve of the war. Year of birth is 1941. His mother, a pediatrician, was in no hurry for examinations. Until the stomach grew to a noticeable size. The district clinic suspected a terrible and urgently sent her for surgery. It's good that I went to the gynecologist before.

"What should I tell you? Go home, darling! We have a five-month education here, we do not need surgical intervention! The scandal broke out here, in the clinic. The future father protested that it was his child. Twelve years of nothing, and suddenly you're wearing it! It's not mine. Let's have an abortion. The future mother was confused, but her grandmother intervened.



She was not shy in her expressions and, being still a man of those patriarchal Jewish views, said: “What does it mean not yours?” You've both tripled your purimspiel and you're acting like idiots? What's the fifth month abortion? Where is your brain left that is one for two? To disobey the grandmother, the future parents, of course, did not dare. That's how safely Yosya came into the world.

He can do anything. He drinks thick black tea from a huge mug in pauses between examinations and immediately, in the office, smokes. He is a legend, saving women from the impossibility of having children with his brilliant flair and penny drugs. Hundreds of women. Even before IVF. Silberman is so colorful that the patients themselves suddenly admit that they finally felt the real Odessa.



All his life he takes in the old clinic in Moldova, and in line to him you can sit for a good five hours. It's never boring, because the impulsive doctor yells out loud at the whole hospital: "What a cesarean, my God?" Have you seen your stern? You're a baby harvester! Go pray every day to God for these gorgeous thighs! I wish I had one!

Joseph Semenovich says that during the war survived only thanks to his grandmother. The parents went to the front, and they, small children with their grandmother at the head, were evacuated first to Shymkent, and then to Omsk. In addition to Yiddish, her grandmother knew five other languages and translated documents at a military factory, for which she received additional rations. He shared it with his grandchildren. It was hungry, but it lasted. And one-year-old Yosiah held out.



The patient is filling out his own card. When asked why he doesn’t fill in, he says he has indiscriminate handwriting, like all doctors. And the future mother will easily understand. “There you go, check the tick where your heart is moving and beating. Okay, go! Call the next one in line. And thank you for not stealing the pen!

Little bully was almost expelled from school for a bully. He and his friend, the grandson of the professor, saw the keys forgotten by the technician in the school door. They decided to make a joke, closed the school, and fled to the sea. They were caught on the beach and the police reacted as they should. Anyway, it was a scandal. Lucky that the end of the year was, in September came as if nothing had happened.



Yes, and could not exclude, because little Yosya won all the regional Olympiads in physics and chemistry. And the fact that the headmaster had to call firefighters to get out of school is a profit. The professor's grandfather also, of course, put in a word. Anyway, they hushed up the story.

“Pay attention to this decent woman! Submissively came to the reception, obediently gave birth and immediately obediently crawl on the chair. And he will remember in his mind that on the forty-ninth day after childbirth, you can take a net and catch a butterfly in the stomach again. Go to the sea and live a beautiful deep life! Here she will show everyone a photo of the child - it turned out, by the way, perfectly - and in a year she will come again! ?



Joseph Silberman is the only Jewish student on the stream. The training was for an anti-Semitic campaign. The then rector publicly declared: “I will study as many Jews as there are in the Donbas mines!” When Joseph received his diploma, he was the only one who did not give his hand. But Silberman just triumphantly raised his diploma over his head and the whole institute exploded with a standing ovation.

Young specialist "I got Belgorod-Dniester in distribution". It's right here, so you're lucky again. I came to the hospital there and I have two patients at once: one under a hundred, the other under ninety. Six months later, the house sold out. Golden time was: one and a half bets in the hospital, part-time consultation, seven duties on the ambulance and even on Fontanka went to read civil defense! What should I do? ?



In Belgorod-Dniester, Silberman met his future mentor, the chief district gynecologist, who was already successfully dealing with infertility issues. He almost forced a promising young specialist to begin training in this field. It was an exact hit in the bull's eye.

“Oh, at twenty-five I was already respected throughout Odessa.” Firstly, everyone tried to put money in, and secondly, they tried to give gifts. Then the saleswoman will call and scream for the bras, here's a ride, which wife to take. Dad's gonna unload the watermelon truck under the house. All Richelieuskaya ate these watermelons.”



He does not remember how many babies he took, there could be more than ten of them for one duty, but he remembers each patient: “Zoe, I don’t remember you (Zoe’s waters went right in the store, so she is on a high stud with a price tag)?” Only a beautiful woman like you can make it on Shabbat and rain. Tell your husband not to harass you for six days.”

To Zilberman go even from America. The fame of the doctor, who gets the result even after twenty years of infertility, came there. For childbirth, bordering on audacity and almost always in a natural way, for refusing to prescribe “expensive” drugs, his colleagues do not like him too much, but they are still called to clinics in Israel and the United States. Yet it seems that the sin of vanity has bypassed him.



"Fuck you"? Shaw, in Odessa stopped giving birth? Or will they stop? And why thank me for being pregnant, I'm not the one who's crippling the baby. Thank God for saying thank you. I wanted to be a geologist. But, you know, a man has to provide for his family. Look, if I got those seventeen again, I'd go into geology. Or astronomy.”

We go down the old stairs in the summer heat of Odessa, and Zilberman grumbles that they turn off the elevator too soon. What if she's pregnant? At 76, he is cheerful and enjoying life. A man who shouldn't have been. With characteristic appearance and curly hair, with a cigarette. Shouting into the phone all over the street, "What's your boiling point, what slamazl told you you were barren?" Come tomorrow, I'll look at you.



Goodbye. Silberman says, “We didn’t live very well.” I dreamed of a bike, but I didn’t have one. What books were there? Perelman read, all his "entertaining chemistry, physics." These are the most beautiful books of all time! I have a big TV right now, like, flat. I'm just looking at National Geografic. The rest is not interesting. That's it! Run!

This is just one Odessa story. How many more are there? Life in Odessa continues, which means that geniuses will continue to appear on this wonderful land. As for Joseph Zilberman, he said goodbye to us on October 4, 2020. The sky measured him a clear 79 years.



Read our next article about what words are often heard in Odessa and why they were popularized by Alexander Rosenbaum and Isaac Babel in their works. Thank you for staying with us!

Photo preview and article .