Ioffe Family Private Collection

Vladimir Ioffe (1898 Mglin – 1979 Leningrad) was a Soviet microbiologist, immunologist and epidemiologist. In 1899 the family moved to Perm, and Vladimir's father enrolled him into a Heder to receive a traditional Jewish education; later he graduated from a Russian gymnasium. He was a member in Zionist circles and received his medical degree from the Kazan’ University in 1921. In 1923 he settled in Petrograd (Leningrad; St. Petersburg) and worked at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Petrograd. He participated in the activities of the Jewish Historical-Ethnographical Society closed by the Soviet authorities in 1929. In the 1930s Ioffe's apartment became a meeting place for people interested in Hebrew and Hebrew literature. With the beginning of the “Great Patriotic War” Vladimir Ioffe remained in besieged Leningrad, and was drafted into the Navy with the rank of military doctor. Vladimir Ioffe was the son-in-law of Rabbi David Tevel Katsenelenbogen (1847 Taurage – 1930 Leningrad). He married the rabbi's daughter, Berta, in 1931. In 1876 David Katsenelenbogen was elected rabbi in Verzhbolovo (Virbalis), in 1894 he became a rabbi in Suwalki, and in 1908 he was elected as a rabbi in St. Petersburg. In 1910 he was active in the preparations for the convening of the Rabbinical commission and the Rabbinical congress in St. Petersburg. After the 1917 February Revolution, David Katsenelenbogen was one of the founders of the religious party "Netsakh Yisroel" (later renamed "Ahdut.") The private archive of the Ioffe Family includes documents related to the religious and public activities of Rabbi David Katzenelnbogen. It also contains materials on the Jewish cultural activities of Vladimir Ioffe in Perm, his personal documents and photographs -- Read more