In Our Words: José's Parents and Birth Joseph Loshak Rabinowitz (José) was born on November 4, 1923 in Ukraine to Laib and Rachel. He was named for his paternal grandfather, Joseph. In the days of the Tzars all Jewish people were required to be named for animals; Loshak (Russian for colt) was Rachel's family surname. Grandfather Joseph emigrated from Bershad, Ukraine, to the United States with his family in the late 1890’s to escape pogroms that had killed his brother and nephew. In the early 1900’s he returned to Ukraine to reclaim the family tannery. In 1916 Joseph’s son, Laib, traveled to Bershad to care for his ailing father and to help operate the tannery. While there, Laib fought with troops in Bershad, defending the town from Cossacks, He was seriously injured with a head wound, and convalesced at a hospital run by American Quakers. José’s mother, Rachel Loshak-Wallach, was from the village of Chichilnik, Ukraine, where her family operated a local stable and inn. Rachel had been ill with typhus and had to have her head shaved. While recovering at the same hospital, she and Laib discovered that they both spoke Yiddish. Rachel and Laib married in 1922, and José was born in Odessa around the time that Ukraine became one of the initial republics in the USSR. Political tensions were mounting; having previously sold the tannery, they decided to emigrate to Mexico in 1924.