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Family Is All That Matters 76 Momma stuff. You have a God-given gi, use it." It was only thanks to her husband's prodding that she finally found herself on stage. Abel created and made all her stage costumes and later became her agent. Zhenya enrolled at the Saint-Pleyel Musical School to study singing. She was also taking acting lessons and had already begun working on stage when renowned actor and director Herman Yablokoff, the author of the music and lyrics of the famous Yiddish song "Koifche Papirossen," came to Paris om New York looking for Yiddish actors. She was introduced to him and he invited her to join his company. Then a Polish director, Jacob Roitboim, gave her a part in a play by Sholem Aleichem. She also worked at the famous Chez Raspoutine. Zhenya's staunchest fan was always her husband and best iend Abel, who oen came to the cabaret and usually sat at his favorite table, admiring his wife. Their apartment also became a popular meeting place for the artistic elite of Paris. They loved Zhenya's Ukrainian borscht (a soup om Eastern Europe traditionally made with beetroot as a main ingredient, which gives it a strong red color). But even though she was extremely busy, she always had time for daily music lessons with her son Joel, who would grow up to become a well-known French composer. He even wrote several songs for his mother. As time went by, she began to feel increasingly constrained by the pop limits of her Chez Raspoutine repertoire. In 1965, a renowned Jewish-Argentine comedian, Jossel (Jose) Greminger, invited her to be a partner in his act. Her husband, always supportive, agreed with her decision to accept the offer. The Greminger-Fajerman duo, whose performances consisted of songs, dances, and skits, toured the world to enormous acclaim. Usually Greminger would mail his partner the new scripts in advance and arrange by phone where they would meet to begin their next tour. For a few years, Chez Raspoutine's owners Above: Zhenya in her school performance in Povlovskiy Posad, Russia, 1938. Facing Page: Zhenya performing at Chez Raspoutine in Paris, 1970. allowed Zhenya to continue working at their restaurant in her spare time. In 1984, Jossel mailed Zhenya the texts of new skits, including one entitled "I Am Going To The Doctor." They were slated to start the tour in Sao Paolo, Brazil, but it was not meant to be. A few days before, during a performance in Buenos Aires while playing this particular skit, Greminger suddenly slumped in the chair and began sliding to the floor. The audience roared, thinking it was part of the act and not suspecting that the famous actor was actually dying onstage. Aer Greminger's death, Zhenya continued to work solo. In 1978, Zhenya gave a sold- out performance dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Israel in a concert hall in downtown Paris. She sang Yiddish and Hebrew songs to a rousing reception om the audience, including the Israeli ambassador and numerous celebrities. The proceeds om the performance were donated to the Israeli army. Zhenya and Abel raised their children while she pursued this career. The eldest, Leo, married Ann Pohoryles on November 26, 1978, in Israel, and they are the parents of Michael and Galia, although Leo is not Galia's biological father. On June 16, 2004, in Jerusalem, Galia Pohoryles married Yakov Levy, and three years later they had a child, Sivan. The second son, Joel Fajerman, is a music composer who married Josee Abou on May 28, 1976, in Paris. They have two children: Julia and Jessica. On June 20, 2000, in Paris, Julia married Antony Gouin. They have two children, Lois and Abel. In 1967, the youngest of Zhenya and Abel's children, Sylvia, was 15 and decided to visit Israel. She liked what she saw and the next year found herself on a kibbutz, where she lived and worked for eight years. Then Leo, who worked as an electronic technician for the state- owned French TV, suffered several episodes of anti-Semitism on the job and also decided to move to Israel. Leo still lives in Jerusalem,

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