The Nemotin family and Jewish life in Alma-Ata

Lev Nemotin was born in Alma-Ata in 1946. According to the family’s account, Chana Schneerson asked that the boy be named in memory of her husband, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, who had died in the city two years earlier. This is described in an interview with Lev, published by Chabad of Kazakhstan alongside extracts from his father Yosef’s diary. 1

Family and community

Yosef Nemotin took part in Alma-Ata’s Jewish community during years when open religious activity was dangerous. The published account of his diary describes help given to Levi Yitzchak and Chana Schneerson after they moved from their place of exile in Chiili. Nemotin described community members raising money and helping the family settle in the city. 1

In the interview, Lev also remembers Hillel Liberov, whom he calls his first teacher of the Hebrew alphabet and his father’s friend. This detail shows how language and tradition were passed between generations in Alma-Ata’s community. 1

The Nemotins later moved to the United States. Lev said that the name he had received in Alma-Ata remained a personal responsibility in adulthood. His own account connects his Soviet childhood in Kazakhstan with his family’s life after emigration. 1