Haapalah

Reuven Grobshtein was murdered during the Armenian-Tatar uprisings (local Azerbaijani people, name given by the other locals).
This was the first significant event in Borys Grobshtein's life, which happened when he was 8 years old,
Although Reuven Grobshtein was not an Armenian, but a Jew, hired thugs took his life when they saw Reuven in the street.
Borys was told that a colleague of his father, an antisemite in the oil business, aligned with the mob and had Reuven killed.

While in Saint Petersbourg, Borys Reuvenovich Grobshtein became a member of a Zionist group.
The KGB (Committee for State Security; RUSSIAN: Комит́ет Госуд́арственной Безоп́асности; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) crashed the group`s meeting, and arrested all the participants.
Borys was convicted and sent to a Gulag in Khazakhstan, Siberia, for three years.

After many applications for release, Borys Reuvenovich Grobshtein was allowed to leave Russia and go to Israel, but he was denied permission to see his family, and denied permission to ever return to Russia.
Borys never saw his family again.
His brothers grew up, had families, but he was never able to communicate with them.

Among Borya's best friends from Baku, were Sana (sister of Samuel Scheinerman) and Michael Yardney.
They made Aliyah at the same time as Borya, but, Michael went on to study in Paris (he was an engineer and an inventor; he made his fortunate having invented a taxi radio,invented an electric car bach in the ear of 1964 and as an owner of a batteries factory he supplied the batteries for the shuttle to the moon), and afterwards, emigrated to the United States.
Sana was the aunt, often written about in the autobiographies and biographies of Ariel Sharon, who Ariel visited when he travelled to New York in his youth.

In 1931, Borys Grobshtein settled in Ra'anana (רעננה), and worked as a day laborer in the fields and building. He also became an organizer/representative for the laborers.
As many as 45 percent of the workers in Tel Aviv were employed in the building trades and the beginnings of a sizable blue-collar working class was visible for the first time.

At the end of the thirties, begining of the forties, Borys was in Yerushalayim, deeply involved with the Hagana.

Dr. Aharon Shulov, who wrote a history of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo that he established, was renamed the lion, Yehudah (Lion of Judah).

Dov Gazit was sent to Czechoslovakia, as part of the group that acquired and delivered the first aircraft, Messerschmidts and Spitfires, for the Israeli air force.

Dov דוב or דֹב means Bear in Hebrew.
Ber or Be'er is Bear, in Yiddish.
The pet name of Ber is Beryl, or Berylla, in Yiddish .