This is a love story that started in Russia and continues in Israel.
Ekaterina Korotovskikh was only five years old when she met Roman (“Roma”), a Jewish boy in her kindergarten in the Urals.
“I immediately fell in love with him. When I came home from kindergarten, I kept saying, ‘Roma, Roma,’” she remembers.
Their families moved to different cities before the two were old enough for a romantic relationship. Despite falling out of touch, they didn’t forget each other.
“When I was 14 years old, I wrote poems for him and even composed a song for him. But he never knew or heard about it,” she says.
Reconnecting in Russia
And so, Ekaterina and Roma grew up apart from each other. Each got married, had children, and got divorced. Shortly before Ekaterina’s 46th birthday, Roma tracked her down and contacted her. She invited him to her birthday party.
“That’s how we met as adults, and we have been together ever since,” she says. Roma raised her seven-year-old son as his own, later formally adopting him.
For the past two years, the married couple has been living in Tel Aviv along with Ekaterina’s son, now 17, and a cat and a dog they’d rescued from the streets of Sochi, Russia.
Immigrating to Israel
Although Ekaterina had no ties to Israel or Israelis, she did not hesitate to move here with her long-lost love.
“Roma started researching his roots and talking to me about his Jewish heritage,” she recalls.
When she playfully asked him why they didn’t live in Israel yet, he gave her question serious consideration. And eventually he decided that making aliyah was exactly what he wanted to do, inspiring his mother and brother – and his non-Jewish wife – to join him.
“My husband made the decision to go, and I follow my husband in everything, especially since I knew Israel was a country where people’s happiness level is 11th in the world! Although I am happy with my husband everywhere,” she says.
They arrived on June 27, 2023. When asked what challenges they faced, the artist states the obvious.
Facing challengers
“Well, of course, you know what happened in October,” she says.
The rocket attacks on Tel Aviv that followed the Oct. 7 massacre were especially frightening because the new immigrants had no safe room in their apartment at the time.
“Now that we have a mamad, we’re not as worried, although it’s still challenging,” she says.
Another difficulty is that their son has not yet received citizenship because officials suspect that Roma adopted him specifically for aliyah. The authorities “were not impressed by the fact that Roma had raised and nurtured him since he was seven years old. They are trying to prove to us that our family is a sham. We have been here for two years, and the child cannot integrate properly into the country, which is very harmful to him, and it hurts me as a mother,” she says.
However, she has embraced the Jewish state wholeheartedly. She and her husband are working on improving their Hebrew skills to feel more at home in their adopted land.
“I am an Israeli, and that is the most important thing. I am studying the culture and customs of the country, and I am interested in it. I do not feel any difference between Jews and non-Jews,” she says.
An artist and musician
Ekaterina comes from a talented family of musicians. “My father is the director and conductor of the children’s musical theater Rainbow, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. My mother is an accompanist and assistant in all aspects of the theater. I have sung and danced in this theater since I was seven years old, and I believe that this gave a creative impetus to my life,” she says.
She earned a degree from a Russian music school as a pianist and piano teacher. However, a decade ago – shortly after she reconnected with Roma – she pursued professional training as a painter. She studied in Italy privately and at the International University of Digital Economy and Technologies in Moscow.
Ekaterina has exhibited her soulful oil paintings – primarily animal portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, and architecture – in Italy, in Sochi, and at local art fairs and online platforms in Israel. Some of her works are now on display through October 15 at ZOA House in Tel Aviv.
“I am particularly inspired by urban textures, stray animals, and nature,” says the artist, who specializes in commissioned portraits of animals, including memorial works for pet owners. She also enjoys painting scenes showing the human-animal connection.
When executing the portrait of a pet dog, she works from a photograph, but she makes a point of getting to know the dogs she is commissioned to paint. “We often meet them on the street, and I always have treats for them,” she says.
Ekaterina also does en plein air painting, which means that she creates an entire painting on an easel outdoors, rather than in a studio, to better capture the live sensations of natural light, color, and atmosphere.
Their apartment affords what she describes as a stunning panoramic view of the city. “I really like Tel Aviv; it’s a city with a very vibrant energy,” she says.
Speaking during a summer heat wave, which she admits is a downside of living in a Middle Eastern climate, she nevertheless says that her favorite aspect of Israel is the diversity and richness of its natural beauty.
“And,” she adds, “the people are all very kind to us.”■
Some of her works can be found on Instagram: @art_katrrin and @artcat.il.