Zinaida Rivkin

1930 - 2016

Zinaida Rivkin, of Brookline 1930 - 2015 passed away in her 86th year on November 10, 2015, preceded by her husband, Zinovy, who died in May 2002. For over 30 years her laughter resonated in the walls of Zinaidas Skincare Salon on Harvard Street not far from Coolidge Corner. Her devotion to her clients and her profession knew no limits. Having completed her medical training in Odessa she helped teenagers and women of all ages with their acne, wrinkles, warts and all. Her clients included professors of the music conservatory, Odessa university, all the school teachers of her two sons, as well as market and farmer women, who would cover long distances to be treated by her magic hands and with products developed and produced by her parents, Taba and Nathan Oksengendler. Zinaida was an accomplished singer and her coloratura soprano voice could be heard interpreting arias from many a well known opera in Italian, Russian and Ukrainian. Her public performances took place in Angarsk, Siberia, where Zinovy was a freshly graduated refrigeration engineer and where the audiences consisted mostly of prisoners from a large labor camp nearby. Zinaida came to America in 1975 along with her family and settled in Brookline. She believed in that immigrant dream and it came true for her. Her hard work made her happy. She created a good life for her and Zinovy and gave her sons the foundation they needed to flourish in life. She is deeply missed by her sons and families: Leonid, Valerie and Xenia of Switzerland, Alexander and Mimi of Los Angeles, as well as Tatiana Yuzvenko and family who took loving care of her for many years. Please join her family and friends in a private memorial ceremony at the Young Israel Cemetery, 350 Grove Street, West Roxbury on Tuesday the 19th of of April at 10:30 am.