Whenever I think of Grandpa, two of his traits stand out, and make him incredibly unique.  The first was his love for his craft.  Most people would count themselves lucky if they were fairly satisfied with their jobs, but Grandpa's passion was on a completely different level.  Long after he was officially 'retired' Grandpa was working hard on Calphad projects.  He traveled the globe to attend conferences and confer with fellow scientists on pressing matters in the field. While his impact and achievements are well known, there aren't words to describe the spark that entered his eyes when he started talking about MIT or phase diagrams.  

Another thing that made Grandpa so special was his tireless care for others.  Well into the twilight years of her life, Grandpa's mother-in-law needed care that only he could deliver.  Without complaint, Grandpa would come visit her on a regular basis, deliver fresh laundry and take home the new loads. He would drive her to doctors visits and tend to her needs.  Grandpa treated Bobeh with dignity and respect; he was the ultimate son-in-law.  

-Michal (Kaufman) Gulko

DEAR VICKIE AND FAMILY,

 

PLEASE ACCEPT OUR DEEPEST SYMPATHY ON THE PASSING OF YOUR BROTHER, LARRY.

 

I REMEMBER LARRY AS A HANDSOME YOUNG MAN WHO YOU WERE SO PROUD OF.

 

MAY YOU BE COMFORTED AMONG THE MOURNERS OF ZION AND JERUSALEM.

 

OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOU AT THIS TIME.

 

LOVE,  FLORENCE AND NAT

To Sandra and the other members of the Choshevar Kaufman family,

Although I'm ashamed to say that I really don"t know most of you and my relationship with your husband-father-grandfather  was quite limited I still wanted to express to you all my heartfelt feelings of  sadness on your great loss.

During the last ten years of his life I had the privilege of calling him before the Yomim Noraim and engaging him in very enjoyable conversation.

He truly was a brilliant and "varama Yid" who was proud of his Yiddishkeit and very proud of the fact that his offspring were following his "derech" .In my conversations with him I was able to discern that he was truly a  רודף שלום which is an exceptional trait.

It's brought down in Seforim that the only son of Yaakov who is referred to in the Midrash as a Tzadik was Yosef. The reason for this is that he was the only one who was able to  successfully integrate a Torah lifestyle with his achievements in the very secular world of Egypt.  Larry who was a distinguished scientist and Ben Torah followed in the footsteps of Yosef Hatzadik

יהא זכרו ברוך

המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

Your cousin.

,

Meilech Silberberg

West Bloomfield, Mi

Dear Vicky,
I am so sorry to hear this news.  Larry was a brilliant and kind man.

Please accept my sincere condolences.  His memory will be a blessing.

All my love..........Donna

Dear Sandra,
I was very sorry to hear from Vicky of Larry's passing and know how devoted you were to each other for decades. Allow me to express my sincere condolences to you and to the rest of your family. I'm glad I got to see both of you the last time we were in Boston. May his life be a blessing for all of us. I know how successful he was as a family man, and in his profession. May you and your family be spared further sorrow. 

Love ,Larry and Eva

The Torah says in parshat ki teztzey:

“כי תידור נדר לה' אלוקיך לא תאחר לשלמו כי דרוש ידרשנו ה' אלקיך מעמך והיה בך חטא. וכי תחדל לנדור לא יהיה בך חטא. מוצא שפתיך תשמור ועשית כאשר נדרת לה' אלוקיך נדבה אשר דיברת בפיך" .

Dad, you were the embodiment of מוצא שפתיך תשמור""

Your word was a commitment. There was no reneging on promises. and no delays. If you got an aliya to the Tora on shabbat and promised to make a donation, a check for that donation was written, entered in your ledger, and in an addressed envelope within minutes of havdala.

You were a scientist and a thinker. I can envision you, seated at the dining room table totally focused on your work, with sharpened pencils, slide rule and book of logarithm tables in a fortress of fat reference books.

You pursued endeavors with your whole self, never half-way. Your meticulousness, vitality, and drive to learn and achieve daily defined your life-view. You taught that outlook to me and my brothers, Randy and Brad.

I’d like to meander through some of my memories growing up.

During the cool autumns in Boston, we built the succah you designed from two by fours, dowels and. turquoise fiberglass.

In the winters we shoveled the snow together out of the driveway.

When I was a chubby 9 year old, you took me to play tennis, and gently admonished “ Val, you’re not a magnet, the ball is not going to come to you.

On the way to shul, you had me, Brad, and Randy recite the list of American presidents, and the periodic table of elements. You and I also memorized poetry.

When I was eleven, you had me proofread the galleyproofs of your book about computer calculations of phase diagrams.

I was a rather clumsy pre-teen tomboy. The walls of my room were covered with posters of baseball players. For my bat mitzvah you encouraged my interest in sports and took the whole family to Red Sox baseball games.

In our house, sleeping in was not an option, not even during school vacation. Every day during the summers, after minyan, Randy, Brad, and I trooped off to summer school.

It didn’t matter that I was a girl, you ensured that I knew the difference between a phillips-head screwdriver and a regular one.

You supported me in my decision to study at MIT and warned “Val, you can’t read an engineering book like a novel.”

Your vigor, exactitude, and love of learning were pillars of my childhood and youth. You said of me that I had True Grit, or perseverance. If I have it, I learned it from you.

During the past few difficult weeks, when I got to the point that I could navigate the halls of Hadassah Ein Karem blindfolded, I often pondered – how would it be if another family member were lying in that bed, and you were able-bodied. I knew that you would have done you utmost to make us comfortable, and sooth us. I hope that I lived up to your standards.

Love

Valerie

Anecdotes of our Grandpa

Grandpa always knew how to make us feel special and loved. We remember visiting Grandma & Grandpa right after our engagement and how Grandpa made us feel like royalty while celebrating this exciting time with us. His excitement added to our excitement during this time. 

The last time we came to visit Grandma & Grandpa in Boston, Grandpa offered us some of his best scotch at dinner. He showed us around shul to all of his friends and fellow community members with pride in his grandchildren and new great-granddaughter. Donny was always honored with a kibbud in shul from Grandpa and he was volunteered to read the haftarah (nothing like the last minute) for the minyan. 

This was a feeling that we always felt with grandpa. Whether it was discussing our careers and research to showing us the family tree and how we traced all of the way back to Rashi and David Hamelech.  

Grandpa was always eager to help out and we were ecstatic to have a brilliant scientist at our disposal. In 6th grade, I asked Grandpa to help me with an idea for my first science fair project. He suggested I present the Archimedes Principle and my father had to work really hard to get through and explain all of the formulas and complicated explanation behind the principle that Grandpa sent us. 

Grandpa had a real love for Torah. He would always ask us to read a dvar torah at the shabbat table from his weekly parsha newsletter. He loved to go to learn at the gemara shiur on Sunday morning and would attend the haftarah drasha after shul. When it got harder for him to walk, he would leave to shul early to make sure that he was on time. 

Grandpa's humility was something that everyone recognized. All of his academic accomplishments and achievements in his career were unbelievable and have inspired us to work hard to achieve our goals. However, Grandpa never talked about his achievements or himself even. He was always focused on the person who he was with and making them feel special. Grandpa always told us that we could do anything that we put our minds to. 

We love you and miss you Grandpa. We will carry the lessons that you have taught us forever.

Love,

Shira & Donny

Here are some pictures with Grandpa at our wedding- November 22, 2009:

Tuesday December 3, 2013  9:00 PM 

5^th day of Chanukah

Har Menuchot,  Jerusalem, Israel

Dad, you were the Patriarch of the family, You were always there for us through thick and thin.

Exactly when a person leaves the world is not a coincidence; our Rabbis teach us that the day that subsequently becomes the person's Yahrtziet is a manifestation of that person’s strengths. That my father left the world during Chanukah tells us that he is like one of the Hashmonaim warriors who fought "milchamot Hashem".  Likewise, our family certainly must have some blood heritage from the Hashmonaim, also, as my sister Valerie's family have chosen to settle in the city of Hashmonaim.

My father's talents led him to be a man of science. As we are taught, " bechol derachecha da-ayhu", seek out Hashem in all of his worldly manifestations.  My father was a brilliant world known scientist- metallurgist who sought out Hashem by unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Despite his major accomplishments in his field, and despite his numerous awards and recognition, he remained an "onov", a humble man, never a " baal-gaavah", never boastful of his achievements.

My Dad was an eternal optimist, when asked how he was doing he would always state "Baruch Hashem", even when circumstances were difficult.

My most distant memories of Dad getting us through thick and thin take me back to when my sister, as a young child, fell down the stairs, and sustained a serious head injury, my family thought we were going to lose her. My family davened for her, and baruch Hashem she recovered. Instead of losing faith, from this incident, my parents returned closer to their Jewish roots.  My Dad was a "baal-teshuvah" and we know that "bamakom shebaaley-teshuvah omdim, tzaddikim gemurim anom omdim".

I remember as I prepared to become a bar-mitzvah boy, I never thought I would get through learning my bar-mitzva parsha. My Aunt recalls me rolling on the floor in protest, when studying with my father, but somehow my Dad persevered, and pushed me through it.

I recall my days in college and medical school, when I thought I just couldn't get through it, and I was ready to throw in the towel many times, Dad was always there to get me through it.

And similarly with the next generation, Dad was always there to encourage and teach my children. Dad was there night and day in person or by telephone, to help out with any math or physics problem Yardana could throw at him, sometimes until late at night. He was a gifted teacher, and got her through it.

We know the Jewish people got into trouble, lost the bet-hamikdash, lost out on living in the land of Israel, mainly for one reason, as it is stated in the "tochacha" in Kee Tavoh: "tachat asher lo avadetem et hashem elokaychem beshimcha oovetoov layvov marov kol".  As an antidote to this, Dad taught us most importantly about "Ivdu et Hashem besimcha|", to serve Hashem with joy, with music, singing and davening with Jewish music, with nusach.  It's no accident that as a family we are all involved with singing, music, davening etc. We can all still hear him with his powerful voice singing Kiddush, zemirot shel Shabbat etc. And I'm sure right now, that if we listen carefully we can hear him singing louder and louder at Hashem's Kiddush table in shamayim.

Love,  Randy

     Loving husband, great grandfather, grandfather, father, brother, son, and friend—he was an incredible man who gave us all life, happiness, laughter, and wisdom—he gave us everything.  Scholar of the Torah, history, mathematics, thermodynamics, and more, Hashem blessed my grandpa with such keen shrewdness and intelligence, which we have all been blessed to have had imparted upon us—We have all been blessed to have had him in our lives. 

      My grandpa was an amazing man.  His relentless willingness and love for helping his family is one of my grandpa’s most remarkable qualities. Be it a science project, or math question—no matter the hour of the day, or night as the case usually was—my grandfather spent hours upon hours, patiently teaching me and helping me to understand the academic areas in which I was struggling.  He would also come to my Maimonides Highschool basketball games to support and cheer for me from the sidelines. My grandpa helped me to excel in my education, despite having his own demanding work schedule and career.  His commitment and dedication to his family, as well as to his family’s success and happiness, is a testament to what an amazing man my grandfather was, and are qualities that I only hope to be able to emulate one day when I, God willing, have a wife, children, and grandchildren of my own.

     I have so many fond memories of my grandpa.  Every year I always looked forward to seeing him at the Seder Table, and having the privilege of listening to him sing his wonderful Yiddush version of the “Ma Nishtana.” You couldn’t help but smile and laugh with enjoyment.  Naturally, being the Chacham that he was, my grandpa would also give the most insightful Dvar Torah’s at the dinner table, to which we all listened intently, and from which we all learned valuable life lessons. 

My grandpa was not only a serious scholar of torah, science, and history—he also knew how to joke around too.  My grandpa could tell a good joke like nobody else.  His punch-line deliveries always resulted in the family’s uncontrollable laughter. 

     Perhaps most significant to me, my grandpa instilled confidence in me—that I am smart and can succeed in whatever endeavor or career that I put my mind to.  For that I am forever grateful and thankful to him.  I will miss my beloved grandpa, and hope to succeed and make him proud of me.  I know that he will be watching over me.  I know that he will be watching over all of us from the Shemayim, along with our beloved Bubbe, and HaKadosh Baruch Who.

     Let us forever continue to celebrate my grandpa’s life, and let us never forget him or his undying devotion, commitment, and contributions to our family, friends, and community.  Let us never forget the wonderful wisdom, stories, songs, jokes, and life-lessons that he has imparted to us all, and which we have been so fortunate to have received. 

 

I miss you Grandpa and I love you with all of my heart,

Your grandson,

Danny

December 2^nd, 2013

My Dearest Grandpa,

You are one of the wisest, most optimistic, kind, and gentle individuals I have ever known.  Your devotion to your family and your incredible contributions to the scientific community worldwide had such a far reach and important impact for so many years.

We had such a unique and special relationship, truly irreplaceable. I often find myself looking back lovingly with nostalgia on those endless hours we spent studying advanced physics, calculus, and thermodynamics together at your home.  Your passion for science and mathematics was contagious, and you awakened in me an appetite to learn more and more.  I always looked forward to our nightly “study dates,” where we devoured Grandma’s delicious oatmeal raisin cookies, while we attacked problems together and I flooded you with questions. I was in awe of the thoroughness of your answers and your persistence in ensuring I had mastered the material.  Even after I moved away to college, our study sessions continued by phone.  “No problem is too difficult for us to solve,” you would say, and giving up was never an option, even if that meant working until two in the morning. 

These are just a few of the most precious values I have learned from you. You always believed in me and helped give me the confidence that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. For this, I am eternally grateful to you. I hope you know how much I will miss you now that our enthralling conversations have sadly come to an end. I wish you could be there with me when I celebrate my graduation from medical school but I know you will be watching proudly in spirit. 

May our entire family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim.

Your loving granddaughter,

Dana