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July 19, 2006

Eulogy for Abe Stern (2006)

Eulogies & Memorials
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Eulogy for Abraham Cleeman (2007)

What is there left to say after hearing such tribute by son to father? All one can do is to use different words – but basically say amen, and perhaps reduce all that’s been said into two Yiddish words – ר' יחזקאל אבראמסקי על ר' איסר זלמן מלצר eulogy: even if you took away all his learning – he’d remain א שיינער איד. AC was just that – business... finally VP Prudential. But: a gentleman – humble, polite, refined, friendly smile, soft talk, properly dressed, courteous, sincerely pious; יר"ש – especially during davening... א שיינער איד. I knew Abe C – 49–50 years in TJC. Recall his Jim's.Highly intllgnt — imncredbl mmory...hid hs own high knwldg...Nvr spoke loudly/angry/ man of modrtn — א שיינער אידDevotd late wf- what tendrnss, sweeetnss! Could count exact numbr dies since sh passd away—what quiet yt profnd love His If devotd t her, to Jim (pride), to gr-child.א שיינער איד...- מוקיר רבנים—Belovd mmber TJC2 Heb names - אברהם מאיר - both “artfcial” אברהם אברם;/fatherly/enlghtnd ... מאיר—נהוראי—שהאיר עיני חכמים SoBrought LIGHT t those around hm ..to Jim/Debra/Miriam Indeed - this is what is reqrd t b known as א שיינער איד So to Abe, our partg wish: א ליכטגן גן עדן פאר א שיינער איד“Jimmy...You a wondrfl son; yr כיבוד או"א pride yr achvmnts. May you derv as much נחת from Miriam as y gave hm ”
Eulogies & Memorials

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Eulogy for Marsha Stern (1979)

I rise to speak the eulogy over Marsha this morning, despite great reluctance, because she requested it of me often, very often, directly and indirectly, over a long period of time; and halakhic authority has informed me that mitzvah le 'kayyem divrei ha-met, it is a sacred obligation to fulfill the wishes of the dying. So I speak, despite my hesitation and discomfort and scruples, because it is a mitzvah — and because I loved my friend Marsha dearly.I first met Marsha while co-chairing with her a Yeshiva University Women's Organization function about seven years ago. It was a spiritual and psychological discovery getting to know this attractive, efficient, outspoken, demanding, open-hearted, and extremely generous young woman. From then on we became fast friends, and the friendship increased with every week.What kind of person was Marsha? It is hard to describe her in a single set of adjectives — she was much too human, too complex, and too special for that. Perhaps her personality can best be expressed in the paradox that Carl Sandburg used to describe Abraham Lincoln — she was "made of steel and velvet."The steel was her indomitable will, her incredible bravery, her powerful character. She leaves behind her a legacy of strength and moral courage. At no point, no matter what the provocation, did she succumb to self-pity or to panic. She stared the Angel of Death in the face, and wrested from him his most precious secret: how to live. Marsha maintained that this five-year period of illness and agony was actually the most creative part of her life. She discovered her own identity and learned to be happy with it. Or perhaps it is inaccurate to say that she "discovered" her identity; more correctly, she created it, she forged an identity in the very furnace of affliction.Beset by problems and suggestions of despair that would normally have crushed any ordinary person, she fought back and mastered them. Every rock and every boulder in her path she considered stepping-…
Eulogies & Memorials

Speech

Eulogy for Mr. Abe Suher (1954)

"I call heaven and earth to witness before you this day, that I have set before thee, life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life..." (Deuteronomy 30:19) These words, which we shall read in the Torah this week, serve as a most fitting epitaph for this noble gentleman to whom we have come to bid farewell this day. Death came to him in stealth, for he lived and lived fully. He was a person who was full of life, who was involved in life, who loved life, and who rose to the divine challenge to choose life.He was a man who was deeply involved in the dyn-mic processes of life. He was a man to whom others would turn in emergency and in crises, for he had 80 well explored the depths of living that he was eminently capable of quick, sure, and well-grounded solutions to the problems that life presented.He was a man who exploited all that life had to offer. He was more then self-made. He made what life had to offer to him, that not only he, but all those whom he loved and knew, would benefit from it. Thus, by his own Initiative, his Inherent curiosity and his inborn desire to absorb the wonders of living, did he study and educate himself to a degree which attracted the admiration of his peers.Abe Suher, also knew that life has an Author and that Author is the Living God of Israel. And he therefore revered religion,respected the faith of his forbears, and saw in the timeless traditions of our people the spark of eternal life. It was the same devotion to God and to faith that endowed him with the interests in and for the community. There ever there was an opportunity for service, for the betterment of life, and for devotion to his people, Abe Suher would Rive of his finest efforts and beat talents.His love was not a narrow one. It transcended the confines of his own society; for he loved all of life, and especially did he love nature in which the drama of life is played out. *I call heaven and earth to witness before thee״. In heaven and on earth, in this…
Eulogies & Memorials