Hesped by Seb Schulman

Мы собрались здесь сегодня, чтобы почтить память и отпраздновать жизнь Шуры Вайсман. Для каждого из нас она играла свою роль. Она была мамой и бабушкой, подругой и коллегой, дочкой и женой.

From a distance, Shura held herself with a proud modesty, a quiet bearing that hid her extraordinary talents and accomplishments. From up close, we could see the breadth of her creativity and intelligence, her skill as a scientist, her prodigious output as an animator, illustrator, programmer, and graphic designer.

She was a tenacious spirit, a person of unparalleled determination and deep principles. Shura always had the strongest sense of right and wrong, of what should be done and how to do it. Hers was a steadfast moral compass— and that compass always pointed towards giving of herself fully to others, to all of us, to whatever work or challenges lay in her way. In everything she did, whether she was baking her famed cheese pie, writing an article on DNA replication, or building an early 90s Yiddish website, everything was motivated by how she could feed, teach, or simply help others. And she did this all with the rare combination of both efficiency and efficacy, never stopping until she had met her own high standard, until she had produced the absolute best she could. In return, she expected the best from all of us. She took no excuses, suffered no fools, but instead gave us a gift, drawing out from everyone she loved our ability to be honest and good, successful and productive.

I saw this most closely in her relationship with Asya. As a mother, Shura not only made sure that her daughter had access to all the best opportunities, but that Asya pushed herself to take fullest advantage of them, to achieve far beyond what she set out to accomplish. They worked so closely together on so many projects--websites, videos, presentations— that it would be impossible to list them all. Over the course of all their work together, they developed a kind of synchronicity, their affection and admiration for each other cultivated through their many, many phone calls, hard work, and excellence.

In a similar way, with her granddaughter Tzina, Shura was never content just to play, but worked to spark Tzina’s imagination, pushing her to do and create and make something lasting. Over the last few days, as Tzina has shared with me her stories of Babushka, I’ve been struck at how many of the memories she repeats most often aren’t about the places they went or about how they laughed and sang and snuggled--although that’s all important too--but about the things they built and the art they made together.

For Shura, being a good person, the best person she could be, meant being a faithful friend. And indeed though circumstances might have kept them apart at times, Shura was connected to her friends Galia and Tepa in no uncertain terms, their connection stronger than the molecular bonds all of these scientists could tell you much more about than I. Her life was enriched by her friendship with her neighbour Rachel. Shura also highly valued and respected her colleagues at NIH. In equal measure, she was devoted full-heartedly to her extended family around the world, including her aunt Sveta and cousins Misha and Alik and their families in Germany, and cousins Misha and Igor and their families. She was especially close to her brother-in-law and longtime artistic collaborator Sasha, her sister-in-law Mila, and her nieces and nephew in Israel. Shura embodied the value of kibed-av-ve-eym, honouring her parents with respect and care in everything she did. From Maksim and Faina, she learned these values of hard, good work, of tireless effort in the service of others, and in turn helped them navigate the ups and downs of life in a new country.

The most clear evidence of Shura’s inability to settle for anything less than the absolute best, however, can be found in her choice of partner. The Story of Shura and Iosif, at least by the time I met them, seemed nothing short of legendary. A couple that had known each other since the age of seven, when Shura unceremoniously bonked Iosif on the head with a ruler, and has stayed so deeply in love for so long, is nothing if not the stuff of fables. But there is no truer partnership I ever seen or heard of on this Earth than that of these two. And there is no greater devotion in this world than that, which Iosif has shown caring for Shura these many years and especially day after day, night after night these past several months. There is, in short, no better proof that there is someone in this life for whom we are bashert than this story.

…..

There is a cliche in English we say at times like these that so-and-so “lost their battle with cancer”. And yet, I can’t bring myself to say it now. Determined as she was, Shura beat every diagnosis she was ever given, repeatedly turning “just a few months” into several years and, at the end, even “just a few hours” into several days. In spite or perhaps because of her long sickness, Shura lived every single moment of her life to the absolute fullest. She was fast and fierce, a force of nature that pushed through to be more, to make more, to do more. Surely that is the greater victory.

With humour and wit and pure determination, Shura always knew how to pull through, how to meet the challenge, how to do what was right, how to be her very best. Although it will be more difficult without her here, in her memory, let us pledge to do the same.

Пусть память о ней будет благословением

Koved ir likhtikn ondenk

Перевод на русский
Asya's Facebook post
Iosif's LJ post