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The Feldman FamilyDedication of the Lillian and David E. Feldman z"l Research Center for Rehabilitation Sciences
The Research Center for Rehabilitation Sciences was dedicated in November 2022 in loving memory of Lillian and David E. Feldman. The center was established based on their love of the Negev of their dedication to Tikkun Olam.
The Feldman Family
David E. Feldman z”l was born in London in 1926. World War II broke out weeks before his bar mitzvah, and he was evacuated to Saffron Walden, taken in by a Christian family who had never met a Jew before and were alarmed to see him fast on Yom Kippur without even drinking water.
He went on to study economics at London School of Economics and later at Harvard University, the only one in his family to study at university. David joined the United Nations in 1948, working as an economist in Geneva and later New York. He used to say that joining the UN that year was its own form of tikkun olam. His work focused on economic aid to developing nations, primarily in Africa, and included designing the allocation formula for millions of dollars in aid. That experience, his family believes, shaped his lifelong desire to help people on the periphery.
Suzie recalls:
“My father was very generous personally too. He gave money and time, always with a magical smile, because he felt fortunate and full of gratitude.”
Lillian Ruth was born in New York. She worked as a dental hygienist and then an elementary school teacher. A year after finishing her master’s in education, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She faced it with quiet courage, careful never to burden anyone, and, as Suzie recalls, “didn’t even tell her own mother she was sick with cancer, so as not to cause her unnecessary pain.”
During her illness, Lillian took up watercolor painting as art therapy. The piece chosen for this dedication shows colorful balloons against a blue sky, an unsigned, amateur work never meant for public display. As Suzie describes it: “Balloons are fragile, like life itself, but they also symbolize joy, freedom, and release from pain. I added the words ‘there is hope’ in three languages, as a message to everyone here on their own path of rehabilitation.”
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