HAIFA, ISRAEL –Bobrov Zoberman, 102 years old, died in Haifa, Israel on April 7.
The mother of Rabbi Israel Zoberman, Chasia was a Holocaust survivor from Sarny, Ukraine (Poland) who became a refugee at age 17. Heroically managing to keep ahead of the fast-pursuing Nazis who murdered countless members of her extended family, she somehow made it to Siberia. There, she met and married Yechiel from Zamosc, Poland who served for five years in the Russian army, participating in the legendary battles outside Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Chasia and Yechiel birthed Rabbi Israel Zoberman (Jennifer) in Chu, Kazakstan (USSR) in 1945, Ester Golan (Zeev) in the D.P. Wetzlar camp in 1947, and Emma Rimon (Menachem) in Haifa, Israel 1954.
Chasia was the youngest and last survivor of seven siblings born to Ester and Israel Bobrov from the Pinsk area in Belarus. Chasia, most kind and hospitable with saintly qualities, was a gifted mathematician and poet who shared her war’s experiences and the heavy family losses with Israeli high school students in Haifa. Yet, family and food above all! She left a legacy of love of six grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
She was a great Israeli patriot from a dedicated Jewish and Zionist home. Chasia’s grandmother, Rachel Leah, and Rachel Leah, the mother of Dr. Chaim Weitzmann, Israel’s first president, were first cousins.