ASIMOV, Abraham Ber (Boris)

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Mathemetician
• Immigration: 1974, From Leningrad, USSR, to Israel

Notes:

Boris' niece, Serafima Asimova, wrote to Isaac Asimov in 1979 from Leningrad. She said: "Boris was living in Petrovichi for a long time, then he came to Moscow. He was mathematician. Later his sick father -- grandfather Aaron -- came to his house....After the war, Boris lived in Leningrad. He had no family and was alone. Now he is living in Israel."

In 2006, Serafima wrote more about Boris in an email. She said: "(Like his brother Samuel), Boris too had huge propensities to mathematics. It also became then the teacher of mathematics though very much loved poetry, knew by heart Pushkin, Tyutchev, Fet. Perfectly knew Sacred Classic Jewish language so then the Hebrew referred to."

"The daddy [Samuel Asimov], mum, I, uncle Boris and the [maternal] grandfather [Samson Shmulevitch] lived in one room of a municipal apartment in the street Gogol 21, in Leningrad."

In another email, Serafima wrote: "Boris -- measured, slow, lyrical, the mathematician -- the theorist, writes verses in Hebrew. ...Boris lived with Aaron and Hanna - parents. Then, when his mum [Hanna] has died - he has left for Moscow. At Boris since the childhood the right foot was not bent - in game boys have pushed - has fallen, has broken, there was no good doctor, in Smolensk the medical assistant has rescued a leg , but she has ceased to be bent. War began. ...

"Boris has left for evacuation to Tashkent. Once to me aunt Dvosja [sister of Judah, Boris, Samuel and Rachel] told, that in Moscow Boris married and he had wife and the daughter, but they tragically were gone. It has been told once, but I was more never about it heard. It was not accepted to speak never on this theme.

"[Boris' younger brother] Samuel has decided - it is necessary, that Boris Asimov has arrived to Leningrad, here to Life him it will be easier. ...Samuel has solved - I more sociable, I shall leave, and the room let remain to Boris. ...Samuel has taken all and has returned to a room to Boris. We lived all together in a small room - Uncle Boris, the daddy, mum, [maternal] grandfather Samson, I. It is 1953.

(By 1966) "Uncle Boris has remained in the room. It was very beautiful house in the center of Leningrad, but there it was difficult to live - there was no hot water...it was necessary to heat fire wood.
It is difficult for understanding. A room - in an apartment, where 3-5 more rooms. Another's people live in them. And only one room for uncle Boris.

"In 1968 to uncle Boris gave other room with hot water and heating and in 1974 he has left for Israel.
Uncle Boris is a lot of with me was engaged, he learned me to mathematics, he paid for my music education, and the piano has presented me, drove in museums and cinema. He very much loved me and I very much loved him. Boris was the religious person, he perfectly knew a Hebrew, wrote verses in a Hebrew, every day was engaged in a Torah."

Serafima writes that her son, Alexander -- who has taken the name of his grandfather, Samuel, since moving to Israel -- has inherited some traits from his Uncle Boris: "From Uncle Boris (though they saw only 2-3-times), Alexander - Samuel 1971 of a birth, has inherited love to poetry and the romantic attitude to a life."

In the late 1970s and early '80s, Boris' nephews Stanley and Isaac, and his niece Marcia, exchanged letters with him. He wrote in Yiddish, which Stanley or Marcia had translated. Stanley's secretary, Sylvia Smith, went to visit him. Sylviaibed Boris as living in impoverished circumstances, but unwilling to accept help.

He had a social worker, however, who tried to help him. In a letter to Stanley, Marcia and Isaac, social worker Colin Keye wrote that Boris had an eye operation and that that was the "straw that broke the camel's back." Boris was placed under state guardianship in an arrangement overseen by an American attorney, Arthur Rosenstein, of Hertzl St., Netanya. Boris received help from the Netanya (Israel) Social Services for the Elderly, Stamper ST. 5, Netanya, Israel.

In the last weeks of his life, he was placed in a psychogeriatric ward of this nursing home in Hadera, Israel: "Beit Noach, Shikun Weitzman," where he lived for about 6 weeks, and then died.

2008: (For the first time, Serafima sees the photos of Uncle Boris in his final years. She writes to her cousin, Nanette Asimov): "I have seen his photo and heart mine was compressed, and to eyes the tears have risen. I never saw him by such old and helpless. I knew him, as very courageous, hardworking man, which knew very much, as mathematics and the connoisseur talmud. He very well knew Russian classical poetry and itself wrote verses on ivrit. He very beautifully sang, he had warm baritone - vote, as Violoncello. I shall send his photos, I would like, that near to his surname other photo has appeared still."

Buried:
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