Bernard Kaufman Jr.

Bernard Kaufman Jr. Beloved patriarch of a large family and revered physician, died peacefully at home in San Francisco on July 9, 2008. The cause was pancreatic cancer. He was 93 years old. Born in San Francisco in 1914, Bernard spent eight years living in Vienna, where his father, also a physician, went to study and practice medicine between 1923 and 1930. He was deeply affected by those years of rising fascism and anti-Semitism. His involvement in the Vienna Jewish Boy Scouts, his Bar Mitzvah, and his Zionist activities became formative experiences. He returned to San Francisco at age 16 and graduated from Lowell High School. He attended Stanford University where he played soccer, and he earned his medical degree at Tulane University Medical School. He was a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and participated in five campaigns during World War II, serving as a physician. He took part in the Normandy invasion in 1944 and was among the U.S. troops who liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. His fluency in German and Yiddish, learned in Vienna as a child, enabled him to communicate with camp survivors, slave laborers, and German doctors and soldiers in his medical work. He returned to San Francisco in 1945 and went into medical practice with his father. He practiced internal medicine for 53 years and was an Associate Clinical Professor at University of California San Francisco. He was an active member in the American Medical Association and many other medical organizations. He was a senior attending physician at Mount Zion Hospital. A lifelong Zionist, Bernard was a president of the San Francisco District of Zionist Organization of America and a founder of the San Francisco Israel Bond Organization. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Jewish Welfare Federation. He was a member of the Jewish War Veterans and served on the Board of Trustees of the Judah Magnes Museum. During the 13 years of his retirement, Bernard remained active in community affairs and wrote a history of his family in the form of stories and memoirs. He is survived by his daughters and sons-in-law, Sharon and Seth Kaufman, Rabia Joan and Benjamin Van Hattum, and Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow; eight grandchildren; special friend Frida Koppl; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. He was the husband of Shirley Kaufman Daleski of Jerusalem and the late Edith Schoenberger Kaufman, and he was the brother of the late Joy Belmont. Funeral services will be held on Friday, July 11th at Sinai Memorial Chapel, 1501 Divisadero St. at Geary Blvd. Contributions may be sent to: Judah Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., Berkeley, CA 94705, or Jewish Community Endowment Fund, 121 Steuart St., SF, CA 94105.