Moshe Efrati
Obituary
Moshe Efrati passed away at age 86 on Wednesday, December 9th, after a long, debilitating illness. He died as he lived: quietly, peacefully and without ever making a fuss.He was the loving and devoted husband of Esther Efrati (nee Cohen), beloved father of Ruth Efrati Epstein and Keren Efrati Lincove z'l, and proud grandfather of Marielle Efrati Epstein and Jacob Efrati Epstein.
He was kind and gentle to the extreme; infinitely patient and sweet; with an extremely sharp and inventive intellect; never judgmental and always with a sense of humor; he was modest and unassuming and never asked for anything for himself.
He loved his wife, his daughters and his two grandchildren with every fiber of his being and was devoted to them every day. Second only to his family, he adored his adopted State of Israel.
His will to survive anything was extraordinary and legendary.
He was born Moshe Pistiner in Visnitsa, Romania in 1934. There, he survived near drowning in an ice-covered river; the long years of the Holocaust and the shooting that murdered his father; death marches and starvation in the ghettos and camps of Transnistria, Romania; diphtheria, typhoid, and scarlet fever; and years in a refugee camp in Cyprus before finally arriving in Israel one month before its Independence Day.
He came to Chicago in 1962 to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois. In Chicago, he survived mugging at gun point; being hit head-on by a train; numerous hospitalizations, fractures, surgeries, cancer, chronic pain, paralysis, and COVID-19; and worst, the loss of his beloved daughter, Keren.
And to much of it he said, 'eh, so what?' in his endearing Eastern European accent. But he could not survive the awful year that has been 2020.
Memorial Contributions
Hatzalah Chicago (Emergency Medical Service)PO Box 59816
Chicago, Illinois 60659
www.duvys.com/simple/HatzalahChicago
847.454.0800
or
Chicago Mitzvah Campaign
2939 West Touhy Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60645
chicagomitzvahcampaign.org/donations/
866-697-2224
or
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
9603 Woods Drive
Skokie, Illinois 60077
www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/tributegifts/
847.967.4821
Memorial Contributions
Hatzalah Chicago (Emergency Medical Service)
PO Box 59816
Chicago, Illinois 60659
www.duvys.com/simple/HatzalahChicago
(847) 454-0800
or
Chicago Mitzvah Campaign
2939 West Touhy Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60645
chicagomitzvahcampaign.org/donations/
866-697-2224
or
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
9603 Woods Drive
Skokie, IL 60077
www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/tributegifts/
847.967.4821
GUEST BOOK
We encourage you to share your personal condolences and stories of Moshe Efrati below and we will share them with the family.