In Memory

David Colman

David Colman

We don't have much information regarding David.  We were able to locate his tombstone and obtain a translation from the Hebrew.  Some of our classmates have reported that David sadly chose to end his own bright flame.

Here lies

David the Son of

Reb Shragge Faivel

the Cohen

Passed away on

the 1st of Elul 5731

May his soul be bound in the bond of eternal life

We thought the following explanation of how to read a Hebrew tombstone may be helpful (from the web site Jewishgen.org):

At the top of most Jewish tombstones is the abbreviation פּ'נ, which stands for po nikbar or po nitman, meaning "here lies".

At the end of many Hebrew tombstone inscriptions you will find the abbreviation ת נ צ ב ה, which is an abbreviation of a verse from the Bible, the first book of Samuel, 25:29, "May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life".

If any Hebrew characters at all are written on a tombstone, they are most likely to be the person's Hebrew name.  A Hebrew name always includes a patronymic, the person's father's given name.  This is a unique feature of Jewish tombstones, and a great boon to Jewish genealogy.

The Hebrew word בן, ben, means "son of", as in "Yaakov ben Yitzhak", meaning "Yaakov the son of Yitzhak". The Hebrew word בת, bat, means "daughter of".  On tombstones, these words will often appear as ב'ר, an abbreviation forben reb, meaning "son (or daughter) of the worthy", followed by the father's given name.  The word reb is a simple honorific, a title of respect — it does not mean Rabbi.



 
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07/16/16 01:08 PM #1    

Robert Liek

I had many good times with Dave while we were in high school. He was brilliant and had a good heart.  I learned more about chemistry and physics from him then I did in high school. Dave, I miss you.


07/28/16 05:32 PM #2    

Rob Davis

I have a fond memory of Dave at out draft physica, where hewas trying to get classified 4F on psychiatric grounds.  When they told us to strip down to our skivvies, Dave would strip down slowly and then slowly puit all of his clothes back on.  He did this over and over again and, when the rest of us were going home in the early afternoon, he was sitting with a few other "misfits" on the Group W bench.  

 

I knew Dave from school at the time he killed himself.  We had long conversations about Freudian Theory, his favorite topic.  He had been recently married to a gorgeous woman.  It seemed so senseless.


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