Renaissance Man
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Even in academia the image of the serious researcher is that of a nerd who can barely make it from the library to the lab. That stereotype will be sorely tried this year as Robert J. Aumann (“Johnny” to his friends) shares the Nobel Prize in Economics.
For 30 years, Johnny has served our family as honorary grandfather, Talmudic authority, professional and educational adviser, and friend. Not to mention gourmet chef, trek guide, sublime joke-teller, and spiritual role model. Dozens, if not hundreds of others, are just as close to him. We’re all grateful to the Nobel committee for finally letting us in on what he does in his spare time: the seminal mathematical work for economic game theory.
Johnny’s devoutly Jewish family escaped Germany in 1938. In America, his academic achievements quickly won acclaim in the greatest institutions. But his heart was set on Zion, and he moved to Israel in 1956. His mentors were shocked that he had settled in what was then a wasteland, but Johnny made the desert bloom as much as any kibbutznik. His international reputation continued to grow, and colleagues everywhere were drawn to his personality as much as to his brilliance.
His real family grew, too, with five children who were always the center of a life packed with intellectual ferment, religious excitement, outdoor adventures, and assorted high jinks. The idyll came to an abrupt end in 1982.
Johnny’s son Shlomo, a Torah scholar and gifted pianist, was killed in a tank battle with the Syrian army. Thousands attended the funeral, but utter silence prevailed as the bereaved father roared the words of the Kaddish over the hills of Jerusalem: “Glorified and sanctified is the great name of God …”
My husband and I waited in fear as the long line of comforters snaked to the Aumanns’ apartment. What is there to say to people who have lost a child? Would Johnny, the Johnny of richness and joy, be buried with his son? And would we be mortified in the house of mourning – We couldn’t find a sitter for our 2-year-old.
But Johnny’s eyes lit up when he saw the boy. On his low mourner’s stool, he was in the perfect position to organize a game including our son and his toddler grandchildren. Like everyone, they were mesmerized by this man who understood and loved them so completely, who was one of them.
After a year of mourning, Johnny marked the return to “normal” life. We joined him in a trip to the movies. Afterwards, Johnny’s analysis was so convincing, it turned the film we saw into one of my favorites.
Some years later, I asked Johnny if he could ever forgive the death of Shlomo to the point where he could join in making peace with the Arabs. “Yes,” he said. “When?” I asked. “Yesterday,” he said.
Yet his political thinking is hardly simple. Last month, we discussed the pullout from Gaza and the destruction of its Jewish communities. In three decades of talk about Israeli politics, I had never heard him so bitter. “They’ll give the whole Land away,” he said, tears in his eyes.
Johnny worked hard to fill the emptiness left by the death of his wife, Esther, six years ago. His interests and hobbies have grown ever broader; his energy constantly recharged. Each winter, he hosts a family ski trip in Europe. I often chuckle to myself, thinking of some teenage grandchild trudging behind him, too embarrassed to ask his grandfather to slow down.
Esther had been an extraordinary character in her own right. But most of all, she balanced Johnny’s personality as perfectly as some fine laboratory instrument. She tempered his genius and imagination with shrewd planning and stability.
She’s always with him in spirit. And she’ll be there on December 10 when he receives the medal. Hopefully, she’ll keep him from telling the king of Sweden the one about the watchmaker and the circumciser …
Ms. Berkowitz is a writer and novelist.