The Portrait of Simon Gelman

Adorning the walls at Brigham and Women's Head on his hand quite comfortably resting The subject distinctive in his smiling position Inspires the asking who is this physician Over his shoulder an old time sea captain And over the other what looks like the Kremlin A scene that recalls something seemingly Russian What is its significance in this bastion of medicine And so the commencement of careful researching Reveals the story of which we'll be learning A Harvard professor with numerous contributions To the field of anesthesia including ischemia-reperfusion This skillful practitioner of inducing unconsciousness Was born in the Soviet Union in Nineteen and Thirty-Six The whitebearded mariner is his belov'd Granddad Who perished unaccounted for in the blockade of Leningrad When Simon was young he was frequently hungry Simochka said Mamma for food do not ask me Life as a Jew in the society of Stalin Was hard but instructive for the mensch now ascending At that time in Russia was no concept of charity Because the state cared for everyone and no one was needy But the pogroms and politics couldn't kill his generosity And as soon as they could his wife and he left their country Emigration to Israel where he learned to be Jewish In the sense of the word that's proclaimed and not whispered And he saw for the first time a community helping And he knew gum zu l'tovah was how he'd be living And many years later ensconced at the Brigham The giver, the teacher, the lover of freedom Fortunate I who discovered his portrait And learned the legacy of the man