Dr. Alexander Salamon was a legend in Seaman, Ohio, the small, poor,
rural Appalachian town where his family settled in 1953. He was the
only doctor in town. It was not unusual for him to see 60 to 90
patients a day, working from early morning until 11 at night. He
charged three dollars for an office visit (medicines included), never
refusing a patient who could not pay, and there were many he wouldn’t
allow to pay.
Dr. Salamon died of lung cancer in 1971 at age 62. In the last days
of his life, he said to his wile Lilly, "Someday there will be an
injection to cure cancer, or maybe even to prevent cancer altogether."
Lilly and her daughters, Suzanne and Julie, hope that their gift to the
Weizmann Institute will bring that day a bit closer. The three of them
have joined together to establish the Dr. Alexander Salamon Memorial
Endowment Fund, a philanthropic legacy in memory of their late husband
and father.
Julie and Suzanne have already made the outright contributions
necessary to establish a master's scholarship. Lilly has pledged a
bequest through her estate to the Fund. Assets from a charitable gift
annuity she created to provide income to a cousin in Israel, and from
her charitable remainder trust, will be added. The combined gifts will
ultimately support a professorial chair in Dr. Salamon’s honor.
Lilly and Dr. Salamon, both Holocaust survivors, married in 1946 in
Prague. He had survived Dachau, but lost his first wife and
three-year-old daughter. Lilly had survived Auschwitz, but lost both her
parents, a brother, and other family members.
Though the couple applied for entry to Palestine, permission to come
to the United States was granted first, so that is where they settled.
They enjoyed a long, happy marriage. Four years after Dr. Salamon
passed away, in 1975, Lilly married Arthur Salcman. "Arthur has been a
great second father to my girls," she says, "and the best grandfather
to their children." Lilly has also planned a legacy gift in Arthur’s
honor—a research fund designated for the use of the incumbent of the
professorial chair.
Arthur shares Lilly’s love for the Weizmann Institute. Lilly’s
interest began in 1960, when her sister, who lived in Israel, took the
family on a visit to the Institute’s campus. Her sister said, "You’ll
see. Saving of the world will come from the research they are doing."
Both Julie and Suzanne are married, and each has two children. They
have fond childhood memories of sitting down with their father every
Saturday morning before his hospital rounds to read the daily Torah
portion. He would tell them that they should be proud of their heritage
and support Israel. Suzanne, a physician, has followed in her father’s
footsteps. She is Associate Chief for Clinical Geriatrics at Boston’s
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an instructor at Harvard
Medical School. Julie, a journalist and award-winning author, said in
her book Rambam’s Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It Is Necessary to Give,
"I always admired my parents for their belief in universal humanity,
even though they had experienced evil so directly. Growing up with
them, I learned firsthand the essence of charity."