Elaine Kaufman

A mother’s most significant task is to nurture her child. A heroine is a woman noted for special achievement in a particular field. One might not typically view a mother as a heroic figure. It is true that mothers are often not perceived as heroines, for they are not necessarily noted for courage or daring action. But it is the unprepossessing, maternal figure that nurtures a child without vanity or pride who, we believe, are the heroines among us.

Elaine Kaufman is emblematic of that quietly devoted maternal figure desired by all children who wish to be unconditionally loved and accepted. She is a woman who has quietly and selflessly taken on the lifelong task of loving and caring for others.

Elaine has unconditionally given of herself to her own children—Portland State University’s Cheryl Livneh and her siblings, Debbie, Jeff, and Larry Kaufman. She is a devoted and loving grandmother to her grandchildren—Danya and Yael Livneh, Mychal Johnson, Lauren and Matthew Kaufman, and Evan and Aaron Kaufman. And she was a loving wife and life partner to her late husband, Eugene Kaufman. She has been a selfless, open-minded, and caring person to her family members, her immediate and distant relatives, and her community. She is our family’s heroine among this Walk of Heroines.

Born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1927, Elaine spent her childhood and most of her adult life in Racine, Wisconsin. During World War II, she could not afford to attend more than one year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for she needed to help support her immediate family. Because of her father’s ill health, Elaine and her sisters worked in his general store for a number of years prior to getting married. She met her husband in the late 1940s and her first child was born in 1950.

Her life from that time forward revolved around raising her children and sustaining the small, Jewish community in Racine. Elaine and Eugene Kaufman were significant figures in this Jewish community with Elaine serving as president of the local Sisterhood and Hadassah for many years, and raising money for the fledgling state of Israel.

Elaine was also instrumental in making her husband’s medical practice a homey and engaging place to be. Most every patient knew the Racine couple from their lifetime spent in town, and Elaine made the office environment warm and inviting with her trademark needlework and other art on display. The healing that was accomplished in the Kaufmans’ medical office was triggered as much by Elaine’s maternal warmth for the clientele as it was by the deft touch of her podiatrist husband’s hands.

Unfortunately, just as she and her husband made plans for retirement, he was struck with cancer. As a widow in the prime of her life, Elaine courageously picked up and moved to San Diego, leaving her home of nearly fifty years. She has continued on in her practice of giving to her newly adopted community, she is involved in Jewish community affairs, as well as serving in a number of other volunteer activities. Her active volunteer life includes serving as an usher at the Old Globe Theater for many years, working in the pediatric ward of a local hospital, and serving as a reading tutor for elementary school children.

Her life force, however, has been the unstinting devotion to her family and lifetime of service to her community. It is her decent and dignified personal conduct and her instinctive caring for others—the nurturing behavior of a mother—that is the life lesson she has shared with us. We all, as humans, want and need to be loved. To know that you are loved, even if by only one person in this world, is a gift—a heroic gift, indeed—that has been bestowed upon the Kaufman family by our heroine, Elaine Kaufman.