Eulogy for Dr. Judah White, By Dr. Les Eber

Les asked to have his eulogy posted - on behalf of the medical profession.
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I know that have or will hear about Judah as a human being, a son, a friend, a brother, and as a Jewish young man.  I would like talk about Judah as a physician. 
 
Judy and I met the Whites in San Antonio the late summer of 1968 while Seymour and I were defending our country during the Viet Nam War.  It was then that Brooks Air Force Base was forced to provide facilities for Jewish personnel for High Holy Day services.   Among other folks, there was the White family: Seymour, Martha, Judah and Issy.     To put it in perspective, two-year old Judah seemed to know only one word, and that was Omen.  Issy easily fit on my arm stretching all the way from my right hand to my elbow.  Benji was not even on the horizon at the time.
 
When they joined us in LA in 1970 we were thrilled, as we wanted to spend a lot more time with them after that chance meeting in Texas two years earlier.  Our families bonded, and there has not been a major holiday that we have not been together.  So, with Benji, now on the scene, we had truly become a large family.
 
Since Judah was the oldest and the most vocal, I came to know him first.  From the outset, he was a great conversationalist.  He was always curious about what others were doing and seemed to have a genuine love for people.  It is still a mystery to me as to why he initially elected to study law.  I was not surprised when he told his parents that he felt his real love would be in medicine. They were very supportive.   This was not an easy new road for him.  He had to make up some science courses and somehow get himself into medical school.  With the medical legal climate then as now, his law degree was not of much help.  He entered medical school in Israel and was more determined than ever to become a physician. 
 
During his visits home, I had many opportunities to discuss medicine with him.  The first thing I discovered was how far behind I was in basic science and the second was that Judah was a very curious student who knew a lot.  He loved each one of his rotations equally and had difficulty making up his mind where to go within the medical profession.  He had a UCLA rotation in student health and really excelled.  I happen to know the director of this program who shared with Judy and me what a bright and dedicated medical student Judah was.  She stated that he was the best student to come through her department.  This lady does not easily bestow compliments.  Judah loved working with college students and had dreams of continuing this work in the future. 
 
As he progressed through his internship, I realized that Judah was a master at the medical drash.   Just like our biblical scholars, he was always interested in explaining things.  By his own admission, not a basic scientist, he wanted to understand the mechanisms of disease.  Just like our biblical scholars engage in speculation, he would ponder medical scientific problems and often stretch far and wide for explanations of the mechanisms of disease.  Some, frankly, seemed a little far fetched, but all of us know that true discovery requires far fetched hypotheses. 
 
I have never had the pleasure of seeing Judah interview or examine a patient, but I have certainly had the opportunity to hear him talk about them.  It was always with reverence and respect.  He treated all patients in an equal fashion regardless of who they were and their economic status.  Those of you who new Judah well knew that he did not like to get up early in the mornings, but his experience as a house officer seemed to change all of that.  His enthusiasm for medicine prevailed and somehow made it a lot easier for him to get out of bed.
 
I spend many hours talking or rather listening to him about his Hodgkin’s disease.  Judah talked to me, as we shared a common profession, but he never demanded undue attention or even pity.  He never dragged a sole down with him even in what must have been many moments of despair and pain.  He wisely trusted his physicians, but in the end, made critical decisions for his own care.  It was very important to him that he take full responsibility for his body and not rely unduly upon others, even upon his family.  In the end, he displayed the wisdom of a great physician; namely, he was able to utilize the findings of his history, physical examination, and laboratory data to synthesize his own medical problem and come up with a treatment plan.
 
With Judah’s passing, there are many losses but one of the greatest losses is to the medical profession.  It is so sad that there are so many other patients in the world that he could have helped with his skill and compassion.  Wherever his studies would have carried him, he would have excelled. 
Leslie M. Eber