Tireless Zionist, Chevra Thilim past president, dies at 90

If you needed to find Charles Lewin on a Saturday morning, you could find him at Congregation Chevra Thilim.

"He came every Saturday whether he felt good or not," said Lydia Milrod, 86, a longtime friend. "In his later years, people would wonder, 'Is it too much for him?' But I always said, if God forbid something happened to him right there, in synagogue, he would die happy."

Lewin died Saturday, Nov. 11 at his San Francisco home, with his oldest son John by his side. Lewin, 90, died of congestive heart failure.

Born in 1916 in Lithuania, Charles Lewin moved to Israel in the '30s with his brother. It was mostly sand and swamps then, and the men worked wherever they could, mainly picking oranges. When they couldn't find enough work to make a living, they moved to Iran, where they did plumbing work in the shah's palace.

After World War II, Lewin returned to Israel, where he fought in the 1948 War of Independence; wounded by a grenade, he was hospitalized for nine months.

In 1951, he met his wife, Jenny, a German-born woman who immigrated to Israel from England. They dated for just four weeks when the Israeli Defense Forces notified Jenny that she needed to report for duty.

"Always the tough guy," said son John, Charles offered to go with Jenny and get her out of military service. The man at the induction center told the pair the only way she could get out of military service would be marriage.

"And so my dad said, 'Well, we're getting married.' It was almost like a proposal, right there," John Lewin said. "My mom was flabbergasted, and she said, 'We are? I hardly know you.' But believe it or not, they got married and he got her out of the army. They were married 49 years."

The couple had two children, John and David, and moved to San Francisco in 1963. Jenny died in 2000.

Charles Lewin spoke fluent Hebrew, Yiddish and English. When he lived in Iran, he learned Farsi, too. He spoke with a heavy Russian-Israeli accent, John said.

He described his dad as an ultra-perfectionist who was very kind and giving. He was a workaholic (he worked as a plumber in San Francisco) and very independent, insisting on doing everything himself — even when his health started to decline, John Lewin said.

Also, "He was also obsessed with honesty. He thrived on being honest. When he gave his word, on anything, even a little thing, he would just have to do it. His word was, literally, as they say, gold."

Charles Lewin was president of San Francisco's Congregation Chevra Thilim for five years, through 2001.

He usually stayed up late reading, mostly history books, and would rise every morning to lay tefillin.

Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi said Lewin used to lead the congregation's annual seder. During Shabbat services, he was outspoken, "never keeping a thought or idea to himself."

The pair spoke to each other in Hebrew — the language of Lewin's youth. Lewin took Zarchi under his wing in 1996, when Zarchi first became rabbi. They developed a close relationship.

Zarchi said Lewin was like an Israeli sabra fruit: prickly on the outside but soft on the inside.

"He was a real lover of the Jewish people and tradition," Zarchi said. "Above and beyond everything, he loved the state of Israel. He was there in the beginning and wanted people to know how much blood, sweat and tears went into creating this place.

"Deep down, though, his greatest desire was to find a way to unify the Jewish community," Zarchi added. "He felt there were too many denominations and labels, and he wanted to create a place where everyone felt they belonged."

Charles Lewin is survived by sons John Lewin of San Francisco and David Lewin of Philadelphia, and grandchildren Noa Sarah and Elijah Nathaniel Lewin. Contributions to the American Heart Association are preferred.