Boris Yefimov z”l was born on September 28, 1900 and he was niftar in Moscow on October 1, 2008, at the age of 109, three days after his birthday. He was believed to be the oldest living Jew in the world.

During recent years he developed a relationship with Russia’s chief rabbi, Rav Lazar, and he would make a habit of visiting a shul on his birthday.

On his 108th birthday party held in a Jewish community center, he stated he will never forget his experience during WWII in the Nazi death camps. He described the Jews as a “shadow, a skeleton” which has never been seen since. He stated he will never forget the fear of those days. He explained his experiences during the war ensured he maintained a connection with his Jewish roots, vowing never to forget. During his experience in the death camps, he found a Yom Kippur machzor which remained with him, which he attributes to keeping him connected to Yiddishkeit, which a number of years ago he presented to Rav Lazar. He attributes his return to Shmiras HaMitzvos to the machzor. Prior to his petira, he began to daven regularly and put on tefillin daily.

Rav Lazar adds that since receiving the machzor, he used it in the Moscow Central Synagogue on Yom Kippur and prior to beginning with Kol Nidrei he shared Rav Boris’ story with the k’hal.

Boris was a Soviet and Russian political cartoonist and propaganda artist best known for his political caricatures of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis produced before and during the Second World War, and was the chief artist of the newspaper Izvestia. During his 70 year career he produced more than 70,000 drawings.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)