Rabbi Motty Kopman, his friends recall, could become a person’s best friend the moment he met them.

He always spoke from the heart, and had a charm about him that allowed him to connect with every individual on a personal basis.

He had moved from Israel to provide spiritual support to a budding new Jewish community in Buffalo, and became the local Rabbi’s right hand man. Many shabbosim, he would walk for two hours to a shul, just to help them make a minyan; many congregants would come just because Motty was there.

On Rosh Hashanah, after being the Chazan and baal tokea, he would walk to the local university and spend hours looking out for jewish students and blowing shofar for the students, that didn’t not make it to a shul.

He always had a smile, a kind word, an inspiring story for everyone he met. He was a walking encyclopedia of music.

Motty had been battling Lymphoma for the last six months, and succumbed to COVID-19 at the age of 34, leaving behind five beautiful young children and a grieving wife.

A fund was set up to assist his family in this hard time.