'Post' columnist Sam Orbaum dies at 46 - Baruch Dayan Emet Shalom Everyone. I met Sam when I first went to the Jerusalem Scrabble club on Emek Refaim many years ago. I walked in as a stranger and Sam made me feel comfortable and welcome. Simply put: He was a good person! You can read his articles at: http://www.samorbaum.com/ I posted several articles by him in the past on my website at: The Absolutely True Story of Hanukka http://www.jr.co.il/humor/chanuk12.txt Right On Time, A Day Late http://www.jr.co.il/articles/adaylate.txt I'd Rather Live in Israel http://www.jr.co.il/articles/live.txt Why Arafat Got Arafatter http://www.jr.co.il/articles/politics/arafatter.txt The Fifth Columnists http://www.jr.co.il/articles/politics/fifth.txt The Coalition http://www.jr.co.il/articles/politics/coalitio.txt BS and the Prime Minister http://www.jr.co.il/articles/politics/bs.txt Sam brought a smile to many people - in person and via his columns and books. Below is the Jerusalem Post article about him. He will be missed. May his memory be blessed. Jacob ---------- 'Post' columnist Sam Orbaum dies at 46 The Jerusalem Post Staff December 10, 2002 http://www.jpost.com Longtime Jerusalem Post columnist and author Samuel "Sam" Orbaum died Monday after a long illness. He was 46. His funeral is to take place today at 12 noon at Beit Hahesped in Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot Cemetery. Orbaum spent nearly 20 years at the Post, first in the advertising department, then as a writer, editor, and columnist. He published four books, including But Seriously, a volume of selections from his long-running humor column of the same name, and Eskimos of Jerusalem (And Other Extraordinary Israelis), a collection of his "Not Page One" columns. Friends and colleagues remembered him as a charismatic curmudgeon who was well-loved. "Sam didn't mince words; he played with them," said Post deputy Magazine editor Liat Collins. "His columns revealed him at his most cantankerous as well as his most loving. His sense of humor shined through his stories as much as his sense of justice. He loved a good fight. And he fought his cancer accordingly. Sadly, this time he lost." "He was extremely passionate, when he was writing, or being a loving friend, which was often," said Post editorial features editor Ruthie Blum. He was once Blum's editor, and several years later, she became his editor. "When I became his editor, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, 'Now I'm in trouble, now you can take your revenge on me,'" Blum said. "Sam, more than anyone else, gave humorous voice to the tribulations of Anglo-Israeli immigrants, while slyly celebrating their Zionist commitment," said Post managing editor Calev Ben-David. "He was rightly very much in demand as a speaker whenever there was an Anglo-Israeli event or ceremony." Outside the Post, Orbaum was well known as a co-founder of the Jerusalem Scrabble Club, reputed to be the world's largest. Club co-founder Sarah Schachter said the club will suffer with Orbaum gone. "Without him, the essence is gone," she said. "It is dreadful, unthinkable. We have a regular meeting tomorrow. We will be devastated. He had some kind of alchemy that turned it all into love." Orbaum published an autobiography recently on his Web site (http://www.samorbaum.com). Here are excerpts, written in his inimitable humorous and self-mocking style: "Samuel Orbaum was born on May 22, 1956, in Otley (near Leeds), Yorkshire, England. He didn't like the weather, so he left: at the age of six weeks, he immigrated to Montreal, where he acquired a Canadian accent - his most noteworthy success during an otherwise oblivious childhood. "He was diagnosed as 'a bad boy' because no one then knew what ADD was. He hated school (and school wasn't crazy about him either). Nevertheless, at the age of eight, he awoke to the world around him: he consumed the 20-volume World Book Encyclopedia, perusing through the thousands of pages three times, acquiring knowledge without any help from education. That same year initiated lifelong passions for philately, hockey, Scrabble, and writing (this was the olden days, before computers spoiled the wonders of childhood); in the coming years, he discovered additional loves: the culinary arts, baseball, journalism, the opposite gender. "But admitting that his life had been a thorough failure, on February 18, 1981, at the age of 24, he immigrated to Israel with $23, a change of clothes, pages of poetry, and little else. His fortunes changed, literally overnight: his life in Israel has been successful and happy. And by now he has a lot more than $23. "His first home in Israel was, of all places, the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak. He moved on to Kibbutz Lavi in the Galilee, then to Kibbutz Na'an, where he studied Hebrew at an ulpan. He moved on to an immigrant absorption center in Herzliya Pituah, studying hotel management at the Tadmor school (including a half-year chef course). He abandoned the studies upon clinching the only job he really wanted - at The Jerusalem Post. "He moved to Jerusalem, and on April 3, 1983, he began his career at the Post as an in-house advertising copywriter; five years and 2,000 advertisements later, he joined the editorial department. "Two days later, on April 5, 1983, he inaugurated the Jerusalem Scrabble Club, which continues to be a rousing success: it is the largest Scrabble club in the world. Sam won the club title many times, and the National Scrabble Championships in 1995, going on to represent Israel in the World Championships that year in London. "Sam married Wendy Elliman on March 26, 1989. A year and a half later, they already had three children! Odelia, Nomi, and Donna - identical triplets - were born on October 1, 1990. "Just before his 39th birthday, in 1995, Sam was found to have cancer (lymphoma). Tough luck, but there's still a life to be lived, right?" Sustained chemotherapy, and a bone-marrow transplant in 1998, failed to eradicate the condition.