Selwyn Rabins
93284p Geoff Hirsowitz Selwyn Rabins Ashley Davidoff SA 40th Reunion Legals Seafood Newton Mass September 2009 Courtesy Ashley Davidoff
As a substitute for Selwyn?s personal bio and in the hope that Selwyn will provide his own bio I am going to post the summary of our evening together of September 24th 2009 ? the Boston reunion
The Boston Tea Party was held in a famous fish restaurant in Newton Massachusetts called Legal Sea foods at 7pm. Geoff and I see each other often and speak once every 1-2 weeks.
I have not seen Selwyn since about 1992. What a shame on us ? living in the same city for 32 years and only a single fleeting moment 20 years ago ? and then a void and a vacuum.
His accent, expressive hands, kind and humble manner with a warm smile are the same. He has not provided us with a bio but I learned that he chose engineering by default after graduating high school because many from our class were going into medicine and he wanted to do something different. His happiest years academically ? were his years at Wits. He felt as if the program was designed for him He was in his element ? and flew through 4 years of engineering school acing firsts all through.. so much so that he was accepted into many of the top schools of the US that he applied for . He chose MIT for post graduate studies . The reason he chose MIT was because the brochure of the university had a picture of the Charles river with boats and the beautiful characteristic domed building of the campus!
He told us this all after we questioned him about his career ? and his response was in a quiet and humble manner ? despite this enormous achievement.
He and his brother Richard own a software company together and he is rewarded by the creativity of his work
He is talller than both Geoff and I remember ? He thinks army food did it to him.
Selwyn is married with two young children a daughter of six and a son of 4
What interested me in the conversation was that both Geoff and Selwyn entered King David school in later years. Selwyn entered in Standard 4 or 5 after coming from a small school in Bulawayo. They both found that it was difficult to break into the mainstream group and felt excluded to some degree. Cricket for Selwyn and hockey for Geoff helped .. but we all recognised that groupism led to discomfort. The lesson to be learned is that all newcomers into a group should be treated with extra care and sensitivity This is derech Eretz ? having an open tent Selwyn also chatted about the exclusion from the Ulpan Overall he said however that he had a great time at King David ? formed tight friendships with Philip, Eli Friedman, Sam and most who were interested in cricket keeps up with Julian Rachman and Ronnie Epstein