Baltimore, MD - August 31, 2016 -- On Shabbos evening, August 19, a blazing fire which broke out in the home of octogenarians Julius and Eva Lou Chapman, longtime pillars of the Houston Jewish community, took the life of Mrs. Chapman. Her husband, although critically injured in the fire, is Boruch Hashem, improving by the day.

I never had the pleasure of meeting my coworkers’--Rabbi Reuven and Mrs. Janine Chapmans’-- mother and mother-in-law, respectively, but from what I’ve heard, I can just picture her: She would say, “Good Golly Miss Molly” as much as “takka” and “mamash”. She had a love of Yiddishkeit, of the Hebrew language, and Eretz  Yisroel,. She was a real Southern lady on a mission to do what was right in Hashem‘s eyes, no matter what it took. In 1979, for example, when Mrs. Chapman was appalled by a Calvin Klein billboard--which, today, would seem benign--she took her complaint to the mayor of Houston; shortly after, it was torn down.

Southern Hospitality

The oldest Chapman sibling, Rabbi Reuven Chapman, resides in Baltimore and shared, “My mother was “larger than life”. Although Houston presently boasts a rapidly growing Orthodox community, in the early 1970s, besides the rabbis in town, Eva Lou Chapman was one of only three Torah-observant Jewish families. Throughout her life, she made it her mission to fulfill the needs in her community. The Chapman home was a home away from home for many a Shabbos and Yom Tov guest, as well as for those who needed to be near the medical center or for training in a nearby college. Their more famous houseguests included: Mike Tress, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, and Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth, z”l.

Mrs. Chapman’s mother, “Bubby Helen”, who was born in Poland, was very active in the Houston community, ran a kosher home, and was a member of the Orthodox shul. As the basic point of contact for all the meshulachem who would come to Houston, she drove them around just to the wealthiest people. While they were staying at her house, the young Mrs. Chapman, who was very impressionable, would listen to their stories that inspired her to grow in Yiddishkeit, even though she was attending public school.

Childhood Sweethearts

As a pre-teen, Mrs. Chapman joined Young Judea, which was “the place”, in those days, for Jewish kids in the deep South. Houston’s chapter was part of the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana district of Young Judea. Since there was only one summer camp, in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, which serviced the Young Judea members of these three states, both Mrs. Chapman and her future husband, Julius (born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana), also attended. At the age of 14, they became best friends, and decided that after they finished high school they would get married at the age of 18. In preparation for getting married, they made contact with the local, young Orthodox Yeshiva University-trained rabbi, Rabbi Bernard Rothman, who is now Rabbi Emeritus of Sons of Israel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

“He was a freshly ordained rabbi from Y.U. and he was out to conquer the world, starting with these Chapmans!” recounted Rabbi Chapman. “He was very inspirational and he motivated them to start their married life with a frum home. They had a kosher home, observing taharas mishpacha and shmiras Shabbos, and when the shul relocated to a new suburb of Houston, they picked out a parcel of land for the shul and my parents picked out the next available parcel for their home.”

When the Chapmans asked Rabbi Rothman how they should plan their new house, he suggested a kosher kitchen with two sinks; two dishwashers; a very large freezer--so you can have a truckload of meat come in from Denver--and a very large utility sink, so you can salt and kasher your meat; a gas broiler oven so you can broil and kasher your liver; extra cupboards for Pesach supplies; and, a mikva. When it was discovered that the already established mikva was not kosher, the Chapman’s mikva became the only kosher one in the city. Since, their mikva was situated in the master bedroom closet space and was not accessible through an outside door,  Mr. Chapman would often have to pack up the kids in the family station wagon--shortly after coming home from work at 5--to take them for a drive for an hour or two, before calling home to ask if the “coast was clear”.

Moser Nefesh for Education

As Rabbi Chapman was about to begin kindergarten, Rabbi Rothman advised his parents about the chinuch of their children and the dangers of sending them to public school. He suggested that they get in touch with Torah Umesorah and establish a Jewish day school in Houston. Ten classrooms were housed in the new shul, which had been designed to house both a Sunday school and Talmud Torah program. Houston Hebrew Academy started with a kindergarten, since Rabbi Chapman was in kindergarten at the time; grades were added to accommodate his education. The school fell apart, however, after he finished third grade because there was no experienced rabbi or administrator of advanced knowledge to run the program correctly.

Rabbi Chapman attended public school for grades 4-7, after which Rabbi Rothman suggested that he go to yeshiva in Memphis in the established Yeshiva of the South. His brothers followed in Rabbi Chapman’s path, attending yeshiva in Memphis, and two of his sisters went to Bais Yaakov of Denver; another sister went to Prospect Park High School. Rabbi Chapman subsequently learned in Ner Yisroel, in Baltimore, as did one of his brothers.

So many beautiful things about Mrs. Chapman--even unbeknownst to her children--were discovered during the shiva period. It was Rabbi Yehuda Lefkovitz, for example, who shared that she was instrumental in getting one of the first SEED programs off the ground, in Houston. When the SEED program first started, select cities were sent ten people. Denver sent a group of ten to Houston for the summer SEED program and it was Mrs. Chapman who took it upon herself to be responsible for establishing where they were going to stay, as well as cooking all their meals, herself.   

Although Mrs. Chapman’s mother was involved with Mizrachi Women, when her son, Rabbi Reuven Chapman, came home from learning in yeshiva in Israel, she asked his advice--should she become active in Mizrachi Women or start a chapter of N’Shei Agudas Yisroel, in Houston. With her son’s encouragement, she established a N’Shei branch in Houston.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

One of the things that meant so much to Mrs. Chapman was sending clothing to poor people in Eretz Yisrael. She made it a project of her Nshei group to collect used clothing in good condition. She stored it in every room in her house until she found people traveling to Israel who could take her huge stuffed duffle bags. In fact, in her determination to get her “mitzvah bags” delivered, she asked one of her sons to arrange their delivery on Air Force One, when she found out that it would be making the trip to Israel after Israeli Prime Minister  Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination. As her daughter, Dani, noted, “If it was the right the thing to do, she wasn’t shy to ask.”

Mrs. Chapman’s chesed also extended to the several Jewish patients who come to Houston for its world renowned medical center, over the years. She was the point of contact to arrange accommodations and meals for these families. Realizing there were also children who were patients, she implemented the distribution of pekelach, little candy packages, to those Jewish children who were receiving medical care at this medical center during Chanukah time.

When reviewing the list of Jewish children, that she requested from the medical center (pre-HIPPA days!), she realized that there was one child who did not have a parent contact. She asked the nurse why none was listed and was told that next Tuesday, this newborn--whose parents no longer wanted him because of his very serious medical condition--is scheduled to be put up for adoption. Since there was no Jewish adoption agency in Houston, the infant was going to be handed over to the Catholic Adoption Service. Fortunately, the Chapmans knew of a young couple living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who were married for many years and were not yet blessed with any children. The couple sought out Daas Torah, since the child was so critically ill. Specifically, they asked if it was worth adopting this child if he was so sick. They were more than happy to adopt him after their posak advised them that it was. Perhaps, he said, the whole purpose of sending his neshama down to this world was just so he could experience a Shabbos and/or a bris before returning to the next world.

The very next day, the childless couple traveled to the Houston hospital from Chattanooga, with lawyer in tow, signed the paperwork and adopted the child immediately. Next, they went to the Chapmans to give their new son a bris milah, before flying home. In Chattanooga, they had expert doctors examine the baby; except for curvature of the spine, there was no sign of any serious medical condition. Fast forward: this child grew up, married, made aliya, and started a family of his own in Eretz  Yisrael. At the burial of Mrs. Chapman, in Beit Shemesh, this now grown man participated by covering over her grave with dirt, along with the chevra kadisha.