Scientist, avid reader
Elena Levenson (née Elena Viktorovna Chernokhvostova), 93, died on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, at the age of 93. Born in Moscow, Russia on Nov. 3, 1930, the only child of Victor Chernokhvostov and Lyudmila Katz, she was evacuated to the countryside during World War II, where she excelled in her studies after the war. In medical school, she met her husband, Vadim, and embarked on a distinguished career in immunology, eventually leading a laboratory at the G.N. Gabrichevskiy Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and receiving the state’s highest prize for science. Privately a critic of the Soviet system, she was ambivalent about the honor.
After their sons immigrated to the United States, Elena and Vadim followed in 1994, first to Washington D.C. and then to the suburbs of Chicago. A resident of Oak Park for over 20 years, Elena could be spotted walking to the main branch of the library well into her 80s, no matter the season.
Patient, agreeable, and exceptionally well-read, Elena had a stanza or a proverb for every occasion. She taught her namesake granddaughter how to read and write in Russian and translated favorite short stories into Russian for fun. Although she joked that technology didn’t like her, she used Skype to keep in touch with family and friends in Russia, Israel, Germany, and Australia into her 90s. Starting in her 70s, she wrote 10 books chronicling the histories of the Katz, Chernokhvostov, and Levenson families, the life of a beloved teacher, and her own experience immigrating to America. These works, incorporating centuries-old photographs, letters, and official documents, leave her grateful family a record of generations past and offer readers a look at Russian and Soviet Jewish life spanning 200 years. Her books are held in the Library of Congress and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Elena was predeceased by her husband, Vadim. She is survived by her son, Victor, and his wife, Sonia; her son, Dmitry, and his wife, Lisa; her grandchildren, Eugenia, Michael, Elena, and Joseph; her daughter-in-law Ana; and her great-grandchildren, Oscar and Samuel.