NEEMAN, Renate Luca, age 98, passed away August 8, 2024, beloved wife of the late Moshe Neeman, loving mother of Jenifer (Edward) Sawicki, Alisa Neeman, Henry (Rebecca) Neeman, and the late Edward Neeman, caring grandmother of Sai (Sarah) Sawicki, Rachel Amberg, Elizabeth, Samantha, David, Claire, and Alex Neeman, half-sister of the late Marlisa Koopman. Services were held at Weil Kahn Funeral Home, 8350 Cornell Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45249 on Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. with visitation beginning at 3:30 p.m. Burial took place at Brith Sholem Cemetery in Buffalo, NY on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
Renate was born in 1926 in Hildesheim, Germany. In May 1938, her parents fled to the Netherlands after her father received notification of his impending arrest by the Gestapo. Renate lived with her grandmother until her parents arranged for her to travel safely to Amsterdam in July 1938. The family went into hiding separately after witnessing the Nazi deportation of Jews to the East in 1943. Renate and her family separately spent the war years in hiding and working for the Dutch Underground. With the help of the Dutch resistance, Renate acquired false identity papers and worked as a maid for a Christian family in Amersfoort. Her parents were hidden in the U.N.I.C.A fraternity house at Amsterdam University. The family was reunited two weeks after the war’s end. In 1946, Renate immigrated to America and settled in New York City. She achieved degrees in Occupational Therapy, Masters in Education and Ph.D. in Psychology over the following years. After the war and coming to the States, Renate spent her life in service to others. In the 1950s, she worked as an occupational therapist in VA hospitals with Korean War veterans on their rehabilitation after suffering war injuries. Renate married Moshe Neeman in 1960 and was wed for 49 years. In the 1970s, she set up the program for Special Needs children and adults for the Cantalician Center in Buffalo, NY. In the 1980s, Renate worked with long term stroke patients (greater than 1 year post stroke, often greater than 3 years) on their sustained recovery. Renate developed several techniques that made meaningful differences in people’s lives and has numerous scientific publications on her advances. She continued to work with stroke patients well into her 70s before retiring. In 2014, Renate moved to Cincinnati. She was a speaker sharing her Holocaust experiences for about a decade in Buffalo and about five years for the Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati. Renate’s lifelong love was classical music and choral singing. She sang with the Buffalo Philharmonic in the 1950s. After moving to Cincinnati, she sang with the Circle Singers through May of this year, well past her 98th birthday. Renate was a mother of 4, grandmother of 7. She was a loving and caring person, a source of strength and positivity, and we were blessed to have her in our lives.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Cincinnati Jewish Family Services or the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. May her memory be for a blessing.
