Julia Feinberg

Julia Feinberg, M.D., retired psychiatrist, passed away in Boston on September 19, 2023 at the age of 97. Julia was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 10, 1926. Her parents were young doctors who later became eminent researchers in psychiatry and neuroscience.

In 1929 the family moved to Moscow, where her parents received academic appointments. Julia had a happy childhood, but her teen years involved two dreadful historical events: terror in the Soviet Union and World War II. In 1936-38, two of her maternal uncles were arrested and killed a few years later. On June 22, 1941, the first day of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Julia was visiting Minsk with her mother. They were able to leave Minsk for Moscow on one of the last trains before Minsk was occupied on June 28. At the beginning of the war, Julia’s parents were deployed to the army as medical doctors, and she spent a lot of time during the war taking care of the wounded people in the local hospitals. In 1941-43, she lived in Sverdlovsk (currently Yekaterinburg), a big city to the east of the Ural Mountains, after being evacuated there from Moscow.

In 1943, Julia graduated from a high school with straight A grades, and, at that time, she could be admitted to any university without entrance exams. She decided to be a doctor and became a student at a medical university. In addition to medicine, Julia was passionate about music. During her high school years, she concurrently attended an evening music school and studied piano.

In 1944, she met in Moscow her future husband, Alexander Feinberg. He was an air force lieutenant. They married in 1946, and their marriage lasted 76 years until Alexander died on September 21, 2022. In 1947, their first son, Michael, was born. In 1949, the family moved to Bobruisk, a city in Belarus, where Alexander conducted his military service, and Julia worked as a doctor in a local hospital. By coincidence, Bobruisk was the native place of Alexander’s father, who left the area during WWI. None of the relatives who stayed there during WWII survived the Holocaust.

In 1954, the family moved back to Moscow, and their second son, Eugene, was born in the same year. After coming back to Moscow, Julia started to work at a large psychiatric hospital. Her patients were mostly senior women, and her work included providing psychiatric and general medical care. She was an excellent doctor who saved and prolonged many lives. When she was in the middle of her career, the state introduced a ranking system for doctors, and she was appointed to the highest rank. Julia worked in the same hospital until her retirement in 1987.

In 1989, Julia, Alexander, and her mother immigrated to the USA, where Julia’s and Alexander’s sons lived. Julia and Alexander lived in Boston and enjoyed their family, friends, and travels. They jointly visited many places in North America, Europe, and Israel. Julia is survived by two sons: Dr. Michael Feinberg, the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Netcracker Technologies and BostonGene, and Dr. Eugene Feinberg, Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics at Stony Brook University. She is also survived by four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.