Dr. Norman Weinberg, organic chemist by training and a long-time member of Jewish Buffalo along with his wife Hannah, is a true renaissance man.

Passionate about science, his family, Judaism, the state of our oceans and lakes and more, Norman has also just published his first novel COMMANDMENT, available for purchase here.  Part science-fiction, part historical, and part love story, the novel is ironically about a devastating alien microbial Pandemic brought about by humanity’s weakness. “The story is really an allegory about all life from inception, including humans. All life struggles to exist, seeking nourishment while we evolve.  COMMANDMENT,” he concludes “is a warning to all of us.”

The book is beginning to gain traction (Norman just got his first royalty check) and he has been speaking with a theatre student about adapting the story for the stage.  Norman will also be speaking more about the book at a program facilitated by The Jewish Federation of Sarasota next Thursday, September 10 from 11-12 pm via Zoom.  Click here to register!

Norman has published many technical papers, reviews, and books on chemistry, electrochemistry, and the environmental sciences. He is deeply commitment to cleaning our lakes and oceans and has a patent application that provides a novel method that addresses the destructive impact of Red Tide algae.  “No surprise,” Norman notes, “but the problems of algae is all man-made.”

Norman was born in Toronto in 1936. His education in Chemistry began at the University of Toronto, and continued with Doctoral studies at the University of Ottawa.  He did a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. Norman is the recipient of many awards and honors including being named Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, the JNF Guardian of Israel Award, and the AJC Pursuit of Justice Award. In addition, the Republic of Poland presented Norman and Hannah, with medals for participating in restoring 35 devastated and desecrated Jewish cemeteries in Poland, efforts they spearheaded over a period of 17 years.

Norm and Hannah just celebrated their 61^st wedding anniversary.  They first met when teenage Hannah invited Norman to a sweet-sixteen party, which Norman didn’t realize at the time, was for her!  Hannah is also passionate about science and taught for years in the Williamsville School system as well at Ohr Temimim.  The Weinbergs have two children, Eric who lives in Rochester with his wife Margo, and Laurie, who lives in Toronto with her husband Warren. Beyond gushing about COMMANDMENT and all of Norman’s other interests, perhaps what makes him beam the brightest is talking about the accomplishments of his children and his 4 grandchildren.  Perhaps it would be more apt to conclude, that Norman is a true renaissance grandfather!