JULY 20 • 2023 | 11

N

ick Gilbert climbed Masada. 
Picture a giant plateau on the 
edge of Israel’s Judean Desert, 
overlooking the Dead Sea, about 1,300 
feet straight up. The mountain is steep — 
so steep you can’t just climb up the side, 
but instead use switchbacks taking you up 
the incline. There are over 700 steps and 
endless rocky slopes, most of which have 
no railing.
You have to start this hike at 4 a.m. 
when it’s already 105 degrees outside, 
both in order to catch the spectacular 
sunrise when you reach the top, but also, 
because after the sun rises, the tempera-
ture becomes unbearable and unsafe. 
Everyone begins the trek exhausted and 
in the pitch black.
Now imagine you’re working with 
about 25% of your vision like Nick 
Gilbert. 
“Despite his limitations, Nick was one 
of the strongest people I’ve ever known,” 
said Temple Israel’s Rabbi Jennifer Lader, 
who helped lead the Teen Mission trip 
Nick was on in 2012. “Nick was not 
someone who did things Nick did not 
want to do. And if he didn’t want to climb 
that mountain, he had a million outs. He 
never took one.”
Nick climbed this literal mountain in 
the dark. It took him a long time, longer 
than others because he couldn’t see. He 
climbed and climbed. He put one foot 
in front of the other, encouraging people 
who passed him, telling them they were 
doing a great job.
When Nick reached the summit of that 
mountain, there were 119 teenagers wait-
ing for him there. 
“I swear, you have never heard the kind 
of cheering and celebration that greeted 
him when he reached the top,” Rabbi 
Lader said. “It was incredible. Just abso-
lute love, pride and joy for him from these 
kids, strangers and people who passed 
him on the way up.”
When the cheering abated, and Nick 
looked around drenched in sweat, he 
turned to Rabbi Lader and said, “Do you 
think they have Coke with ice at the gift 
shop?”
That was Nick Gilbert, affectionately 
known as “Gilly” to those 119 friends at 

the top of the mountain and an infinite 
number of others all over the world. He 
was always himself — a person who met 
every challenge head-on, who found 
humor in the face of adversity, who val-
ued every moment he was blessed with 
and every person he encountered, and 
who touched the lives of countless others 
because of how he lived his own. 

A CHALLENGING DISEASE
Nicolas Manuel Gilbert was born July 21, 
1996, to Jennifer and Dan Gilbert. He 
passed away on May 6. He would have 
celebrated his 27th birthday this Friday.
Nick was born with neurofibromatosis 
(NF), a nerve disorder causing tumors to 
grow throughout the body. Nick’s tumors 
grew in his head. He was specifically 
diagnosed with NF1, the most common 
type of NF, which he was diagnosed with 
at just 15 months of age after doctors 
discovered an optic glioma (tumor on 
the optic nerve). In the first grade, Nick 
began to lose vision in his right eye. In an 
attempt to save what vision was left, Nick 
began 18 months of chemotherapy. Nick 

underwent his first brain surgery shortly 
after his 10th birthday, when another 
tumor the size of a small orange was 
found in his cerebellum. Soon after, he 
began another 18 months of treatments to 
keep the tumors at bay.
For the next 12 years, Nick was on and 
off various treatments to slow the growth 
of several tumors. Almost like whack-a-
mole, as soon as one would stop, another 
would appear; chemo, radiation, MRI’s 
and endless doctor’s appointments were 
all part of managing the manifestations 
of NF. 
Nick gradually lost more of his vision as 
the years went on. By the time he was of 
driving age, Nick could see only shadows 
out of his right eye with only a quarter 
of his vision in his left eye. Legally blind, 
Nick was unable to get his driver’s license 
and could no longer play on the sports 
teams that he loved. But he never com-
plained. 
“He didn’t let this disease define him. 
He demanded to be a regular guy, which 
took a lot,” his father, businessman Dan 
Gilbert, said. “He fought so hard physi-

continued on page 12

The Gilbert 
family

