The 30th yahrtzeit of the Klausenberger Rebbe on 9 Tamuz is an auspicious moment to remember the impact this singular chasidic master had on countless people, particularly on Holocaust survivors, as well as on the world of medicine in Eretz Yisrael. The Rebbe suffered through the Holocaust, first with the loss of his wife and 11 children to Auschwitz, then with his own enslavement in a forced labor camp and the travails of a death march to Dachau. After the war, he brought hope to many in the DP camps. Later, he was able to rebuild his chasidus in America and Eretz Yisrael. As the fulfillment of a neder he made during the war, he built Laniado Hospital in Netanya, which became a beacon of hope for those in need of medical care across the country.
Dr. Baruch Schmidt was a surgeon at the hospital and helped found its Department of Surgery. In this fascinating autobiographical essay, Dr. Schmidt reflects on the unique relationship he enjoyed with the Rebbe over many years.

In 1977 I received a letter that puzzled me. It was from Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, the Rebbe of Kiryat Sanz and “Friends of Laniado Hospital.” Could some representatives of the organization meet with me?
In September of 1969, I had moved to Israel with my late wife and infant daughter. We settled in Be’er Sheva, where I worked in in the Department of Surgery at Soroka Hospital. After seven years, we went back to the US so I could “recharge my batteries.” It was during that sabbatical year that this letter arrived. I agreed to meet with the three men, having no idea what they wanted. I was teaching at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, so the three gentlemen came to my office. Among other things, they told me the background behind Laniado Hospital.
Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, a descendant of the Divrei Chaim, Rav Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, had served as Rebbe in Klausenberg in northern Romania for two decades until the Germans invaded the city in 1944. The Rebbe and his family were deported to Auschwitz. The Rebbe’s wife and all 11 of their children ultimately perished in the Holocaust. In a widely available clip (which can be seen in a documentary entitled Hidden Face), the Rebbe explains why he was motivated to build a hospital: “During the Shoah, I was shot in the arm. I put some weeds on the wound to staunch the bleeding and said that if I survived I would build a hospital in Eretz Yisrael. That hospital would have a staff of doctors and nurses who would know that there is a Creator: doctors and nurses who would approach patients with the knowledge that by healing them, they would be performing one of the greatest mitzvos in the Torah. Three days later the bleeding stopped.”
The Rebbe was liberated near Dachau and immediately went to work helping survivors rebuild their lives in the Displaced Persons camps Feldafing and Foehrenwald in Germany. He then moved to New York and continued to establish institutions to rehabilitate survivors. He also raised money to found a community in Eretz Yisrael. In 1947, he married Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama Ungar, a Holocaust survivor who was the daughter of the Nitra Rav, and they had two sons and five daughters. In 1956, he laid the cornerstone of Kiryat Sanz in Netanya. He insisted that the enclave be heterogeneous and include Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Yemenites and chasidim from different courts. After establishing another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, he and his family moved to Eretz Yisrael.
In 1976, he fulfilled his pledge. The new facility was named Laniado Hospital-Sanz Medical Center. Laniado was still in its infancy when the three men came to see me in New York. They had just recently received enough money to set up a Department of Surgery. They needed technical help and supervision, which was what had brought them to my office.

To read more, subscribe to Ami

subscribebuttonsubscribeEMAGbig