Title
Honoring and recognizing Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, formerly the Jewish Hospital, on receiving a historical marker to commemorate its illustrious history.
Body
WHEREAS, Following years of organizing and fundraising, the Jewish Hospital opened its doors to patients in 1866 in a 22-bed farmhouse in West Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, By way of background, Pennsylvania's Jewish population increased sharply with those who fled during the German Revolutionary Period from the 1830s to the 1870s. Pennsylvania's largest city at that time, Philadelphia, was second only to New York City in terms of Jewish population and German Jewish settlements in the United States; and
WHEREAS, As the City's Jewish population grew, the need to serve Jewish patients also grew. For example, many patients wanted a hospital where kosher food was served, where customs of the Jewish Sabbath and Jewish holidays were observed, and where Jewish burial rituals were followed; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphian Isaac Leeser wrote extensively in the Jewish press about the need to care for poor, sick, and elderly Jews. He became a part of the "Jewish Hospital Association," which was formed in 1865 to collect funding, designate staff, and build the hospital in West Philadelphia by 1866; and
WHEREAS, The Jewish Hospital in Philadelphia was the third to open in the United States, after one opened in Cincinnati in 1850 and New York City (Mount Sinai) in 1852; and
WHEREAS, The Jewish Hospital was among the first hospitals in the City to publicly proclaim that it was dedicated to the relief of the sick and wounded no matter the color of one's skin, the God they worshipped, or the neighborhood or nation from which they came. These words appeared over the entrance of the Jewish Hospital when it opened: "Dedicated to the relief of the sick and wounded without regard to creed, color or nationality"; and
WHEREAS, This credo was groundbreaking for the time, assuring Jewish Civil War v...
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