Modern-Day Humanitarian Values that Reflect a Charitable Jewish Founding
Mount Sinai’s robust connection to the Jewish community is a rich heritage that dates back more than 170 years. This lineage, rooted in a shared commitment to serving a vulnerable population at a time of great need, has been instrumental in shaping the delivery of advanced medical care in New York City and around the world.
Today’s Mount Sinai Health System is a global leader in compassionate patient care, innovative scientific research, and first-rate medical education. At a time of rising antisemitism, Mount Sinai also continues to offer programs and initiatives that directly serve the Jewish community—a through line of humanitarian values that stretches back to our distinctly humble and charitable Jewish founding.
Our History
The original Mount Sinai Hospital traces its origin to January, 15, 1852, when nine representatives from a variety of Jewish charities, including the philanthropist Sampson Simson and Jacques Judah Lyons, incorporated a hospital in New York City for poor Jews. Three years later, what was then known as Jews’ Hospital opened in a four-story building with 45 beds on West 28th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues—a rural neighborhood at the time. Its founding principle was tzedakah, a Hebrew word meaning “righteousness” that is often used to indicate “charity.”
Jews’ Hospital primarily treated foreign-born patients in its earliest years; records indicate that 83 of our first 100 patients were German. Notes from a Medical Board meeting in 1872 even indicate that it was “hard to attract new House Physician because the ‘applicant must take an examination and because Board of Directors wanted a Jew and someone who could speak German.’”
Jews’ Hospital was an altruistic organization that relied on donations from friends and members, in addition to government subsidies, to cover its costs. And even though it was a sectarian institution, Jews’ Hospital accepted emergency patients regardless of their religious beliefs, and even accommodated Union soldiers during the Civil War. Then, in 1866, the hospital broadened its mission by becoming nonsectarian in order to continue to qualify for government funding. It also chose a new name with an unmistakable Jewish pedigree: The Mount Sinai Hospital is a direct reference to the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments, one of the most significant events and sacred locations in the Jewish tradition.
A Sustained Sense of Purpose
Even as The Mount Sinai Hospital expanded and grew across the last century and a half, it never lost sight of its general dedication to tzedakah, or to its particular commitment to responding to the needs of the Jewish community. Today, Mount Sinai continues this tradition via initiatives such as:
Engagement with the Sephardic Community. During the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Mount Sinai assisted many families of Sephardic Jewish descent. In gratitude, more than 80 families became philanthropic partners with Mount Sinai, generously supporting faculty research and clinical programs across cancer, cardiology, emergency medicine, women’s health, neurology, and more. In recognition of our partnership with the Sephardic Jewish community, the Mount Sinai Board of Trustees elected businessman and community member Nathan Hoffman as a member in 2022.
The Mark Lebwohl Israeli Visiting Fellowship in Dermatology. This program, which is part of Mount Sinai’s commitment to training the next generation of international dermatologists, is a partnership between Mount Sinai’s Department of Dermatology and the Sheba Medical Center’s Ella Lemelbaum Institute for lmmunoOncology in Tel Aviv, a well-known leader in skin-related diseases. The fellowship is named for Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, who transformed the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai into one of the largest in the country during his more than 20 years as Chair.
Mount Sinai-National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute. In partnership with National Jewish Health, the nation’s leading respiratory health hospital based in Denver, Colorado, this institute offers specialized programs committed to collaborative care and advanced diagnostics for a full range of lung conditions. Personalized treatment plans are enhanced by the implementation of genetics and genomics into disease management approaches.
Specific programs from the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility for the Hasidic community. Implemented through the Reproductive Medical Associates of New York, these programs ensure that all fertility tests and treatments adhere to proper religious guidelines and orthodox Jewish faith traditions.
Takanot Program for male and female Orthodox Jewish survivors of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Our Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI) offers counseling and support services that are culturally sensitive and religiously knowledgeable. Our Takanot clinician is trauma-trained and has an understanding of Torah values, religious law, and Orthodox Jewish cultural practices. Services are available to provide support, referrals, and psychotherapy to Orthodox survivors of abuse and their affected family members. These services are free and confidential.
Expanded Carrier Screening Panel for Ashkenazi Jews. Several genetic diseases occur at increased frequencies in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Because disease inheritance can be autosomal recessive or X-linked, many people are carriers without knowing it. Mount Sinai has been setting the bar for Ashkenazi Jewish carrier screening since 1997, when the Genetic Testing Laboratory (GTL) initiated the triple-screen for Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, and Gaucher disease. Additional disorders have been added steadily over the years as new genes were discovered. In 2014, eight new diseases were added based on population screening studies performed by scientists at the GTL.
Since its founding, Mount Sinai has been uniquely positioned to serve the Jewish community. This proud history established the strong foundation that allows us to serve patients from all backgrounds. That same spirit of tzedakah that motivated our founders more than 170 years ago lives on, bolstering our mission to achieve better health outcomes for all.
Mount Sinai Hospital circa 1852