The B'nai B'rith magazine · 1927-06-01 · 9 (6.1927) · p. Seite 386

The Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital By Rabbi A. B. Rhine HOUGH some may question the existence of Jewish solidarity, the Jewish poor have no such doubts. An indigent Jew knows that he will be provided for by his co-religionists, and he usually is. It is for this reason that poor Jews, rendered almost helpless by disease, will venture on long journeys to some well-known health resort, confident that somehow they will be cared for after reaching their destination. If such health resorts have an organized Jewish community, with a rabbi at its head, it will logically fall to the lot of the rabbi to see to the maintenance of those strangers. Crippled, practically helpless and penniless men have come to my door from New York and Chicago and even more distant points, in the expectation that "Jews will not let them fall." I am talking not of professional beggars, the so-called "schnorrers" whom one encounters often enough, but of unfortunate victims of circumstances who are doubly handicapped in the race of life by poverty and illness, and who, in their despair, throw themselves upon the mercy of their fellow Jews. They know that Jewish solidarity is a fact. It is this fact that gave birth to the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Here are hot springs, owned by. the government of the United States, which are reputed to possess healing powers that are almost miraculous. Here come thousands and thousands of persons from the four corners of the earth, among them large numbers of Jews, sick and crippled with rheumatism and kindred diseases. Money? Is there not a Jewish community in Hot Springs? Is the community too small to handle this problem alone? What is the matter with the B'nai B'rith? Is not that the great Jewish organization which embraces Jews of all classes, and to whom co- Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital religionists afflicted in body and bowed down in despair may look for help? This, in brief, is the psychology that brought many of our people to Hot Springs and created the necessity for a free hospital. Such an institution remained a dream for many years. The local community bravely attempted to do its share in meeting the need. In 1904 the situation in Hot Springs was placed before the convention of B'nai B'rith District No. 7 at San Antonio, Texas. The Grand Lodge appointed a committee, known as the Hot Springs Disbursement Committee, which was authorized to appeal for funds in the District to relieve conditions in Hot Springs. The Convention of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in Washington in 1910, nationalized the work and authorized the incorporation of the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital Association. Its aim was to erect a free institution in Hot Springs which would be an expression of the humanitarian spirit of B'nai B'rith as well as a monument to that great Ben B'rith, Leo N. Levi, who had gone to his reward a few years before. Ground was broken in the spring of 1913 and the doors of the institution were opened on November 1st, 1914. Over thirty thousand men, women and children have received treatment in the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital in the thirteen years of its existence. Thirty thousand! Can one imagine the aggregate of agony relieved, of hope revived, of health restored, of independence recovered, which such a num- 386 ber represents? If the saving of one Jewish life is the saving of an entire world, how many worlds the Hospital has saved! A large proportion of the patients of the Hospital was, of course, non-Jewish. In conformity with the Babbinic principle that Jewish charity knows no distinction between Jew and non-Jew, the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital is non-sectarian. In this respect the Hospital proved a veritable "Kiddush Ha-Shem." It was in the Hospital that many of those non-Jewish patients first came in contact with Jews and Jewish philanthropy; and the humanitarian service rendered them in their distress dispelled the ancient lie of Jewish exclusiveness. And how many publicly gave expression to their gratitude and appreciation of the Jew and the B'nai B'rith that made such an institution possible! The Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital is still young and looks forward to still greater activities and achievements. In many communities there are poor men, women and children who are afflicted with certain diseases for the relief of which the Hospital is especially equipped. These victims of disease should be sent to the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital; members of our Order are especially urged to extend the usefulness of the Hospital whenever possible. A children's ward is a probability of the near future and a clinic building is soon to become a reality. These needed improvements will enhance the efficiency and the scope of our institution, and place it in the front rank of the Jewish philanthropic institutions of America.