Visionaries from Lviv

“This book is much more than the simple story of a building and institution. The text—augmented by a wealth of wonderful illustrations—plunges the reader into the vivid maelstrom of the multifaceted Jewish society that grew up and gave birth to one of the few surviving physical monuments of prewar Jewish Lviv. We meet extraordinary individuals stretching back centuries, key among them Maurycy Lazarus, the hospital’s founder, a banker, businessman, politician, and philanthropist whose extended family encapsulated the intensely varied currents of a brutally vanished world.” —Ruth Ellen Gruber, Director of Jewish Heritage Europe “This moving and timely book describes the establishment and history of the Lazarus Jewish Hospital in Lviv (Lwów/Lemberg). Founded in 1898 by a prominent local Jewish philanthropist, Maurycy Lazarus, it was one of the most modern hospitals in Habsburg Galicia and served both the Jewish community and the larger society until the outbreak of war in 1939. It still exists and today houses a municipal maternity hospital. With contributions from four authors, the book provides a clear picture of the importance of the hospital, its history and architecture, and of the medical staff who served in it. It also depicts what preceded its establishment—the state of medicine and medical education in Galicia, Jewish access to the medical profession there, as well as the struggle of Jewish women to become doctors. It is essential reading for all those interested in the history of East-Central Europe and of the role of Jews in medicine in this area.”  —Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, Chief Historian, Global Education Outreach Project, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw “A collection of well-documented chapters presents the fascinating history of a Jewish community coping with the challenges of modernity in a multiethnic environment. The Jewish hospital building was a “product of the minds of a Jewish philanthropist, Ukrainian master builder, and a Polish architect with very different political views.” Its story demonstrates how Jewish doctors and businessmen, along with other members of the multiethnic society of Lviv, played a significant part in the development of science, welfare, and culture in Lviv. It is an important contribution to the history of medicine in eastern Europe and an exciting memorial to a Jewish world that was destroyed in the Holocaust.” —Israel Bartal, Emeritus Professor of Modern Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem