The director of Shaare Tzedek hospital whose home was vandalized by 79 religious zealots last week charged at a press conference today that a propaganda campaign against him by ultra-Orthodox sects was being financed by a resident of New York. The zealots smashed furniture in the home of Dr. David Maier and knocked down his aged mother in protest against the doctor’s refusal to ban autopsies at the hospital which is patronized almost exclusively by Orthodox Jews.
The vandals’ attack was attributed to the ultra Orthodox “Eidah Haredit” sect, a group that does not recognize the State of Israel and regards the Satmar Rebbe in New York as its spiritual leader. Dr. Maier said today that Orthodox patients were continuing to use the hospital contrary to the sect’s claim that it was being boycotted. He noted that the daughter-in-law of Rabbi Joseph Sheinberger, leader of the “Eidat Haredit” had just registered for the hospital’s maternity ward.
Dr. Maier, a pathologist originally from New York and himself Orthodox, has followed the policy set by his predecessor at the hospital which is to let the officiating rabbi rule when a post mortem is permissible according to Jewish religious law. The extremist groups do not recognize the hospital’s rabbi whom they allege is not sufficiently Orthodox. Dr. Maier charged that the sect was using “Hitlerian techniques” in its campaign against him.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
