A check in the amount of four hundred thousand dollars was presented at noon yesterday by Mrs. Anna Esther Fridenberg to Arthur A. Fleisher, President of the Jewish Hospital of this city.
This money is to be used for the purpose of erecting, equipping and partially maintaining a Surgical Ward Building in connection with the Hospital. This gift is the largest of its kind given to a local communal institution since the bequest a quarter of a century ago of Moses Aron Dropsie, making possible the founding of the College bearing his name.
This check represented a legacy to Mrs. Fridenberg through the will of her brother, Mone Samuel Fridenberg, who died in Philadelphia in February, 1931.
The building to be erected out of this fund is to be known as the “Fridenberg Memorial Surgical Building” and is given to the Hospital by the donor in memory of her parents, Samuel M. and Esther Fridenberg, and her brothers, Mone S. Fridenberg, Solomon S. Fridenberg, and Louis Samuel Fridenberg.
This new building will be in Tudor style harmonizing with the William B. Hackenburg Building and will be located so that all the wards will have the greatest amount of sunshine at all times. The building will consist of a ground floor with four stories above and a solarium. Tunnels will connect the Fridenberg Memorial Surgical Building with all of the other hospital buildings in the area. In addition to four operating rooms, a Memorial Hall, a solarium and other facilities for the conduct of the most possible modern building for surgical operations, the building will have 56 ward beds. It is to be of steel frame construction, fireproof throughout. The exterior will be of tapestry brick, with Indiana limestone and terra cotta trimmings, harmonizing in texturem color and appearance with the Hackenburg Building.
In making her presentation, Mrs. Fridenberg declared: “After much thought, I came to the conclusion that no more fitting memorial could be erected than one designed to relieve and alleviate human suffering. I therefore spent much time in visiting and studying the work of the great hospitals of Philadelphia, and it gives me much pleasure to say to you, in handing you this check, that I do so because I am convinced that the Jewish Hospital is not only one of the best of such institutions in our city, but the one which is most deserving of aid and support.”
Those attending the presentation included Arthur A. Fleisher, Leon J. Obermayer, Dr. Joseph C. Doane, Lee Nusbaum, Mrs. Joseph H. Rubin, Jerome J. Rothschild, Horace W. Castor and Mrs. Mabel Fridenberg.
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.
