Constitution and By-Laws of the Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia.

The Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia was one of the earliest Jewish hospitals in America and the very first in Pennsylvania. The need for Jewish hospitals was confirmed by the fact that other local hospitals performed post-mortem autopsies (expressly prohibited by Jewish law), did not provide kosher food and were a haven to proselytizing Christian missionaries. The Hospital’s founder and Director, Isaac Leeser, was among the first to call for the establishment of Jewish hospitals. Many prominent Philadelphia Jews were involved in the project, including Rebecca Gratz. Indeed, the meeting at which the Hospital was formally organized in 1865 was one of the largest public meetings of the Jews of Philadelphia up to that time. A century later, the Hospital merged with two newer institutions to become the Albert Einstein Medical Center. See M.Whiteman, The Legacy of Isaac Leeser in: Jewish Life in Philadelphia (1983), pp. 37-8.