As JGH turns 90, a founder’s vision lives on through his granddaughter
Every time Nurse Clinician Karen Tafler walks through the doors of the Jewish General Hospital, her thoughts turn to her beloved grandfather, Dr. Samuel Ortenberg.
“Zaidie,” she says to herself, using the Yiddish term of endearment for grandfather, “if you could see this place now.”
Dr. Ortenberg would have every reason to be in awe. As a founder of the Herzl Dispensary, which became part of the JGH, Dr. Ortenberg could scarcely have imagined that the modest facility serving impoverished Jewish immigrants near Montreal’s port would evolve into one of the most respected and innovative healthcare institutions in Quebec.
As the JGH turns 90 on October 8, people like Mrs. Tafler have personal cause for celebration. To this day, she continues the commitment to delivering healthcare for all, in the same spirit envisioned by her grandfather.
Mrs. Tafler has dedicated a remarkable five decades to nursing at the institution founded in 1912 by her grandfather, now known as the Goldman Herzl Family Practice Centre. Her mother, Vita Lehberg, worked at the JGH as a lab technician. All told, Mrs. Tafler continues an unbroken family tradition of care stretching back 112 years.
“It’s hard to cut the connection,” she says.
“I’m so proud of my grandfather. Look at what he did with others, against all odds.”
Karen Tafler
Dr. Ortenberg and his Herzl co-founders were visionaries for their time. They believed in treating patients regardless of their ability to pay, 50 years before the advent of medicare in Canada. In 1923, Dr. Ortenberg advocated for the creation of the JGH and co-founded the Montreal Clinical Society with the aim, among others, of establishing and building the hospital. He even went door to door to raise funds.
And for all the dramatic transformations at the JGH over the years, there are many things that Dr. Ortenberg would have no trouble recognizing today—such as the credo of treating each patient as a whole person and providing care for all, regardless of a person’s faith, language or ethnicity.
“When you look at the different ethnic groups at the JGH, it’s beautiful,” Mrs. Tafler says. “It was the same for my grandfather. He never labelled anyone and it didn’t matter where you came from. What mattered was the person.”
“The Herzl never turned anyone away, and that vision lives on.”
Karen Tafler
Mrs. Tafler began practising nursing at the JGH in 1972 and shifted to the Herzl in 1975, a year after it merged with the JGH. Her grandfather was still alive to witness her start as a healthcare professional.
As a testament to family ties, Dr. Ortenberg’s memory is preserved on a plaque in what had been Mrs. Tafler’s office at the Herzl; she now works remotely.
“It’s a privilege that patients let me into their lives,” she says. “If I can still make a difference for one person every day, it’s all worthwhile.”
Words her grandfather would have lived by, more than 100 years ago.
The Dispensary that Dr. Ortenberg helped found was a small but essential facility that was primarily intended to provide care to the numerous Jewish immigrants who were streaming into Montreal during the earliest years of the 20th century.
By the 1920s, when it became obvious that the Herzl Dispensary could no longer handle so many patients, Jewish leaders began to propose building the JGH, which opened in 1934. The Dispensary continued to operate in parallel with the JGH for the next four decades, before moving into the JGH when the institutions merged in 1974.
While the Herzl has operated at several different addresses over the years, it has always maintained its focus on the original vision of its founders, upholding a tradition of care, compassion and service to the community.
