Dr. Feldman – “One of the Last Remaining Old School Doctors”

by Yosef Hershkop

Today, American healthcare and the religious Jewish community of NYC in particular lost a giant. One of the last remaining old school doctors, Robert (Moshe) Feldman M.D. didn’t talk or write about any of the popular buzzwords such as social determinants of health, universal healthcare or patient engagement; he WAS all those things. If a patient needed intervention in his home life, Dr. Feldman would get local social nonprofits to help. I’ve personally sent him uninsured patients; he never turned them away, and he’d sit with his patients for over an hour – even during non critical visits – even just to explain to a mom why he’s prescribing one antibiotic over a different one.

He didn’t consider it his job to just examine patients, create treatment plans, and move on to the next patient; he wasn’t satisfied until he knew everything was well with them. If a patient needed any sort of diagnostic testing device that isn’t available at a family medicine practice, he would make call after call to find the most practical option for the patient. and he had dozens of papers and sticky notes taped to the walls in his office with info on where to go for what. He didn’t need to do any of this. His patients would still fill up his waiting room even without any of these perks, but he wouldn’t hear of doing it differently.

During the past 15 months, he suffered the loss of his dear wife and son and he had every right in the world to hang up his white coat – yet he didn’t even consider that for a minute. 45 minutes after his son passed away, he already had a plan in place for his patients – and even that didn’t stop him from seeing many of them during the Shiva. He wouldn’t even go to his grandchildren’s Bar Mitzvahs without first arranging someone whom his patients could reach out to (a directive he got from the Rebbe). In recent years I was privileged to help him in that role. In fact, one time the calls were accidently routed to my cell phone, and after handling those intense calls for three hours, I gained an even deeper appreciation for the great doctor.

Unlike a more famous doctor whose last name also starts with an F, our Dr. Feldman was never honored by Presidents or the Sunday talk shows – but he had the love and respect of his community, and is going to Gan Eden having personally saved tens of thousands of lives.

Although they most likely never enjoyed a normal Shabbos meal or family outing, it’s amazing seeing how his children proudly followed his path of community service.

It’s been a painful day for the Crown Heights community, but we should also celebrate that we got to live together with such a selfless man as Dr. Feldman. May his passing be the final sadness before Moshiach’s arrival.

Yosef Hershkop is a Healthcare Executive and activist in Crown Heights.