Jewish Healthcare Foundation: Avraham Moshe Bikur Cholim will honor Dr. Joel M. Geiderman, co-chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with its Ahavas Chesed Award, which means loving kindness.
Rabbi Hershy Ten first met Geiderman on his many visits to the emergency room with his son, in whose memory Ten and his wife, Blimy, established the foundation.
“Joel Geiderman’s extraordinary devotion to humanity reflects the values of our organization and embodies the meaning of the Ahavas Chesed award,” Ten said.
Bikur Cholim, the Hebrew term for the mitzvah of visiting the ill, provides free and subsidized health care and social assistance throughout California.
Its services include free prenatal care, immunizations, mammograms and prostate cancer screening; medical counseling and subsidies for doctor payments and drugs; community education and bone marrow drives, blood drives and ambulance services.
The foundation also works with Jewish Family Service – a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles – in social services and advocacy programs. Bikur Cholim coordinates hundreds of volunteers to visit the ill and provides food and housing for patients’ families, as well as fully stocked Shabbat lockers for patients in the hospital.
Geiderman will receive the Ahavas Chesed award at a dessert reception Sun., Sept. 24, 7 p.m. at Paramount Pictures. For more information call (323) 852-1900, or send e-mail to Jewish.healthcare.fdn-bikur.cholim@att.net.
