It’s not every day that a dentist from Boro Park becomes a close follower and confidant of a member of the distinguished Abuchatzeira dynasty, but that is what happened to Dr. Gedaliah Mordechai Stern. Not only did Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira ztz”l guide him in his career, the tzaddik, who was recently niftar, gave Dr. Stern invaluable insights into the true meaning of building a life upon the foundation of emunas chachamim.
Middle age has nothing on Dr. Stern who agreed to share the story of his life and his relationship with Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira after receiving a special dispensation from gedolim. Graced with a warm disposition and easy manner he relates that he enjoys what he does so much that he jumps out of bed at around four each morning thinking “I get to spend another day helping people after being kovei’a itim laTorah!”
And that’s not because he gets to put his feet up. Weekdays are spent running from room to room to treat his many grateful patients. Dr. Stern could easily have breezed through life as a successful dentist in the States but already from his formative years he felt a strong urge to be in Eretz Yisrael. He therefore got a part-time job delivering groceries and saved his money.
“When I had $200 I bought a charter ticket. As I walked the streets it hit me that my grandfather had gone up in smoke in Auschwitz and here I was in Yerushalayim something that my grandparents only dreamed of. I knew that one day I would move to Eretz Yisrael.”
Before that happened Dr. Stern was earning an extremely respectable income as a New York dental surgeon. One day Rabbi Avrohom Wolf his elementary school principal at Toras Emes Kaminetz came into the emergency room. He told Dr. Stern that he had a nephew Dr. Dahvid Wolf who had a practice in Beer Sheva and needed another dentist.
Create a free account to keep reading.
