Dr. Eugene Schwalb, a"h

Dr. Eugene Schwalb, Betzelel ben Moshe Dovid A”H was born in Prague, Czekoslovakia in 1932 into a family that can only be described as Jewish aristocrats. His father first studied law and then went to medical school, and his mother was part of a wealthy banking family from Yezerna, Ukraine. In 1933, the Czech government appointed his father to a prominent position in Sudetenland where he moved when he was a toddler. In his toddler years, he vacationed throughout Europe. 

That all changed in 1938 when the Nazis annexed Sudetenland, forcing his parents to go on a three-year trek through many countries in Europe to escape the Nazis, yemach shemam v’zichrom. He was literally placed in a suitcase during certain points of their flight in order to escape. They passed through Poland, Belgium, France, Spain, and Morocco until they miraculously received a visa to the United States. During their escape, his parents and grandparents used to play all kinds of games with him, e.g., checkers and chess, so that he would remain quiet and not put their lives in jeopardy by making noise. This is the origin of his excellence in pretty much every game that he played, and he loved to play games throughout his life – with friends, his children, and especially his many grandchildren. 

He settled in the Bronx and his parents, once European aristrocrats, worked in an emergency room as a janitor and as a seamstress to send him to Salanter yeshiva. His father died when he was a teenager and his mom worked hard as a single mom to support them. He was an excellent student and decided to go to medical school. Unfortunately, it was not easy for a Jew to get into medical school in the United States in the 1950’s. So he applied and was accepted to medical school in Switzerland. He worked summers as a waiter in a Jewish hotel in the Catskills to help pay for medical school, where he met his wife, Rita Haas. He joined the United States Air Force to pay for medical school, and, after graduating, he was stationed on a base in San Antonio where his first four children were born. There he trained as a pediatrician. 

The young couple eventually moved back to New York in the 1960’s. It was important for them to be near an Orthodox Shul, and the options were the 5-Towns or Hicksville, where Congregaation Shaarei Tzedek was located. He said “no way the 5-Towns will grow with all those airplanes flying overhead. Hicksville is much more likely to grow as a Jewish community.”

 Eventually, he settled in Jericho and he worked first as a pediatrician at a HIP-Center and he eventually became the Executive Director of that group. He worked extremely hard for the doctors who appointed him and always placed their needs before his own. He and his children davened at a shul that was close to two miles from their house. Every Shabbos morning, he would wake up his children and walked to shul frequently in freezing weather. This provided an extraordinary message for all his children – the importance of tefilla and of shul.  

He developed very strong relationships with various Rabbinic leaders, including the principals at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Rabbi Meyer Fendel and Rabbi Moshe Gottesman, Rabbi Shlomo Wahrman, and Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva, among others.  

Although he was financially quite successful, he lived very modestly. He gave generously to yeshivas, shuls and other Torah institutions, and was honored by many Torah institutions. 

Of course his pride and joy was his family, which includes four children, 31 grandchildren and an ever growing troupe of great grandchildren. He was a tremendous role model for all of us, a devoted Jew, loving husband, and an ish chesed v’emes. Tehei nishmaso tzrurah bitzror hachayim.