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Jewish Community of Hebron Mourns Dr. Irving Moskowitz

19.6.16, 14:07
(PHOTO: Dr. Irving Moskowitz in Hebron, 1999. Credit: David Wilder)
 
It is with tremendous sorrow that we mourn the passing of Dr. Irving (Yitzchak) Moskowitz, Jewish philanthropist, lover of Israel, and pioneer for his nation.
 
Dr. Moskowitz was a great supporter of Jewish communities in all parts of the Land of Israel, and was an invaluable friend to the Jewish Community of Hebron and Jerusalem. Some called him the Sir Moses Montefiore of our time, after the celebrated Jewish-British philanthropist of the 1800s who started the first modern communities outside Jerusalem's Old City walls.
 
We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to his dedicated wife Cherna and to his eight children and many grandchildren. May they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
 

(PHOTO: Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz with David Wilder and Noam Arnon at the Hebron Fund dinner. Credit: David Wilder)
 
David Wilder, veteran international spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron stated, 

"A tzaddik has left this world for a better one -- Dr. Irving Moskowitz, whose name and acts will be remembered in the annuls of Jewish history with Montefiore and Rothchild, whose generosity knew no boundaries, a man of modesty, a man of Torah, a man of the people. Together with his indefatigable ashet chayil Cherna -- may she live and be well for many years to come -- Irving changed the very face of Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael.
 
There aren't words to capture and define his legacy. Only that I have no doubt that what he was able to accomplish in this world is only a sliver of what he'll be able to do in the next world. May he and his memory be blessed for eternity."
 
The following photographs taken by David Wilder are from Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz's visit to Hebron in early 1999. They were also were guests of honor at the annual Hebron Fund dinner in 2001 held in New York.
 

BIOGRAPHY
 
Dr. Irving Moskowitz was born in 1928 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in Brooklyn, New York as one of 13 children to immigrant parents. According to his Moskowitz Foundation biography, over 120 of his relatives were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. He earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin and began his practice in California which lead to a successful entrepreneurship beyond his medical practice.
 

PHILANTHROPY

The Irving Moskowitz Foundation was established in 1968 with the philosophy based on the Jewish saying: "He who has saved one life, it is as if he has saved the world."

Recipients of the foundation include the Hawaiian Gardens Food Bank which serves over 1,500 families a month in the Los Angles county, the local Cinco de Mayo Carnival, and the Hawaiian Gardens Public Safety and Police Foundation.
 
Past recipients of the Moskowitz Prize of Zionism, established in 2008, have included: Yehoshua Fass of Nefesh B'Nefesh, head of the Israel Port Authority and former IDF general Meir Dagan, Michael Freund of the Shavei Israel organization, archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay, and many others. Two prominent Hebron residents have been awarded as well: Noam Arnon and Rabbi Moshe Levinger. 

The Foundation has sponsored relief efforts for natural disasters as well such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the Turkey earthquake, the 2003 wild fires in California, the 2004 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
 
 
 
 
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