Abraham Efrati

EFRATI A Siauliai, Lith. Hamelitz #189 1895 EFRATI Siauliai, Lith. Hamelitz #254 1894

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The Jewish Hospital was founded originally in 1891 in a wooden building with room for twelve beds. This was a small hospital for a large community. The businessmen of the city saw that there were great demands on this small hospital. At their head was the public activist and first Gabai of the large study house (Beis Hamidrash Hagadol), an enlightened man "of the old generation", Reb Eliezer Efrati, from the family of Reb Avraham Efrati, the father of the famous Efrati family. He tried to get the government to budget a sum of money from the meat tax contingency fund to build a new hospital and to repair the Beis Hamidrash Hagadol. In 1898 the Beis Hamidrash Hagadol was rebuilt as a fine two storey building. Similarly a fine stone building of two storeys was built for the Jewish Hospital, similar to hospitals in other big cities. There were 24 beds for general patients and ten beds for contagious patients. There were separate rooms for outpatients, a clinic, nurse and operations. The institution left a strong impression and there was also a society for visiting the sick (Bikur Cholim) which gave financial help and medical equipment free to the poor of the city who were convalescing at home.