Lester M. Bornstein

Lester Milton Bornstein a pioneer in the field of hospital administration and a bridge builder between the Jewish and African American communities of Newark, New Jersey, died at his home of natural causes on Saturday December 5, 2020, at age 95. He was surrounded by loved ones at home, and by Zoom to those family members around the world.

Born to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, he grew up during the Great Depression in a mostly Irish neighborhood of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and regularly experienced anti-Semitism. Shortly after graduating from high school in 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to the 168th Battalion of the Combat Engineers. His three brothers also served, one of whom, Dr. Joseph Bornstein, won a silver star for bravery in Europe and reached the rank of colonel.

The 168th trained at Camp Carson, Colorado, before shipping off to Great Britain in preparation for the Normandy landings. Assigned to the first wave ashore, the unit was placed in quarantine after one of its members died of meningitis. The unit that replaced it suffered close to 100% casualties. Bornstein went on to serve in five campaigns stretching from France to the Czechoslovakian border. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, during which he and Sergeant James Hill fired a bazooka that destroyed a lead German tank at close range. This action thwarted a German assault, and Bornstein for his actions was awarded a Bronze Star. The event was documented in an Emmy Award winning four part series on NBC entitled “Enemies No More”. Later, crossing the Rhine River, Bornstein ferried infantrymen three times, back and forth, under intense fire. For these actions, he was awarded a second Bronze Star for Valor as well as the French Legion of Merit.

After the war, as a student at Boston University, he graduated first in his ROTC class and returned to the military as a second lieutenant. During the Korean War, he served on the staff of the U.S. Navy Hospital in Sasebo, Japan, and decided on a career in hospital administration. He graduated from Yale’s school of Public Health and in 1957 became the assistant director at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, N.J. He was named President in 1966.

At a time when virtually all hospital administrators were doctors, Bornstein was one of the first public health managers to assume the role. He oversaw the hospital’s expansion into a modern medical center renowned for its renal and cardiological care and a teaching branch of the Rutgers New Jersey College of Medicine. Yet it was in the relationship between this Jewish hospital and the African American community that Bornstein made his most lasting contribution.

Following the large-scale riots that broke out in Newark in 1967, many of the city’s best hospitals relocated to the suburbs. Though the Jewish population had also dwindled, and was replaced by African Americans, Bornstein insisted that Beth Israel remain and continue to serve the people of Newark. He also championed the hiring of Black doctors, recalling how many hospitals had once refused to hire Jewish doctors. Working closely with community and city leaders, Bornstein forged bonds that have enabled the Beth Israel Medical Center to provide world-class care to Newark for more than a half-century. In recognition of his achievements, the center created the Lester M. Bornstein Center for Emergency Care.

Lester Bornstein is survived by his wife of seventy-two years, the former Marilyn Goldstein, by his daughter, Dr. Aura Kuperberg, a specialist in caring for adolescents and young adults with cancer, another daughter, Karen Angrist, a hospital social worker caring for the Geriatric population, and a son, Michael Oren, an author, historian, and former Israeli ambassador to the United States. He leaves nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Memorial services were held at Congregation B’nai Shalom in West Orange where Bornstein worshipped for sixty years.

In lieu of flowers the family prefers that donations be made to the Lester M. Bornstein Center for Emergency Care at the Beth Israel Hospital in New Jersey. Newarkbethgiving.org or mailed to the Newark Beth Israel Development Foundation, 201 Lyons Ave., Newark, New Jersey 07112.