A First for the Rohr Family

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Levi Nazarov

The philanthropic Rohr family of New York and Miami have over the years helped build numerous synagogues, community centers, schools and humanitarian institutions for Jewish communities around the world.

Yet there is always a first, even for the Rohrs.

The new Bris clinic in Moscow, a division of the Rambam Multidisciplinary Medical Center, was dedicated by the family in memory of their patriarch, Sami Rohr, of blessed memory.

Housed at Shaarei Tzedek Social Center in the Marina Roscha neighborhood, the clinic includes a reception area, office, a sophisticated operating room and recovery room.

Honored with affixing a mezuzah on the front door and cutting the ribbon was businessman and philanthropist George Rohr, Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, David Rozenson, director of the Avi Chai Foundation in Russia and the physician known as the Mohel of Russia, Dr. Yeshaya Shafit.

The event included a performance by the boys choir of the Cheder Menachem school in Moscow, led by Rabbi Mendel Markowitz. They sang the Chassidic melody “Al Zos Shibchu Ahuvim,” a favorite tune of Sami Rohr.

His son George Rohr was honored as ‘sandak’ at the bris of one of 4 young Jewish men who agreed to enter the covenant of Avraham Avinu. Dr. Shafit performed the bris in the new clinic, joining some 6,000 circumcisions he has done to date.

At the festive Mitzvah meal held afterwards, an album was presented to Rohr containing photos of 120 Jewish people who underwent a bris thanks to his support. Also thanked was Rabbi Alexander Boroda, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, for assisting the new center.

The event concluded in the center’s shul Tefilah L’Moshe by davening Mincha and joyous dancing in tribute to the accomplishments of the Rebbe’s Shluchim and the revival of Russian Jewery.