Tehillim Requested for Rebbe’s Doctor Ira Weiss

By COLlive reporter

The family of renowned cardiologist Dr. Ira Weiss has requested that the public keep him in their davening, as he is in need of recovery and better health.

Dr. Weiss, a Senior Attending Physician at Evanston Hospital in Illinois, where he has practiced for 50 years, has recently undergone surgery. His family did not elaborate on what it was for.

“He just had surgery, and there was a setback,” they wrote a message.

They asked, “Please add a special prayer for precious dad, especially during candlelighting tomorrow: Yitzchak Zev Halevi ben Zelda.”

Dr. Weiss graduated from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1967, at age 23, as one of the country’s youngest doctors, having completed a specialized, six-year accelerated program.

Following his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at Harvard under the world-famous Dr. Bernard Lown, Dr. Weiss established a distinguished career in academic and clinical cardiology, serving as an Associate Professor at Northwestern.

Dr. Weiss is best known in the Jewish world for his 17-year tenure as the Rebbe‘s chief cardiologist. His connection to the Rebbe began during an emergency on the holiday of Shemini Atzeres in 1977, when the Rebbe suffered a massive heart attack.

Dr. Weiss was contacted early the next morning and flew from Chicago to New York. He helped stabilize the Rebbe in a makeshift hospital room established within the Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.

Since then, Dr. Weiss developed a deep personal bond with the Rebbe and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, often sharing unique anecdotes that highlighted the Rebbe’s profound insights into medicine, emunah, and human character.

In their request for davening, the family wrote: “You all have such sweet, positive energy, so it would mean a lot to me if you davened for him and were especially kind to others because that is really what is most important to him and what he does best.”