Born in Russia, he was brought to the United States by his parents at age 5 and grew up in Minnesota.
He served as a medical officer in France in World War 1, and later became a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
Its creation served two purposes: Jewish physicians who had been denied admitting privileges at other city hospitals could now practice medicine, and the founders garnered enormous civic prestige.
It was the first private non-sectarian hospital in the community to accept members of minority races on its medical staff.
In 1990 it merged with Metropolitan Medical Center to become Metropolitan-Mount Sinai; in 1991 they closed their doors.