The story begins in 1908 with Joseph Kaufmann’s graduation from McGill’s medical school, which marked the beginning of a successful 57-year-long medical career as a recognized leader in the Montreal health community. Four generations later, his great-grandniece Amy Ornstein, also an MDCM, is a multi-award-winning pediatrician. In addition to its educational ties to the family, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences has also benefited immensely from the family’s philanthropy, which continues to this day. Here, we take a look back over 115 years of shared history.
Joseph Kaufmann, MDCM 1908
Upon graduation, Dr. Kaufmann was appointed House Physician at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) before travelling across Europe to complete his postgraduate studies and perfect his knowledge of cardiology, pneumology, pathology, neurology and X-ray diagnosis. Part of the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he returned to Montreal and resumed his duties at the RVH, where he was appointed Physician in the Department of Medicine in 1934. There, Dr. Kaufmann organized the hospital’s first Department of Hematology and became its Chief Physician, as well as the Director of the Division of Hematology. By retirement, he had become the RVH’s Senior Physician-in-Chief of Hematology.
In parallel to his work at the Royal Vic, Dr. Kaufmann held positions at McGill, eventually becoming Associate Professor of Medicine, and worked in many medical institutions across Montreal. In fact, he played a crucial role in the establishment and development of two of the city’s care facilities. In 1934, he was invited to act as an advisor and consultant to Michael Hirsch and Arthur Martin Vineberg, MDCM 1928, from the newly founded Jewish General Hospital (JGH). The JGH had been incorporated as a healthcare institution in March 1933 before being formally inaugurated in 1934. Dr. Kaufmann went on to become a consulting physician at the JGH as part of its original medical staff.
In addition to his work at the JGH, Dr. Kaufmann was also the first physician at the Hebrew Consumptive Society and became its medical advisor and chairman of the Medical Board when it became the Hospital of Hope for Chronic Diseases in 1932. Known today as the Donald Berman Jewish Eldercare Centre, it is the second-largest Jewish long-term care centre in Quebec.
Edgar C. Levine, MDCM 1913
After a political career as Mayor of Rivière-au-Renard, a fishing village on the Gaspé Peninsula, Edgar Levine changed career paths and entered medical school in 1909 at the age of 33. Four years later, after graduation and an internship at the RVH, he pursued a distinguished medical career as the first surgeon from the Montreal Jewish community, with a private surgery practice and various appointments at the RVH and at McGill University. He was also commissioned as Captain in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and chaired the first medical board of the Hebrew Maternity Hospital. A colleague and friend of Dr. Joseph Kaufmann and his brother Mark (see below), Dr. Levine married their sister, Ethel Kaufmann. Sadly, he succumbed to a fatal illness in 1924. His and Ethel’s son Robert would also graduate from McGill Medicine in 1942 (see below).
Mark Kaufmann, MDCM 1919
Dr. Joseph Kaufmann’s brother Mark also graduated from McGill’s medical school and practised as a Clinical Assistant in the Department of Surgery at the RVH, under the leadership of Edward William Archibald, MDCM 1896, Chief of Surgery. Dr. Mark Kaufmann was later appointed Chief of Surgery and member of the Medical Board at the JGH two years after it opened its doors. He remained there until he moved to Bermuda in 1952 to practise at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.
The cardiac surgeon Anthony Dobell, MDCM 1951, worked with him and recounts: “After graduation from McGill, I still had an open mind about my life in medicine. Towards the end of December, I was unexpectedly called to the medical director’s office and told I was to be sent to Bermuda for three months as the general intern in the King Edward Hospital. I was able to assist a superb surgeon, Dr. Mark Kaufmann, who had settled in Bermuda after some years of practice in Montreal. It was a pleasure to observe his excellent technique – efficient, deliberate and calm – and his relationship with patients and their families regardless of their status.”
Robert Levine, MDCM 1942
A well-recognized and well-respected surgeon, Dr. Robert Levine was made Captain of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps upon graduation from medical school and was dispatched to Europe, where he set up field hospitals during the Second World War. After postgraduate training at the RVH and the JGH, he held appointments at the JGH as Senior Surgeon, Director of the Clinical Teaching Unit, and Director of the Cancer Clinic, before becoming Chief Medical Officer at the Catherine Booth Hospital, a member of the Board of Governors at Vanier College, and Director of Professional Services at the Jewish Hospital of Hope. In fact, Dr. Levine used his army training to coordinate the move of the patients from this hospital in the east end of Montreal to the new campus in the west end, bordering the JGH.
His daughter, Janis L. Levine (BA 1973, BSW 1976, M MGMT 2002), recounts: “He was very much interested in the art and science of medicine, and was fascinated by his interactions with people. When my father was an intern, he had to go out on house calls to deliver babies or take people to the hospital. He was really involved in their lives, even if only for a brief moment. It was not just about seeing a patient in a bed in a hospital or a clinic.”
This interest in people translated into Dr. Levine’s life on campus. An active member of his community, he was involved in social activities and sports at McGill, but also in the social and clinical life of medical school. “As a clerk and resident, he lived at the hospital,” Levine says, adding that “there was a full life around the hospital, they used to have parties and plays, they used to play tricks; they also were on call for days at a time and were up all night. It was very much an integrated life.”
Dr. Levine’s connection to McGill was further reinforced when he became President of The Henry & Berenice Kaufmann Foundation established by his uncle in the 1960s (see below), strengthening the family’s relationship with McGill’s medical school through philanthropy and helping the University enhance its services to the wider community.
His great-grandson, son of Joe Brier and Dr. Samara Perez, PhD 2017, Assistant Professor, Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, is also a supporter of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences!
Amy Ornstein, MDCM 1997
“I always had aspirations to pursue medicine as a profession,” says Dr. Amy Ornstein, who attended medical school at McGill after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from Concordia University. Having experienced the illness and loss of a parent in childhood, she developed an interest in medicine as a career early on. “Being close to someone who was unwell and witnessing what their needs were,” she explains, “it occurred to me that being the person who supports individuals at that time or in that state might be a very rewarding career.”
Dr. Ornstein knew early in her medical education that she wanted to work with children. “I always have enjoyed and have had facility working with kids. There is a real joy in interacting with children,” she says. Her aspirations led her to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she became drawn to the interdisciplinarity of the field of Child Abuse and Neglect. As the Director of the IWK Health Centre Suspected Trauma and Abuse Response Team (START), she works with other medical professionals and community child protection agencies to provide care for suspected and confirmed victims of child abuse and neglect, and to their families.
While recognizing the difficulties of her profession, she finds the careful, thorough and unbiased evaluation of each patient to determine whether their condition is due to mistreatment or an alternative medical condition to be most challenging and rewarding. “There is no premature decision-making involved in these situations,” says Dr. Ornstein, who further stresses the importance of remaining open to considering a wide array of possibilities. While being able to point to an underlying medical condition or establishing that a genuine accident happened is rewarding, maltreatment must never be overlooked: “No one wants to ever put it on the list,” she explains, “despite the violence and aggression that we see in the media. In my experience, people do not translate that into interactions with children” – a critical perspective she imparts to her medical students.
Looking back to her family’s history, Dr. Ornstein expresses pride – of being part of the family’s legacy, but also of being the first woman in that medical lineage.
A tradition of philanthropy
Henry Kaufmann, Joseph and Mark Kaufmann’s brother, made a fortune as a stockbroker and entrepreneur in Montreal. An active member of his community, he began his philanthropy in 1967 with The Henry & Berenice Kaufmann Foundation, formally incorporated in 1973.
In honour his brother Joseph, Henry Kaufmann supported the creation of a Memorial Fellowship in Hematology at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1967 to provide for deserving medical school graduates who aspired to specialize in hematology. This was followed by the establishment of the Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Memorial Fellowship Fund in 1984 to support talented postdoctoral students who wished to further their clinical or laboratory knowledge of hematology. “It is altogether fitting that this fellowship brings together the many talents and interests of the Kaufmann family,” noted McGill Principal David Lloyd Johnston in 1984, “Medicine… education… research… and service to the community whose benefits will be felt for generations to come.” In 2001, it was transformed into the Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine, one of the early chairs in Canada in the field of gerontology.
Henry and Berenice Kaufmann’s generosity did not end with their deaths. On the contrary, it lives on to this day thanks to their family members who have taken over the reins of the Foundation. In 1996, in memory of Dr. Edgar Levine, and with Dr. Robert Levine at its helm, the Foundation contributed to a Teaching Scholars Program housed within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences that trains its instructors in curriculum design and evaluation, small group teaching and teaching with multimedia. Other gifts include donations to the Cancer Research and Heart Research Funds and the purchase of a blood cell separator at the JGH in memory of Dr. Joseph Kaufmann.
Today, Janis Levine serves as the Foundation’s President and Executive Officer, and is committed to pursuing her great-uncle’s legacy. “I wish to honour all the graduates from our family,” she explains. She has been researching her family’s history and is grateful to David Eidelman, MDCM 1979, for encouraging her to do so and to share their story and connection with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. “McGill opened the doors to my grandfather Edgar when he decided to become a doctor at a later age. In addition, McGill opened the doors to Joseph, Mark, my father Robert, my cousin Amy, and to all of us. We value that education and McGill’s commitment to innovation, excellence, and to promoting intellectual pursuit for all generations.”