Gift for American Students
It’s an interesting fact when smart people bequeath their savings to society, and an equally interesting fact when, from my point of view, poor people from our community help their grandchildren from their pensions, which is apparently due to a great desire to see their grandchildren become doctors, financiers, lawyers etc. However, there are others who are not lucky enough to have grandparents, and they work from an early age.
The fact that a billion dollars was donated by worthy Jewish husband and wife Gottesman, a doctor and financier, to a medical school in the Bronx is admirable, because it is no secret that many people graduate from medical schools with large debts.
A $1 billion donation will provide free tuition to a Bronx medical school.
Ruth Gottesman, former professor at the T.H. College of Medicine. Alberta Einstein, the 93-year-old widow of Wall Street financier David Gottesman, has donated $1 billion to the A.E. College of Medicine. Albert Einstein in the Bronx with instructions to use this gift to cover the cost of tuition for all students in
future.
Ruth Gottesman is a retired college professor. Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test, and ran literacy programs. This is one of the largest philanthropic donations to an educational institution in the United States and likely the largest to a medical school.
The fortune came from her late husband, David Gottesman, known as Sandy, who was a protégé of Warren Buffett and made an early investment in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate Buffett built.
The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it goes to the Bronx, the city's poorest borough. The Bronx also has a high rate of premature mortality and is considered the unhealthiest borough in New York City.
Dr. Gottesman said her donation will allow new doctors to begin their careers without the debt that medical education often costs more than $200,000. She also hoped it would expand the number of students who might not otherwise be able to afford to go to medical school.
Dr. Gottesman's husband died in 2022 at the age of 96. “He left me an entire portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway shares without my knowledge,” she recalls. “The instructions were simple: “Do whatever you think is right with this.”
The thought of it was unbearable, so she didn't think about it at first. But the children advised her not to wait too long. When she focused on the will, she immediately knew what she wanted to do, she recalls. “I wanted to fund students at the medical school. Einstein so that they get free education,” she said. According to her, there is enough money to do this forever.
Over the years, she has interviewed dozens of future Einstein medical students. Tuition costs more than $59,000 per year, and many graduate with massive medical school debt. According to the school, nearly 50 percent of its students owe more than $200,000 after graduation. At most other New York City medical schools, fewer than 25 percent of new doctors owed that amount.
Almost half of first-year medical students at the College. Einstein are New Yorkers, and nearly 60 percent are women. About 48 percent of Einstein's current medical students are white, 29 percent are Asian, 11 percent are Hispanic and 5 percent are black.
Dr. Gottesman sometimes wonders what her late husband would have thought of her decision. “I hope he’s smiling and not frowning,” she said with a laugh. “But he gave me the opportunity to do it, and I think he would be happy - I hope so.”
Marina Lagunova
