Joseph Hilsenrath, M.D. '59, wears a serious expression in the photo of Albert Einstein College of Medicine's first graduating class. One can only wonder what he was feeling—perhaps relief at making it through on a financial shoestring. Perhaps determination to face the challenges of the cardiology career ahead and establishing a household with his new wife. Or maybe he was remembering all he had been through to arrive on the lawn of the Forchheimer Medical Sciences Building that day.
Jon Hilsenrath was just a boy when he first heard his father's story. “It wasn't something my dad felt comfortable reviewing, but my mother talked about it,” he said. It stood in dark contrast to the suburban life Jon was living on Long Island with his sister and two brothers.
Escaping Nazi Germany
Joseph was born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, in 1930, to Israel and Anna Hilsenrath. By 1938, anti-Jewish sentiment was rampant; on Kristallnacht a crowd smashed the Hilsenraths' windows, battered down the door, and ransacked the apartment while the family huddled terrified in the attic. Joseph's father quickly arranged to have Joseph and his older sister, Susi, smuggled into Paris to live with a distant cousin. Israel, Anna, and an infant son made it to the United States, but in 1940 the Nazis invaded Paris, leaving Joseph and Susi stranded. Through a network of aid groups and sympathizers, they fled to southern France and reestablished contact with their parents. Then on to Spain, Portugal, and over the ocean to Ellis Island in 1941.
The family was reunited but “dirt poor and broken,” said Jon. “Anna had mental health issues and eventually was institutionalized. Israel scraped by to make a living, selling eggs in the street. Joseph sold newspapers. He took six years to graduate from George Washington University because he went to school at night.”
A mentor advised Joseph to apply to medical school, and he was accepted at Einstein, which welcomed Jewish students. But “he was still poor,” said Jon. “He walked to school to save on bus fare. In those days, Einstein didn't give grades in the first year, so Dad didn't really know where he stood until his second year.” Fortunately, the news was good. That year he also met Jon's mother, who worked in Einstein admissions. Their first date is a treasured family story: “He took Elaine on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty”—it had been his first glimpse of America and freedom—“and they shared a hot dog,” said Jon.
A New Life
Joseph and Elaine married in June 1958 and later settled near Long Island Jewish Medical Center where Dr. Hilsenrath practiced cardiology. “I learned from my dad to wake up every day with a sense of hope and purpose,” said Jon. “I tried to emulate the work ethic and grit that I saw in him.”
Jon's desired career was in journalism, not medicine. Dr. Hilsenrath offered fatherly advice: “If you love doing it, you'll do it well,” Jon recalls. Indeed, Jon spent 26 successful years reporting on finance and economics for the Wall Street Journal and wrote a book, Yellen. Now a senior adviser at StoneX Group, he analyzes Federal Reserve policy and economic developments.
Keeping the Dream Alive
Elaine passed away in 2007 from breast cancer. Joseph survived a bout of COVID and planned to attend his 65th reunion but was felled by a heart attack in 2023 at age 92. On his gravestone appear the words “Lived the American Dream.” Said Jon to his dad's classmates at the reunion: “You need the American spirit to facilitate the American dream, and part of the American spirit is having people who will give you a chance. Einstein gave my dad that chance, and I'm thrilled to be a part of the place that did that.”
Jon established the Joseph and Elaine Hilsenrath Endowed Scholarship Fund in his parents' memory, to assist students with financial needs beyond tuition, such as housing, healthcare, and travel. An anonymous benefactor matches donations to this open scholarship 1:1.
Filmmaker Ken Burns included Dr. Hilsenrath and Susi in his series on the Holocaust. See excerpts “Meet Joseph Hilsenrath” and “The Hilsenraths' Journey.”
