Yeshiva head recounts being denied treatment because he looked like a rabbi

Rabbi Yisrael Bunim Schreiber, head of the Netiv HaDaat yeshiva, told supporters in Lakewood on Saturday night about difficult medical treatments he has been undergoing because of illness, using the story to illustrate what he said is the hostility facing religious Jews in Israel. Schreiber was in the United States on a fundraising trip for Keren Olam HaTorah and spoke at an emergency appeal in the Lakewood yeshiva hall alongside Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Ouzband, head of the Ateret Shlomo yeshiva.

He described, in Yiddish, what he called a shocking example of hatred toward Torah students in Israel. According to his account, during one of the routine treatments that are not carried out by his regular doctor, the physician entered the room, saw that Schreiber was visibly ultra-Orthodox and learned he was a yeshiva head, and then quickly left.

About ten minutes later, another caregiver came in and said, in Schreiber’s retelling, “It is hard for the doctor to treat the rabbi, so I came to replace him.” Schreiber said the doctor simply refused to treat him personally because he was religious and sent someone else in his place.

He presented the episode as evidence of a disturbing and painful reality in Israel today, and urged the audience to respond by supporting the Torah fund and praying for his complete recovery, asking for prayers for Rabbi Yisrael Bunim ben Chaya Roiza.