Dispatch from Pittsburgh: Synagogue victim Rabinowitz eulogized as dedicated doctor

A childhood friend of Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz says their friendship was inevitable: “We were lined up by size.”

In a eulogy with more laughs than tears, the fellow doctor said that at a time when physicians became specialists, Rabinowitz became a family practitioner because of his commitment to humanity. The friend mentioned Rabinowitz’s inexpiable love for Abbot and Costello and his seriousness as a student.

“Laughter was the key to our friendship, but it sometimes got us in trouble,” he says.

“We were never more than a bike ride away from each other,” but later moved to different cities. “Just as I knew Jerry’s family he knew mine… he gave attention to everyone.”

“Jerry will stay in my heart forever, and so Miri will you,” said the friend, Mark.

Dr. Kenneth Selco, Rabinowitz’s medical partner, takes the podium and recalls their meeting over intramural football.

Selco joined Rabinowitz in 1986, when the AIDS epidemic was at its height. The two family practitioners ran the third largest AIDS clinic in the area. He also recalls Rabinowitz’s commitment to volunteering and charity, riding his bike hundreds of miles to raise funds.

Selco closes his remarks recalling Rabinowitz’s words: “Death is not the worst outcome, long suffering is.”

“I feel like I have lost a brother,” he concludes.

— Amanda Borschel-Dan