The leading paediatrician Anthony Luder, who has died aged 67, was a founding professor of paediatrics at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar Ilan University, and head of clinical paediatrics at Ziv Medical Centre, Safed.
Brought up in London, he hailed from an established Anglo-Jewish family, and graduated in medicine from University College London and its hospital medical school, following in the footsteps of his father, Joe Luder, who was consultant paediatrician at the Whittington Hospital, North London.
Luder completed his paediatric training in London and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, followed by a fellowship in Clinical Genetics and Metabolism at Denver Jewish Hospital, Colorado.
A committed Zionist since his bar-mitzvah, when he toured Israel in a Magen David Adom ambulance (donated by his family) he later joined FZY (Federation of Zionist Youth) and made aliyah in the early 1980s. As a student, he was involved in the movement to free Soviet Jews. In 1980, he and his wife Judith visited the USSR to establish links with ‘refuseniks’, as Soviet Jews denied an exit visa were called.
He started working as a senior paediatrician at the Carmel Hospital in Haifa, and in 1992 accepted the post of Head of Paediatrics at the Rebecca Sieff (now Ziv) Hospital, Safed. He made significant contributions to Medinat Yisrael, in particular improving the healthcare of children in the Upper Galilee.
This move was a great challenge and demonstrated Luder’s chaluziut (pioneering spirit). At the time Ziv was a peripheral hospital, reflecting the general neglect of the northern Galilee in all socio-economic parameters. Relocating with his wife and young family at a time of professional and academic uncertainty demonstrated Luder’s belief that he could make a positive contribution to medicine in the northern Galilee.
Indeed, in the subsequent 28 years until his retirement in 2020, he oversaw the development of the paediatric department at Ziv into one providing first-class medical care, with sub-specialty appointments and highly regarded training posts for young doctors, an achievement of which he was rightly proud. Along with his colleague Michael Harari he facilitated the treatment of several hundred displaced Syrian refugee children, and support for their families.
Luder was appointed Professor of Medicine shortly after the founding of the new medical school in Safed. He was the first vice-dean for preclinical studies and actively engaged in the development of the curriculum. He was passionate about teaching, engaging the students in the morning round and personally marked their clerkships each week, giving helpful and valued feedback. He was instrumental in bringing physicians of calibre, Eric Shinwell and Mary Rudolf, to join the new faculty.
In addition, Luder was active in academic medicine, becoming chairman of the Israeli Society for Inborn Errors of Metabolism, (a field he introduced in Israel), and advising the Ministry of Health on rare diseases and neonatal screening. He chaired the local Ziv Helsinki Research Ethics Committee and extended this role to the national (Israeli) and European research forums. Luder was very proud to be the co-author, with Mary Rudolf, of a new edition of Essentials of Paediatrics and Child Health, an acclaimed and prize-winning textbook.
However, above all, he was a man of dignity and compassion, showing concern for the society in which he lived. Whether as an iconic figure taking his evening stroll with his dog Daisy around his beloved Rosh Pina, or as a driving force for the Reform pluralistic’ community, he believed that Israeli society required cultural and educational input if it was to maintain its Jewish identity.
Luder suffered the bereavement of Judith at the time of his retirement, while facing serious ill-health himself. However, he was fortunate to find happiness with Sharon Rosen, whom he married in the ancient synagogue at Korazim earlier this year.
Anthony Luder is survived by his mother Shirley, his wife Sharon, his brother Robert, his children Daniel, Ari and Ayelet and five grandchildren.
Anthony Luder: born November 23, 1953. Died September 4, 2021
