Dr. Harvey Guttmann, a board member at Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park (Cheltenham Township) and the namesake of Jefferson Abington Hospital’s recently unveiled GI Procedure Suite, was featured yesterday by the Jewish Exponent.

Dr. Guttmann joined the hospital in 1984 and served as Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and as president of Jefferson Abington Hospital Medical Staff. He retired in December 2024.

“This suite is larger with state-of-the-art equipment that allows patients to receive care close to where they live [in the suburbs],” he told the Exponent. “In the olden days, there were [only] a lot of very sophisticated treatments available in Center City, and it would be a very difficult situation if [a patient] needed to have their family visit them in the hospital. Now they can be done close to home because we have the space, the technology, the expertise. If they need to be there overnight, their family can be there to support them.”

An excerpt from the Exponent’s article:

As the child of Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia, Guttmann understands the value of good health and security. His parents emigrated to Israel after the end of the war, with Guttmann being born in the world’s only Jewish state not long before the family moved to New York in 1959. He was raised attending Conservative synagogues in the area, and sought a familiar environment when he first came to Philadelphia, which was how he found Beth Sholom.

‘I’ve really enjoyed my affiliation with the synagogue. We’re one of the few Conservative synagogues in the area that actually has an increase in membership and a very good preschool and young student program that draws younger folks who live in the area,” he said. “So, I’m very proud of that, of the synagogue, and have always treasured my affiliation with it.’

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Photo: David DeBalko, courtesy of Jefferson Abington Hospital