We have lost a friend, a true humanitarian, and a doctor for whom the title “eternal pioneer” is no mere phrase, but a fitting description of a life lived in service.
Dr. Kot immigrated to Palestine with the early pioneers of the Third Aliyah. Naturally, he linked his future to the medical institutions of the labor movement. From the outset of his work in public health, he was always the first - and often the only - volunteer to go wherever a pioneering doctor was needed, one who could adapt to the harsh conditions of the time.
For years, he served as the physician for the nascent Electric Company in Naharayim, and simultaneously provided medical care to the isolated settlements of the Galilee, such as Ayelet HaShachar, Mahanayim, and others.
During the malaria outbreaks, he was among the first to join anti-malaria efforts, especially in preventing the disease among fellow pioneers.
He never missed an opportunity to further his medical knowledge through professional training. His long chain of roles included: Chief Medical Officer of the Haganah, advisor and supervisor to the Disabled Veterans Fund, and Director of Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba. With his background in sports medicine, he made a significant contribution to the early development of the Hapoel sports association.
One of his most distinguished acts was his visit to displaced persons camps in Europe in 1947–1948. His work with Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross equivalent) is also widely known.
When we add to this record of service his modest and gentle nature, his love for people, and his ever-willingness to help anyone in need, we can truly say: “A loss beyond measure.”
- Yitzhak Kanav
Dr. Kott arrived in Palestine just two days before the opening of the Hebrew University (March 29, 1925), and from that moment his diverse medical journey began. He interned at Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv, spent six months in Ayelet HaShachar, then moved on to Tel Yosef, Beit Alfa, and Tiberias. Later, he worked in Petah Tikva, Ein Harod, and the Kfar Saba region - including Gan HaSharon, Kalmania, Gan Haim, Tel Mond, Herut, Ein Vered, and Kfar Malal.
In 1932, he went to Germany for further medical training. In 1933, he practiced general medicine in Haifa. In 1936, he returned to Tel Aviv and worked at the Zamenhof Clinic and as a hospital physician. He was also active in the Supply Division, the Disabled Veterans Fund, and helped found various health institutions: the Geha Psychiatric Hospital, a pulmonary rehabilitation center in Magdiel, the Fenston Geriatric Hospital, Raanana Hospital (today’s Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center), Talbiya in Jerusalem, and Shalvata in Magdiel.
In 1946, he traveled to aid Holocaust survivors in Europe. In 1960, he was appointed Director of Meir Hospital, a position he held until his retirement in 1968.
Dr. Kot belonged to the generation of giants in Israeli public health. He embodied both thought and action, vision and fulfillment, a sense of mission along with tireless daily work - serving as a role model and inspiration.
His memory will forever be etched in the annals of Israeli medical history - with honor and distinction.
- Dr. Nahum Kaplansky
Dr. Shlomo Ettinger was born in 1897 in Germany. In 1937, he immigrated to Palestine with his wife Irma, and in 1938, they settled in Ein Vered.
Though a physician by profession, Dr. Ettinger was unable to find work as a doctor during his early years in the country and turned to agriculture. Farming proved to be difficult for him, both physically and financially, but after about eight years, he was accepted as a “substitute doctor” with Kupat Holim (the national health fund). During the War of Independence, he served as a physician in Ramat HaKovesh.
Later on, following the departure of Dr. Rafes, he became the community doctor of Ein Vered, a position he held until his retirement in 1963.
Dr. Ettinger was a dedicated and highly respected doctor, always available to the members of the moshav - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A short excerpt from a story by Dr. Yair Ben-Zioni, “The First Bite,” captures the spirit of that era and the role of the farmer-doctor:
It was near the end of World War II, and I was a small child in Kfar Hess, in the Sharon region. A large, unfamiliar, and seemingly rabid black dog bit me on the leg and vanished. Though the bite was minor, my mother took it very seriously. When it became clear that the village doctor was away from home, she entrusted me to my older brother.
“Take Yair immediately to Dr. Ettinger in Ein Vered. He’s just a regular farmer now, but they say he was a famous doctor back in Germany.”
Rahavia took me by the hand, and together we began walking across the fields toward Ein Vered. We passed through a eucalyptus grove and crossed fields and orchards until we reached Dr. Ettinger’s home.
His wife greeted us warmly, with a heavy German accent, and directed us to the cowshed, where her husband could be found. We found him there milking an agitated, kicking cow, cursing it and its mother in German. Wearing a sunhat and wide work pants, the doctor lifted his head from between the cow’s udders and looked at us in surprise.
“Who are you looking for, children?”
“A black dog attacked my brother today, bit his leg and ran off,” my brother replied. “Our mother sent us to you.”
“Do you know this dog?” the doctor asked me.
“No, I’ve never seen him before. He came from the direction of the Arab village, and no one here recognizes him.”
Dr. Ettinger rose from the milking stool, took us into his home, and asked us to wait. He opened numerous German books and studied them intently. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ettinger offered us cookies and fresh orange juice and advised us to be patient.
After several hours of reading and deliberation, the doctor evidently concluded that the matter was serious. He hitched his mule to a wagon, invited us aboard, and drove us back to Kfar Hess.
My mother was tending to the chicken coop when he arrived. Bursting in, he told her: “Your son is in great danger. He must receive twenty-one injections in the abdomen against rabies. If he doesn’t get them, he will die.”
And indeed, I received painful daily injections from the nurse Yael Brint. Years later, Dr. Ettinger resumed his work as a full-time physician.
Even if, for the sake of “historical accuracy,” the cow was actually a goat and the mule a donkey, the story captures the atmosphere of those times.
Dr. Ettinger passed away in 1987.
In 1933, Dr. Yaakov Teller and his wife Eleonora immigrated to Palestine from Vienna, Austria. They lived in a shack in Tel Mond. Eleonora painted the black exterior walls of the shack (which were coated in tar paper for waterproofing) with white lime.
They opened a dental clinic in Tel Mond. Dr. Yaakov Teller served as the dentist, and his wife Eleonora, a certified nurse with a diploma from a hospital in Vienna, worked as his assistant.
Dr. Yaakov Teller and Eleonora lived in Tel Mond for two years, from 1933 to 1935. Their first son, Dan (who was killed during the Sinai Campaign in 1956), was born in Tel Mond. In 1935, the family moved to Tiberias, where their son Rafael was born in 1936.
Dr. Kosta was born in the city of Stanisławów, in eastern Galicia. His original last name was Czaczkes, but later he adopted the name “Kosta” in admiration of Uriel da Costa - the bold, excommunicated Portuguese-Jewish thinker and freedom fighter.
In his hometown, Dr. Kosta was raised in a deeply Jewish environment. As a youth attending a Polish gymnasium in Lviv, he became drawn to Zionist ideals - a commitment that would shape his entire life. In the early 20th century, he was active in the Zionist movement in Galicia, one of the founders of “Zeirei Zion” and an activist in “Poalei Zion” and “HeHalutz.” His work included propaganda, education, and writing. Under the pen name “Y. Kurtin,” he published many Zionist pamphlets in Polish, which were used to educate Jewish youth, particularly those who, while studying in secular schools and drifting toward assimilation, were reconnected with their Jewish roots through his work.
He was thus a key educator of the Jewish youth of his time. He also published a Yiddish illustrated newspaper called Yidishet Interesantes Blatt.
Dr. Kosta first visited Palestine in 1938, an experience that inspired and reinforced his Zionist commitment.
During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army, fighting on multiple fronts. After the war, he settled in Hamburg, Germany, where he worked as a devoted physician in a poor, working-class neighborhood. He was known for his compassion, often bringing medicine to patients who couldn’t afford it, and earned the trust and love of many. There too, he combined his medical work with public service and Zionist activism, becoming president of “Poalei Zion” in Germany and of the “Ostjuden” Association.
When the Nazis rose to power in the early 1930's, Dr. Kosta left Germany and fulfilled his lifelong dream by immigrating to Palestine. He settled in Tel Mond and served as the regional physician in the area. With his dedication and compassion, he quickly gained the love and trust of his patients and became known as “the good doctor.” He had a special affection for children, and they for him.
Dr. Kosta was a unique personality - faithful and dedicated, gentle in spirit, a symbol of honesty and integrity, loved and admired by all. He could be seen at all hours of the day, and often at night, riding his horse to visit a patient or returning from one. He never had to be called back to a patient - he stayed until they recovered, without fatigue and without concern for danger, even during the troubled years of unrest in the region.
After his time in Tel Mond, he moved to Herzliya, where he continued working as a doctor with the Clalit Health Fund. Even after retiring, he continued working part-time, believing that in a time of physician shortages, he still had a role to play. He was also involved with the Israel Medical Association and was one of its devoted members.
May his memory be a blessing!
Dr. Kosta earned a fine reputation in Tel Mond and its surrounding communities thanks to his integrity and devotion to his patients. Among colleagues, he was known as “the innocent one,” and among patients, simply “the good doctor.” These two traits—innocence and kindness—defined him.
Stanislawów, where he was born, was for him a deep source of Jewish originality and identity. No wonder that even as a high school student in Lviv, he “fell under the spell of Zionism.” He was among the early activists in the Zionist movement in Galicia, helped found “Zeirei Zion,” and was deeply involved in “Poalei Zion” and “HeHalutz.” In 1913, he visited Palestine and was deeply moved by the experience.
After serving in the Austrian army in World War I, he settled in Hamburg and became a successful doctor. Despite his professional success, he never abandoned his youthful passion for Zionism. He was not only a dreamer but a man of action, demanding of himself and leading by example. Thus, in the 1930s, he immigrated to Palestine and settled there.
He worked as a Clalit physician - first as a regional doctor in Tel Mond, then in Herzliya. Even after his official retirement, he continued to work part-time as a physician, believing it was essential during a time of national shortage. He also published articles about medicine and the medical profession in both Israeli and international journals.
Dr. Kosta is remembered especially by the people of Tel Mond as “the constant rider,” always on horseback rushing to help and heal. The following is an excerpt from a column by Prof. Dov Sadan (Debnstock) published in Davar on April 1, 1941:
“If you happen to stroll near Tel Mond, you might notice a man riding his horse, sometimes near one settlement, sometimes near another. And the way he rides is not that of someone out for leisure or duty. It’s a different kind of riding… And when you ask a passerby, ‘Who is that man?’ they will tell you, ‘He’s our doctor.’ And if you ask his name, they’ll answer, ‘That’s Dr. Kosta.’”
From: Tel Mond Bloc Documentation Archive, The Writings of Eliezer Esterin, pp. 146–153.
Michael (Misha) Baksht was born in 1904 in the city of Tartu, Estonia, to a family with a deep Zionist consciousness.
In 1931, he completed his veterinary studies at the university in his hometown and enlisted in the army, where he served as a veterinarian in the artillery corps—back then, horses were the force that moved the cannons.
In 1933, he immigrated to Palestine and began working in the Jezreel Valley with Dr. Sturman in Ein Harod. Later, he was invited by Lord Melchett to care for the horses stationed at the Tel Mond camp.
Dr. Baksht worked for “HaHakla’it” (The Agricultural Cooperative for Veterinary Services), dedicating himself to caring for the animals of the residents of the Tel Mond bloc.
Those were times of scarcity, and more than once he had to prepare the medicines himself.
Dr. Baksht would ride on horseback between the settlements, providing his services. He was deeply involved in the lives of the farmers, and his visits didn’t end at the stable or cowshed, but often continued around the farmer’s table in friendly conversation. He was a man of wide knowledge and broad horizons. Beyond being an excellent professional, he was also a man of heart who understood the hardships of the settlers and did all he could to help them.
Dr. Baksht passed away in 1979.