Co-Chair of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai is appointed by President Bush to Vice Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

Los Angeles - Sept. 15, 2005 - Joel M. Geiderman, M.D., co-chair of the Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has been appointed by President George W. Bush to Vice Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Council, the governing body of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Geiderman has served as a Council member since 2002, and was appointed to the museum’s executive committee in 2003.

“Dr. Geiderman’s appointment as Vice Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council reflects his deep commitment as both a physician and son of a Holocaust survivor to the art and science of healing – a mission that both Cedars-Sinai and the Holocaust Memorial Museum share,” said Thomas M. Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

As the child of a Holocaust survivor, Geiderman decided early in life that he wanted to go into a profession where he could help people, and chose a career in medicine.

“I have said that the most formative experience in my life occurred during a period that spanned six to 12 years before I was born,” Geiderman said. “Ever since I became aware of and understood what happened during the Holocaust, I resolved that I needed to do something meaningful with my life.”

For more than 10 years, Geiderman has served as the co-chair of the Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A nationally recognized leader in Emergency Medicine, Geiderman was a pioneer in the field, entering one of the first Emergency Medicine residency programs at Northwestern University – even before it was officially recognized as a specialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties in 1979.

“My co-chair and I are responsible for the care of about 78,000 patients a year at Cedars-Sinai, an average of 215 patients a day. We set the overall direction and tone of the department and our interest is in making sure that patients are treated kindly and with respect and dignity,” Geiderman said.

Since 1982, Geiderman has served as an oral examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine, helping to develop the written examination since 1993. In 2003, he was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and has authored over 70 scholarly papers and book chapters, which in the last decade have focused primarily on bio-ethics.

“In particular, I have focused on privacy, confidentiality, and respect for patients’ desire for modesty, which is very important in the open environment of the emergency department. People want and deserve respect. Helping to ensure that they get that respect, is extremely important.”

In addition to his role as co-chair of Emergency Medicine, Geiderman is very active in the community and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as well as the Board of Directors for “Jews for Judaism” and the Professional Council of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. He was honored by United Hostesses’ Charities as the 1997 “Humanitarian of the Year,” and in 2000 received the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s Avraham Mose Bikur Cholim “Ahavas Chesed” Award. In 2004, he was also honored by Sheba Medical Center as a “Medical Visionary.”

In his role as Vice Chairman of the Holocaust Council, Dr. Geiderman wants to continue the Museum’s success in educating the public about the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust.

“The museum reminds people of the consequences of bigotry and hate and motivates them to consider their own responsibility in helping to prevent future acts of genocide and other atrocities,” said Geiderman.

As the governing body of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Holocaust Memorial Council consists of 55 presidential appointees, 10 Congressional representatives and three ex-officio members from the departments of Education, Interior and State. The museum was chartered by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1980, and has had 22 million visitors since it opened in 1993.