Dr. Liebe Diamond Inspires All-Female Tefilla Participants

On Wednesday, December 4, a large group of high school girls participated in a special all-female tefilla in honor of Rosh Chodesh Tevet. Coordinated by Mrs. Laura Frank, the hour-long service consisted of Shacharit, the traditional weekday morning prayers, a Torah service, and a brief Musaf, led entirely by students.

In between the Torah service and Musaf, the group welcomed Dr. Liebe Sokol Diamond, a former Beth Tfiloh parent and an active synagogue attendant. A renowned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Diamond focused her medical career on hand and limb deformities in children, a cause near and dear to her heart.

Before she reached adolescence, Dr. Diamond underwent twenty-five operations of her own. At birth, doctors amputated several of her fingers; as a child, specialists worried that complications remained within her brain and would impede her mental progression.

Yet, despite the adversity, Dr. Diamond proved every skeptic wrong, ultimately graduating from Smith College with Honors in 1951 and, later, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1955. After completing her orthopedic residency at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Diamond returned to her native Baltimore, performing countless life-changing surgeries for children and teaching at the University of Maryland until 1996.

“At first, I didn’t even notice she was handicapped,” admits Eliana W. ’14. “She was so articulate and accomplished that it caught me completely off guard.”

“It was really meaningful to have met such an inspiring woman at our all-girls service,” adds Mollye K. ’14. “She reminded us of the value of hard work. It was a great way to head into the new month.”