It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of George Jerzy Kleiner, MD on January, 27, 2026.   He lived with enthusiasm, grace and gratitude to the age of 99.  He was born on June,16 1926, in Katowice, Poland to Teofila and Leopold Kleiner.  George, then Jerzy , was the youngest brother of Ludwik and Bob (Arnold) Kleiner.  He is survived by his second wife, Lorri Sparks Kleiner (his first wife Frances Edith Kleiner having pre-deceased him in 2000) and his children Jillian Kleiner MD and John Kleiner PhD and wife Elizabeth Kolbert, and next generation:  Zoe Davanzo DeStefano and her husband Michael DeStefano, and Ned Kleiner Phd and his fiancée Sara Schulwolf MD,  and Aaron and Matthew Kleiner.  

A life this rich and remarkable is not easily summarized, but he did it justice in his self-published memoir, “Speak Memory, With Apologies to Nabokov”.   His early years were spent in the small, primarily industrial town of Radomsko, Poland where his father was a distributor for a French manufacturing company producing metal fasteners. He recounted the radical shift from his childhood of pre-war years to life under the brutal Nazi regime. 

Along with the rest of the Jewish population of Radomsko, their family was forced into the ghetto there. They survived there until in 1942 his parents were rounded up along with most of the remaining residents and ultimately murdered in the Treblinka concentration camp by the Nazis.  

 https://www.holocausthistoricalsociety.org.uk/contents/ghettosj-r/radomsko.html

George had been initially excluded, most likely as part of a final work team of young men.   As he said a wrenching goodbye to his parents in jail, his mother pressed her gold and diamond brooch of a crescent  moon and star into his hand.  He was later able to exchange a diamond from this brooch for the ID papers of a Polish worker (and later the remainder of the brooch served to get new papers certified.)  Under this alias he left Poland for Germany, venturing  “into the jaws of the lion”. There he was ultimately assigned work as a laborer in the small town of Planegg, on the outskirts of Munich.  He was 19 years old when the war ended.

In his book, he shares the of joy of reuniting with his brothers after the war, and the excitement and relief of living freely in England despite the grief he carried.  With the help of his brothers and their friends he obtained a position in the British Navy and then transferred to a more accommodating  one in the Army.  He recounted the pleasures of his time in Scotland and forays to London before the brothers left Europe for South Africa.  There he was educated in Medicine at the University of The Witwatersrand and met his beloved wife Edith, an artist and an educator.  While he relished those years in South Africa, they ultimately rejected the repressive Apartheid regime and relocated to Montreal, Canada where he completed training in Obstetrics and Gynecology. 

Eschewing the cold, they moved one last time to New Rochelle, New York.  George became faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he progressed ultimately from an instructor to Professor Emeritus.  He took great satisfaction and interest in his roles as a clinician, teacher, researcher and administrator at a range of hospitals in the Bronx.  He culminated his career at Montefiore Hospital following three years as chairman of the Darien Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology with an appointment as a clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine.   He had over fifty publications, many in peer reviewed journals, and supported the integration of midwifery in the practice of hospital obstetrics, and mentored generations of students and residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology. 

While devoted to his work, George also energetically embraced his family and friends and took joy in the beauty of his surroundings in Larchmont,  often accompanied on walks by his dear Bichons: Bono, then Coby, and now Winston. George was an avid traveler, and we were lucky to often join him on his travels for conferences, sabbaticals or on holiday. 

Following the early loss of Edith, he had the great good fortune to unite with Lorri Sparks who has been his loving wife since 2004 . She brought her strength, kindness and good humor to George and he delighted in her company as well as that of her sisters and their families.  

Even as we all grieve George’s passing, we are grateful to have been part of his grand journey:  his uncanny optimism, wisdom, love and generosity lit the way for us all.