Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1915, Dr. Laszlo N. Tauber was a national champion gymnast, renowned surgeon, successful real estate developer, and generous philanthropist. At the age of 29, he was appointed chief of surgery at the International Red Cross Hospital. The hospital served the Jews of Budapest who, along with Dr. Tauber, had been forced into a ghetto. He remained there throughout the war and rescued many Jews by providing critical medical attention and forging papers that forestalled their deportation. For those efforts, he was honored by the International Red Cross with their most distinguished award, the Medal of Merit. After the war, Dr. Tauber received a scholarship to study neurosurgery in Stockholm, Sweden before immigrating to the United States in 1947. He eventually built a thriving surgical practice and founded Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Tauber was also a real estate entrepreneur who became legendary as one of the most successful developers in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Tauber’s career as a surgeon and real estate developer enabled him to pursue various philanthropic endeavors, particularly related to medical research, education, and the Jewish community. He became a significant benefactor of Boston University, Georgetown University, and Brandeis University, where he established the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry. Dr. Tauber made endowment gifts to numerous other universities and institutions, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, and the Holocaust Center in San Francisco.
Dr. Tauber passed away in 2002 at the age of 87. The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation was established by his children to continue his philanthropic legacy.