Brachiahu (Borochov), Dr. Mordechai

Hebrew-Name
ד"ר מרדכי ברכיהו
Biography

Dr. Mordechai Brachiahu (Borochov) was born in 1882 in Miezhagula (Mishagale) near Vilna, Lithuania and died on December 12,1959 in Jerusalem, Israel. He was the son of Rabbi Abba Ya'akov HaCohen Borochov, the owner of the Hevel Ya'akov, who served as a teacher at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. His brother was the author Aharon Michal Brachiahu. Mordechai studied medicine at Swiss universities (Bern, Basel and Zurich), where he was educated as a doctor of medicine in 1910, and later studied at the Moabit Hospital in Berlin. He immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1912, where he laid the foundation for introducing awareness of hygiene and preventive medicine. He worked as a doctor at the Hebrew Gymnasium Herzliya and replaced Dr. Sonia Belkind, who was the doctor of the students only. With the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the Ottoman army and served there as a doctor until 1918. After that, he was a doctor in the Galilee settlements, near his home in Rosh Pina.

In 1919, he moved to Jerusalem and founded a hygienic department for Hadassah (Medical Center). He was one of the developers of hygiene and preventive medicine, and developed the field of spiritual hygiene. Over the years, starting in 1929, he founded the first schools of their kind for children with mental retardation (conditions), as well as clinics for the treatment of children.

He began his career in journalism before appearing in articles in the Hebrew newspaper HaMelitz, later on he wrote for various journals, such as Haaretz, Davar and others, as well as in the German press. Sometimes he signed under the names: M. Asia, M. Ben-Yaakov, M. Knights and more. Brachiahu has been the editor of the weekly "Spiritual Hygiene". In fact, from the first year of his stay in Israel, he began publishing books in the field of medicine and was the editor of "La'am", which was founded during the Second Aliyah and published scientific publications for the general public.

In 1952, he retired from Hadassah, after 40 years of medical work in Israel. In 1953, he was awarded the Szold Prize for Medicine and Public Hygiene by the Tel Aviv Municipality for his pioneering work in schools and the integration of medicine in education in Israel.

After his death his memoirs were printed, which he left in a manuscript. He left behind his wife Dr. Hanna Brachiahu and two daughters.

Father
Rabbi Abba Ya'akov HaCohen Borochov, owner of the Hevel Ya'akov and teacher at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav
Siblings
Aharon Michal Brachiahu (author)
Marriage/Children
Married Dr. Hanna Brachiahu, they had two daughters.
Age at Migration
30
Year of Migration
1912
Other Sources
CZA; NLI; JPRESS