Funeral services will be held in Jerusalem Tuesday for Dr. Bruno Z. Kisch, the noted cardiologist and medical director of Yeshiva University. He died in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, last Thursday at the age of 76.
Dr. Kisch, a native of Prague, Czechoslovakia, had been professor of physiology, bio-chemistry and experimental medicine at the University of Cologne for 11 years when he was forced to flee Nazi persecution in 1938. He joined the faculty of Yeshiva University shortly after his arrival in the United States and served as that institution’s medical director for 25 years.
In 1952 Dr. Kisch broke a vow never to return to Germany when he was invited by the Bonn government to deliver the opening address at the silver jubilee session of the German Cardiological Society. He was a founder of the society, the first of its kind in Europe.
A man of varied interests, Dr. Kisch served as curator of Yale University’s Edward Clark Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures, and was a consultant to the Smithsonian Institute on this subject. In 1949, Dr. Kisch organized the American College of Cardiologists. He served as the organization’s president from 1951-53. He developed the world’s first electronic microscope and his research into the structure of heart fibers opened up a new field of medical investigation.
Dr. Kisch was in Bad Nauheim for health reasons at the time of his death. He resided in Brooklyn and is survived by his wife Ruth, an assistant professor of music at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women; a son Arnold, who is on the faculty of the University of California Medical School; and two daughters, Charlotte and Regina.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
