ANT KATZ

Meet Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler’s eldest son Doctor Daniel Weiler On Saturday 3 May 2014 at 10am. Daniel is the eldest son of the six children of the late Rabbi Moses Cyrus (MC) founder of Progressive Judaism movement in South Africa and the late Una (nee Gelman of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, then S. Rhodesia) Weiler.

Daniel is married to Ofra (nee Boneh) and has four children, two sons two daughters; Abie, a librarian, Tal, a university English teacher, Michal a specialist physician in nuclear medicine and a PhD. Researcher, and Gideon, a talent who fills the position of “creative” in companies developing software and hardware in the field of high tech.

SEE HIS FULL CV BELOW

Reeva invites one and all

“Please join us for the Shabbat service followed by a Brocha,” says Reeva Forman, who can be contacted at 083 228-7777 or 011 482-1570. Temple Israel is on the corner of claim and Paul Nel Streets in Hillbrow, Joburg.

Who is Daniel Weiler?

Daniel Weiler MD, Born 16 June 1943 in Johannesburg – attended Saxonwold primary school and forms one and two of high school, at Parktown Boys High. He had his Bar Mitzvah at Temple Israel on 30 June 1956.

Daniel made Aliyah in 1957 followed by the rest of the family in 1958.

He completed his high school education at the Israel Nautical College in Akko (affiliated at the time with the Israel Maritime League of South Africa) graduating in 1961 as an officer candidate in the Israel Navy (Is. N).

He then enlisted in 1961 in the Is. N. and was commissioned in 1963 as a sub lieutenant. 

Daniel then volunteered for the Is. N. submarine service and qualified as a submarine officer in late 1963. He trained in the Royal Navy submarine service for six months in 1964 on board an Oberon class submarine (the most modern submarine in the Royal Navy at that time) before serving as deck officer and navigation officer on INS Rahav followed by a stint as commander of the INS submarine school while the Rahav underwent her two year refit. Upon completion of the refit assumed the position of weapons officer on the Rahav and amongst other activities saw service in the Six Day War in Egyptian waters on a combat mission. He was honourably discharged in late 1967 while serving as a first lieutenant (deputy commander) of the Rahav at the end of his term of service.

Moving to medicine

For the following six years he completed his medical studies and graduated from the Hadassah Hebrew University medical school in 1975. Many of his teachers were outstanding South African and Rhodesian physicians who had made aliyah. To name a few: the late Martin and his brother (may he enjoy a long life) Theodore Sachs, Mervyn Shapiro, Justin Silver and Rafael Melmed.

After a five year residency in Internal medicine at Hadassah Mt. Scopus and a three year fellowship in Pulmonary medicine at UCLA in Southern California held the position of senior physician in Internal Medicine and director of the ICU at Mt. Scopus.

Right: One of what Daniel calls his “fads” is his collection of cowboy and other hats (more than 300 in all) and boots

In 1984 Daniel moved to Haifa to take up the position of Chief of Pulmonary services at the Carmel Hospital and affiliated community outpatient clinic which serve a population of some 700,000 patients, a position he held until reaching the compulsory retirement age for public servants in Israel, 67, in 2010.

During this period he had actively engaged in teaching at the Haifa Medical School affiliated with the Technion – as an assistant professor of medicine and pulmonary disease. He has been published in the medical literature as Daniel Weiler-Ravell, an additional Hebrew name he took as Ben Gurion had dictated, by all Israelis officially serving abroad. He did this too when serving with the Royal Navy.

Of interest to South Africans where tuberculosis is still a major medical problem, Daniel served as the chairman of the advisory committee to the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of health, for TB. In this capacity he conceived and instituted a new national program for the elimination of TB which has proved to be highly successful and regarded with acclaim by international authorities on TB.

During the above period, Daniel established a concurrent private practice which is still active.

He is currently serving as a consultant medical director in a medical device start-up, as consultant medical director for chronically ventilated patients at a long term facility in Netanya and in the process of launching a new company which will provide a second medical opinion for hospitalised patients, to be offered by a group of leading physicians in different fields of expertise.

His hobbies (“and fads” as he calls them,) include bicycling, on and off road, riding a tandem with Ofra, a collection of cowboy and other hats (more than 300) and boots “which I infallibly wear,” he says, historical and biographical literature and gardening among others.