On March 15, 1953, the day following his 74th birthday, Professor Albert Einstein formally agreed to permit his name to be used for the first medical school to be built in New York City since 1897.
Einstein’s first class consisted of 53 men and 3 women medical students, who were educated by 75 faculty members; they began their journey at the College of Medicine on September 12, 1955.
From the beginning, it has been Einstein’s policy that there not be discrimination with regard to race and creed. That now extends to religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran or disabled veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation and citizenship status.
Einstein was the first private medical school in New York City to establish an academic department of family medicine as well as the first to create a residency program in internal medicine with an emphasis on women’s health.
Einstein first established an affiliation with Montefiore Medical Center in 1963; it would become Einstein’s University Hospital and academic medical center in 2009, when the two institutions renewed their partnership by broadening the scope of their collaborative endeavors.
Through its longstanding partnership with Montefiore and several other affiliates in New York City and on Long Island, Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States.
In 1969, Montefiore took over operation of Einstein’s Jack D. Weiler Hospital, which today is part of Montefiore Health System’s Einstein campus.
In 2009, Dr. Allen M. Spiegel, the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein, and Dr. Steven M. Safyer, president and CEO of Montefiore, signed a new agreement reflecting the expanding relationship between the two institutions.
In September 2015, Einstein became part of Montefiore, following the historic agreement that transferred financial and operational responsibility for the College of Medicine from Yeshiva University to Montefiore.