Founding In 1945,
Yeshiva University President
Samuel Belkin began planning a new medical school. Under his urging, Yeshiva's Board of Trustees negotiated with the
New York State Board of Regents to expand the university's charter to grant
MD degrees, finalized in December 1950. In 1951, physicist
Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Belkin lauding the planned school, writing that it was "of the greatest importance to American Jewry" and would "welcome students of all creeds and races". He became an honorary chairman for the medical school campaign, alongside former First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, and
Richard Nixon. When approached, Einstein was initially reluctant to associate his name with the school—he had recently refused to lend his name to
Brandeis University and had declined to become the second president of
Israel—and instead suggested that it be named for the Jewish physician
Maimonides. Two years later, at an event marking his 74th birthday, March 14, 1953, Einstein agreed to lend his name to the medical school. At the gathering—his only public appearance in 22 years at the
Institute for Advanced Study—Einstein told
The New York Times that "physics has favored medicine by giving civilized man confidence in the scientific method." In 1954, the college sponsored the awarding of that year's
Albert Einstein Award to physicist
Richard Feynman and, on his 75th birthday, gifted Einstein a
Festschrift with contributions from ten Nobel laureates, Israeli Prime Minister
Moshe Sharett, and President
Harry S. Truman, among others. Einstein died on April 18, 1955, months prior to the institution's dedication and opening. Although affiliation with
Mount Sinai Hospital in
Manhattan was considered, a site in the
Bronx's
Morris Park was selected due to ample land and proximity to the adjacent Bronx Municipal Hospital then under construction. Construction of the first medical school building—now the Leo Forchheimer Medical Sciences Building—began in October 1953, with a contemporary design of steel and concrete. On September 12, 1955, Einstein welcomed its first class of 56 students in the partially completed Forchheimer Building. Einstein was the first new medical school to open in
New York City since 1897 and the first in the United States to open under Jewish auspices.
Expansion matriarch
Rose Kennedy during the 1966 ground-breaking of the Rose F. Kennedy Center, with Senator
Robert F. Kennedy to her left The Sue Golding Graduate Division was established in 1957 to offer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in
biomedical science. In 1963, Einstein established its Department of Genetics, the first at any at any medical school; the coursework it offered was possibly the first formal medical curriculum on genetics. The following year, the
Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), a combined
MD/PhD program, was established. The first successful
coronary artery bypass surgery was performed in 1960 at Einstein by a team led by
Robert H. Goetz; the procedure has been described in
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery as "one of the most significant surgical achievements of the 20th century". In 1966, the school completed a 375-bed private teaching hospital—now known as the Jack D. Weiler Hospital—with New York City Mayor
John Lindsay presiding over its opening. The Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences, a 12-story facility, opened in 1964. The following year, the
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation donated $1.45 million to Einstein to establish a center to study human development and mental disabilities. The center, named for
Rose F. Kennedy, opened with 200 staff scientists in 1970. Also that year, the college began construction on the 15-story Charles C. and Beulah Bassine Educational Center devoted to public health. Beginning in 1971, aided by a five-year, $12,157,000 federal grant, the college experimented with a 3-year MD degree pathway and increased class sizes.
Post-1990 (far right) at a cancer awareness event at Einstein, 2021 In 1990, following cumulative $8.5 million donations by Bronx businessman Jack Resnick, Einstein's campus was designated as the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus. Six years later, Einstein built a 10-story research complex, the Samuel H. and Rachel Golding Building. In 2002, the college opened the three-story Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center. Equipped with magnetic resonance equipment beyond conventional MRI, the center was one of six such facilities in the world upon opening. In 2008, Einstein opened a $225 million research complex, the Price Center. This expansion doubled the size of Einstein's campus to nearly 40 acres. Also that year, the college replaced its old logo—a "staid" portrait of Albert Einstein—with a stylized symbol that represents the
helical structure of
DNA, a notable spiral staircase on campus, and 'E' for Einstein. In 2024,
Ruth Gottesman—a long-time professor at the medical school and head of the board of trustees—donated $1 billion to the school to make tuition free for all students in perpetuity. The contribution also stipulated that the college never change its name. The donation was one of the largest to any educational institution, and, according to
The New York Times, likely the largest donation to any medical school. ==Organization and affiliations==