New York City's Upper East Side, specifically 163 East 69th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, with its heavily concentrated area of hospitals, was the choice and in 1977 became the new home of the Lisker Congregation as well as the establishment of the Hershel Lisker Bikur Cholim. The Hershel Lisker Bikur Cholim was the first institution of its kind, not only in the neighborhood, but in all of New York City as well. It afforded out-of-town families who were visiting relatives in local area hospitals the opportunity to spend Sabbaths and Yom Tov's with their loved ones simply because the Hershel Lisker Bikur Cholim provided them with lodgings and food. In its 25 years of service to Manhattan's Upper East Side Jewish community, countless numbers of Jews have been accommodated for bikur cholim. Visitors are provided with a place to stay, meals to nourish the body, solace to elevate the soul, and a shul to daven in. The Hershel Lisker Bikur Cholim is where the precept of Achnoshes Orchim (hospitality to strangers) is truly perpetuated as embodied by the late Lisker Rebbe, Rav Shlomo Friedlander.
Rav Abraham Friedlander, the son-in-law of Rav Shlomo Friedlander, being a chaplain himself, dutifully performed the mitzva of visiting the sick daily. He never failed to heed a call or console a person when they were in need. At his untimely passing, his son and current Lisker Rabbi, Zvi-Hersh Friedlander, continues his father's arduous path. Also a chaplain, he performs the mitzva of bikur cholim — tending to the sick and broken hearted — as well as officiating at the Lisker Congregation as pulpit Rabbi.
Rabbi Friedlander is the seventh generation of Rabbis in the Lisker dynasty and lives up to the ideals of the first Lisker Rebbe, the Achpretvia, "Rely on the ancient tradition, to observe and uphold the conservative life-style, to hand it down from generation to generation." This young Rabbi continues to honor the legacy left by his great-great grandfather, and namesake, by following the path set forth by his descendants.
