Murdered Jewish urologist Ronald Gilbert buried in L.A.
Published February 1, 2013
LOS ANGELES (Jewish Journal) — Ronald Gilbert, a urologist gunned down Monday at his southern California office by a patient, was remembered at his funeral as devoted to Jewish life.
The funeral took place Wednesday, two days after Gilbert was murdered by one of his patients, according to the Orange County District Attorney.
The suspect, Stanwood Elkus, 75, arrived at Gilbert’s office in Newport Beach, Calif., at 2:45 p.m. on Monday armed with a firearm. When Gilbert entered the waiting room, Elkus allegedly shot Gilbert multiple times. Police found Gilbert dead on the scene with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso. Elkus was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Gilbert, 52, leaves behind a wife and two children.
“He was a super mensch,” Rabbi Aron Berkowitz of the Chabad of West Orange County said at the funeral. “He was a tremendous, tremendous person.”
Every morning, Gilbert attended the Chabad to put on tefillin and pray, and he often would go straight from there to the Hoag Hospital-Newport Beach, where he was on medical staff, Berkowitz said. Whenever he had to leave prayer services early for surgeries, he would apologize, the rabbi said.
Gilbert grew up Conservative and began attending the Chabad center about 15 years ago. At the time of his death he was the lay leader of the Chabad.
Wednesday’s funeral drew an overflow crowd and included classmates of Gilbert’s younger son, a 10th-grade student at Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles (YULA). Gilbert’s older son, Stephan, attends Yeshiva University in New York.
The Gilbert family has suggested that those interested in honoring the doctor’s name donate to an organization of their choice or to Gilbert’s place of worship, Chabad of West Orange County.
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