Jakub Chlebowski


Jakub Chlebowski or Jakob Chlebowski was an esteemed Polish Jewish professor and doctor, scientist, researcher, lecturer, author, philanthropist, Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the Medical Academy in Bialystok, Poland.

Life and career

Chlebowski received an honorary degree from the University of Montpellier in France. He was the author of dozens of scientific and research papers in French, German and Polish, and three ground-breaking medical textbooks. He graduated from the University of Vilnius in 1929. In the 1930s Chlebowski worked at the Department of Internal Diseases in Vilnius. During World War II he was arrested by the Soviets and exiled to the depths of the Soviet Union. In the Komi Republic and Krasnodar and in the Siberian camp, as a prisoner, he worked as a doctor treating other prisoners despite the poorest conditions and with few supplies, earning the respect of senior Russian officers. Prof. Dr. Chlebowski returned to Poland in 1945 following the war.
After the war Chlebowski was employed by the Klinik Internal Diseases in Kraków and Łódź, and by Habilitował in Lodz in 1948.
In 1951 Chlebowski became involved in the founding of the Medical University of Białystok and was appointed Professor of Medicine and Director of the Department of Internal Diseases.
In 1953 Chlebowski stood up for one of his university students, who was removed from school at the request of the Board for concealing his connection with the underground anti-Hitler movement. During deliberations by the Appeals Board, Prof. Dr. Chlebowski was the only executive member who stood in defense of the university student.
Between 1957 and 1959 Chlebowski held the post of Vice-Rector of the Medical Academy in Bialystok, and between 1959 and 1962 he was honoured with the appointment as rector.
Chlebowski was removed from the university during "the March events." on 22 April 1968 at an openly held party gathering, attended by all university staff and students. The documentation from the Medical Academy in Bialystok reads as follows:
"The Committee Campus Polish United Workers' Party of the Academy of Medicine in Bialystok, after consideration of the matter on 22 April 1968, seek a request to the National Minister of Health, by his Magnificent Rector of the local university professor on the appeal of Dr. Jakob Chlebowski, the position of Head of the Department of Internal Diseases of the Medical Academy in Bialystok, because of his hostile attitude of the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union."
On 16 October 1968 Chlebowski and his family emigrated to Israel. On 25 January 1969, Chlebowski was hit by a motorist whilst crossing the street.

Posthumous honors

In 1990 the Medical Academy in Bialystok and various authorities honored the memory of Chlebowski and rectified their actions of 1968. The University senate unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the decision to remove Chlebowski from the university.
A lecture hall at the State Hospital has been named Clinical Professor. Dr. Jacob Chlebowskiego, and a bronze plaque has been placed commemorating the great patron.
In 1996, the Medical Academy in Bialystok held a solemn meeting at the Białostockiego Department of Internal Polish Society to honor their great professor.
Chlebowski was awarded The Order Odrodzenia Polski, one of Poland's highest civilian orders, conferred for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture and arts.
In 2005, to honor the centenary of Chlebowski's birth, the Academy of Medicine in Bialystok awarded its first, and now annual, prize, in honor of Chlebowski, to the top medical graduate student at the Medical Academy in Bialystok. This prize was founded and is sponsored by Chlebowski's daughter, Dr. Irena Chlebowska-Bennett, an eye specialist who now lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and two sons. The first laureate was Magdalena Mlonek, dentist, who was handed her prize in person by Dr. Irena Chlebowska-Bennett on campus during a ceremony held on 25 November 2005 in high Auli Medical University of Bialystok.
Polonia Restituta has described Chlebowski as "an institution whose principles are now tended by large numbers of his colleagues and students". "He came to Bialystok in 1951, young and quickly took over the management of the Academy of Medical Clinic - Interior Diseases. His long and hard day begun primarily as lecturer and moved to research and clinical practice. The Professor had a great ability to teach complex medical principles, which he later elevated to a higher level of complex medical findings, including through scientific work" says Professor Jan Stasiewicz. Professor Stasiewicz goes on to say "short descriptions and memories alone cannot reflect all the achievements, merits and successes the Professor and Chancellor of the Academy of Medical Sciences had, there were simply too many. The most important, that even today his disciples and students often say: "Explore, as he Chlebowski" or "if you fail to treat your patient as Chlebowski would have, you have no chance to successfully treat them", and most notable, "Chlebowski's medical ethics were not just slogans, they were simply his principle way of working".

Selected bibliography