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he went from being a settlement house worker and grassroots union organizer to serving at the helm of some of our community's most important institutions. She came of age during the Depression, and never had the opportunity for higher education. So Ruth was on-the-job trained and self-taught in every hospital position she ever held, from lab technician to hospital admissions clerk to administrative aide and finally CEO. She transformed Mount Sinai Hospital and transformed our Jewish community's understanding of Mount Sinai's importance as a Jewish institution during her time as CEO. Furthermore, she integrated Mount Sinai into the Latino and African-American communities, turning the hospital into both a pillar of the local community and a bridge between our community and the Latino and African-American communities. After retiring from Mount Sinai at age 68, Ruth went on to head the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, the third largest system in the country - resuscitating Cook County Hospital and establishing 30 neighborhood outpatient clinics. Named after Ruth, the Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center of Cook County Health & Hospitals System provides high quality care for persons and families affected by infectious diseases. As a woman, she was a trailblazer. Her passion was so infectious and her professionalism so profound that she was elected chairman of the very same national association of Jewish hospital administrators that had originally shunned her when she burst onto the scene. And she was still going strong. She had been serving as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. But perhaps most of all, Ruth Rothstein was a Jew--a Jew who believed in social justice and community and who devoted her life's work to that. She served on the JUF-JF Board for many years and was always involved in the JUF Campaign and she helped organize and chair the first JUF Professional Women's outreach to engage more Jewish women professionals in our community.