After working as a peddler for a while, Abraham made enough money to open his own shop. He learned English quickly and even perfected a rural Wisconsin accent, which helped him deal with his clients. Celia, a housewife, kept her thick Yiddish accent.
A childhood accident involving a mill on Celia’s family farm had disfigured her left hand, rendering all but her thumb and forefinger useless. “Sometime around age 5,” wrote Dr. Rosenberg in his memoir, “while holding her left hand in mine, I told her I intended to become a doctor so I could fix her hand.”
Leon was an exemplary student: he was a farewell teacher from his high school and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1954 and received his medical degree in 1957. He interned at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital before moving to the National Institutes of Health as a research fellow in 1959.
His first marriage, to Elaine Lewis, ended in divorce. Along with his wife, he is survived by his brother, Irwin, the former dean of the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University; his sons, Robert Rosenberg and David Korish; his daughters, Diana Clark and Alexa Rosenberg; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
While studying at Yale, Dr. Rosenberg researches hereditary metabolic disorders, despite peer skepticism about the basis of such work. “Don’t be silly,” he recalled being told by a Yale nephrologist. “There’s no such thing.”
dr. Rosenberg proved him wrong. He filled lectures with case studies of children—Steven followed, of course, by Dana, Lorraine, Robby, and others—presenting unexplained conditions, which he repeatedly showed were caused by their bodies’ inability to metabolize various acids, and which are often easily overcome. treated.
