Benjamin M. Emanuel, originally born Benjamin Auerbach in Jerusalem in 1927 to parents Penina and Ezekiel Auerbach, a pharmacist, was a Jerusalem-born pediatrician and former member of the Irgun paramilitary organization. His family had fled pogroms in Odessa (then Russian Empire, now Ukraine) in 1905. He changed his surname to Emanuel in memory of his brother Emanuel Auerbach, who died in 1933 at age 18 from an infection after a ricocheting bullet hit his knee during clashes between protesters and British police in Mandatory Palestine. Father of Ezekiel, Rahm, and Ari Emanuel, he immigrated to the United States after the Israeli War of Independence and initially worked as a pediatrician at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, later building a thriving pediatric practice treating thousands of children over decades. In the 1960s, he quit the American Medical Association in protest of its stance against national health care and later supported a lawsuit against Chicago City Hall over lead paint in buildings, linked to brain damage in children. Married to Marsha Emanuel, he was a longtime resident of Wilmette, Illinois. In 2008, following Rahm Emanuel's appointment as White House Chief of Staff, he stated in an interview with Ma'ariv: 'Obviously he'll influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to be mopping floors at the White House,' drawing criticism for anti-Arab sentiment and calls for Rahm Emanuel to disavow it. He died on October 3, 2019, at age 92.