By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

Dr. Steven Krauss,63, of blessed memory, was one of the genuine Tzaddikim of the Five Towns and a personal friend.  Dr. Krauss leaves a devastated community both in the Five Towns, among his thousands of pediatric dental patients and his beloved family of three married daughters and many grandchildren.

Dr. Krauss was known throughout the Jewish community in the entire tri-state area as perhaps the leading pediatric dentist in the nation.  Patients came from as far as Lakewood and Monsey. He was described as kind, compassionate and had the most finely honed dental skills to ensure the most painless experience children could ever have at a dentist.

Dr. Krauss, or Reb Shmuel Eliezer, excelled in the midah of Ahavas Yisroel and served as a paragon of this midah to all who knew him.  Typically, in order to ensure that children not be in a state of pain he would often open up his office at late hours at night.  He would personally call patients and or their parents after a procedure to make sure that everything was going well.

Children of all ages had the warmest of experiences at his office.  Dr. Krauss ensured that all of his staff members loved children, and treated patients and their parents with the utmost respect.  His office was carefully designed to ensure the warmest of experiences.

He was also an extraordinary baal chessed, a baal tzedakah, and never refused a patient either.

Dr. Krauss also volunteered for Hatzalah as a paramedic and was known as RL 76.

Dr. Krauss was the founding director of the pediatric dentistry residency program at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. He was also a clinical professor at Einstein and an attending faculty member at Jacobi and Montefiore Hospitals, where he taught pediatric dentistry, dental anesthesiology, and care of patients with special needs to advanced dental residents; as well as providing patient care at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Einstein.

He had published numerous articles and textbook chapters, and had lectures at national dental meetings cross the country.

Dr Krauss once remarked, “What I particularly love about my practice, the community is that I feel like I’m an integral part of the community. I’ve been here for 30 years. I volunteer as a paramedic in the community.

And my patients, I have patients now who bring their children for the first time and they look at me and they look at the pictures here. And they look at this picture and they say, “Wow, still there? I was here 20 years ago as a patient.” And it makes me feel like we’re all family.”

Dr. Krauss was not feeling well for a few days and called Hatzolah on Shabbos, but unfortunately, passed away on the way to the hospital.

Dr. Krauss graduated dental school at the University of Maryland in 1985 and completed a hospital general practice dentistry residency in 1986. He then completed a two-year pediatric dentistry residency followed by a yearlong fellowship in dental care of patients with special needs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY.

He later attended graduate school and received the Master of Public Health (MPH) and MBA degrees from the University of Massachusetts and completed a residency in dental public health at Jacobi Medical Center in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health. He also received a certificate in bioethics and medical humanities from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Benjamin Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University.

Dr. Krauss was a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, a Diplomate of the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, a Fellow of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology, and a New York State and New York City certified paramedic.

Levata and shiva information to be announced.

Dr. Krauss zt”l was a living embodiment of Kiddush Shaim Shamayim to hundreds of thousands of people.

Boruch Dayan haEmes.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com

1 COMMENT

  1. I am so terribly saddened to have learned this news.

    I was Director, Pediatric Dentistry at Montefiore Medical Center when Steve was enrolled as a resident at the Rose Kennedy Center, where he was in the last class of residents to have been trained by world renowned Dr. Harold Diner, who loved matching wits with Steve.

    Besides being an excellent resident, who truly cared about his patients, many of whom had developmental disabilities, Steve always had great humor and could lighten up even the most tense of situations.

    After his residency he became uniquely qualified as he pursued further formal education and he combined his vast knowledge with a worldly compassion unlike anyone.

    Steve remained so very giving and dedicated to his personal and professional communities and has surely served as a model for others who had the good fortune of his company.

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