Yaacov Bergman
Israel, Cape Town, Baltimore
Few students have the cosmopolitan background of LCM’s Yaacov Bergman. Yaacov was born in Israel and spent three years in Cape Town when his father became a rabbi of a South African shul. “It was amazing,” he recalled. “I could see the ocean from my window.”
The family relocated to Baltimore when Yaacov was ten. After attending the Talmudic Academy in Baltimore, he studied in Mercaz HaTorah in Israel. Yaacov chose LCM because of the school’s size and great medical school acceptance rate. “It’s small and tight-knit,” he explained
Yaacov knew he wanted to become a doctor ever since he broke his arm in seventh grade. “I remember the feeling of unease and how the doctors alleviated that. I really wanted to do that too,” he said. Yaacov’s already well on his way to a career in medicine. He put in 108 volunteer hours in Mt. Sinai Hospital’s emergency room. “I felt like I was part of the team,” he said. Last summer, Yaacov put in 136 hours in the psychology and oncology ward of the University of Maryland Hospital.
Yaacov is also an accomplished pianist of ten years. His favorite piece? Beethoven’s Fur Elise. “It’s a people-pleaser,” he said.