Friday, September 28, 2012
Shlomo Rechnitz interviewed by Larry King
Philanthropist and businessman Shlomo Rechnitz was interviewed in a "Profiles in Philanthropy" special by Larry King. Highlights of this interview were featured on the 2012 Chabad Telethon.
King and Rechnitz discuss the motivation behind Rechnitz's massive global charitable efforts, the secret behind his business success, his views on the future of the healthcare industry and his commitment to Chabad. Rechnitz also talked about a special program at his company, TwinMed, LLC, which hires graduates from Chabad's national drug and alcohol treatment center in Los Angeles, helping to integrate them back into the community.
Rechnitz co-founded TwinMed in 1998, and it has grown to become the largest medical supply distributor of the West Coast and one of the nation's fastest growing distributors of medical supplies and services, serving as the primary distributor to over 2500 Skilled Nursing Facilities nationwide. In 2004, Rechnitz founded Brius Healthcare Company, a quality care provider with over 8,000 employees nationwide.
Rechnitz has utilized his success in the healthcare field to give back to the field of medicine, and has contributed millions of dollars to cancer research. He is President of Toras Emes Academy, the largest Hebrew Day School west of the Mississippi, and is Chairman of the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation in New York. In 2011, Shlomo and his brother Steve were the winners of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award. In May 2012, Rechnitz was honored by UCLA with Sidney Poitier, Terry Semel and Morgan Freeman when he received the ICON Award for Visionary Leadership in Business and Philanthropy.
In August 2012, Rechnitz hosted the largest celebration of Jewish learning since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., when 90,000 Jews gathered at New York's MetLife Stadium to celebrate the completion of the study of Talmud, a rigorous seven-and-a-half-year-long cycle of Talmudic learning.
In September, Rechnitz was featured at the Chabad National Telethon as the recipient of the Chesed Award, Chabad's most prominent award.
Rechnitz is a pillar of the Los Angeles community, where he spends much of his time engaged in philanthropic and community efforts in the field of education, medical and humanitarian assistance.