A popular local physician, Dr. Binyomin (Norton) Sokol passed away in April during the first days of Passover as a result of COVID-19.

Sokol began his more than 55-year career in his native Chicago after graduating from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1961. Specializing in internal medicine, his reputation for an unusually high level of care and professionalism quickly spread.

He helped establish the Ark Organization, which provided health care and social services, with dignity and respect, for those who otherwise could not afford them.

Sokol moved to New Jersey to serve as internal-medicine specialist at the Ocean County Internal Medicine practice, and was often seen engaging in his other passion of Torah study in the synagogues of his Lakewood, N.J., area.

Early in his career, Sokol took a sabbatical and lived for a time in Jerusalem, where he dedicated himself to learning during his year off, and even wrote a book analyzing medical ethics and halachah.

Jerry Zable recalled in an online tribute told Rabbi Moshe Francis, who heads the Chicago Community Kollel Institute for Advanced Torah Studies with Rabbi Dovid Zucker, that Sokol was a tzadik. “I have never heard the rabbi ever say this about anyone else,” said Zable.

Predeceased by his wife, Sokol is survived by their seven children.

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