Meet Benjamin Landa: CEO of Sentosa Care, U.S. Nominee for Ambassador to Hungary
By Todd Shapiro
Benjamin Landa, a successful owner of a group of nursing homes in the Bronx, has reached heights that his parents could hardly imagine. His father, Yehoshua Boruch Landa, but known as Samuel, came to the United States unable to speak a word of English and broken from the loss of his wife and children in Auschwitz. His father, who served as a rabbi in Bishkov, Czechoslovakia, before the Holocaust, immigrated to the United States after the war, as did Landa’s mother, Chaya Sarah Landa, in 1948. They met in the United States, first settling in Newark, N.J., and later moved to Brooklyn.
Neither could speak English, but both learned and insisted their sons speak only English at home. The village he had lived in changed hands from Hungarian, to Czech and is now part of Ukraine. His mother was from a small village in Hungary. Both lost their spouses in Auschwitz.
“We never spoke Hungarian in the house,” said Landa of his parents’ native tongue. After years of hard work that included getting a high school diploma at night, his father graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s from Rutgers University. “They believed in assimilating and wanted us to be ‘good’ Americans. My dad was 34 years old when he came here, and in his 40s when he got his master’s.”
The family, which consisted of his parents and an older brother and himself, lived in Newark, N.J., where his father became a rabbi again, this time at Ahavos Shalom, which means “Lover of Peace.” The temple celebrated its 100th anniversary two years ago.
“My mother lived long enough to see the beginnings of my success,” says Landa, who has been nominated by President Donald J. Trump as ambassador to Hungary. “My dad didn’t, but I know he would be proud of all that I’ve done.”
Landa, who is married with children and grandchildren, has chosen to honor his parents, especially his dad, through philanthropy. His father was an educator and a Holocaust survivor and Landa has chosen to continue that drive to educate others about the Holocaust.
“In another few years, all those who had firsthand knowledge of the Holocaust will be gone,” says Landa, who will be 70 in May. “Soon, even my generation, children of survivors, will be gone. We have to teach as many as we can now.”
Landa started the Ohel Harav Yehoshua Boruch Foundation to provide funding for speakers, classes and programs about the Holocaust.
“This is not just United States history, this is world history,” Landa says of this very painful time. “I remember the lasting trauma my parents experienced.”
It is that trauma that drives Landa to help others remember.
“For many in that next generation, they’ve already lost a lot of that information,” laments Landa, who studied in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and earned his college degree from Adelphi University in Garden City. “How do we keep this information alive. My children and grandchildren all have been taught about the Holocaust. They were brought up with it. They get it.”
Landa explained that just teaching his children and grandchildren wasn’t enough. He also provides funding for classes, guest speakers and other programs about the Holocaust.
Even his nursing home business was influenced by his relationship with his parents. His father worked for the City of New York’s housing authority, but took a one-year sabbatical to work in a nursing home. Landa spent the summer with his dad, joining him at work most days. Landa saw how much an elderly person’s life was affected by those around them. Those lessons stayed with Landa and when the opportunity presented itself, he decided that he’d like to be in the business of improving the quality of life of the elderly, of those in need.
“It was 1970,” Landa said. “I was a teen and didn’t see that much, but what I did see made me want to help make their lives better, especially those who were elderly, sick or who had challenges. I saw how the people who worked with them wanted to make their lives better.”
He bought his first nursing home in 1987. Landa’s facilities nurse thousands of residents 24 hours per day, seven days a week, offering specialized care and both short- and long-term rehabilitation, in addition to a myriad of other skilled nursing services throughout the New York metropolitan area.
Landa has worked to instill that philosophy into the staff at his two nursing facilities in The Bronx.
“My model is to empower the staff to take responsibility for those in their care,” Landa explains. “The staff are an important part of our success or failure. We capitalize on their expertise, offering them whatever support they need. It has to come from the top. When I walk through a facility, I’m interacting with senior management. It is important that they are invested in that philosophy. They, in turn, take that philosophy and instill it into those below them. That’s how you build that relationship of dignity and respect in the organization.”
Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.
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