Jews and Medicine: An Epic Saga - Hardcover

Heynick, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881257737 ISBN 13: 9780881257731

Publisher: Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc, 2002

Synopsis

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About this title

From The New England Journal of Medicine:

Had I set out to write a book about Jews and medicine, I would have selected 10 or 12 of the best-known names. I would have devoted a chapter to each of them, beginning with interesting tidbits about their childhood, continuing with their education, and culminating with their seminal contributions to medicine. Heynick chose instead to create a narrative that begins with Paleolithic medicine, gathers steam in the pre-Biblical era, and carries us through the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century. We travel to the Middle East; throughout southern, eastern, and northern Europe; to Asia; and finally to the United States. The saga culminates with the accomplishments of many of the 20th century's Nobel laureates. Heynick's gift is the ability to portray scores of medical heroes, most of whom will be unfamiliar to the average reader, against the larger cultural, religious, and political backdrops of their time. He offers a close-up view of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy through the ages; throughout history, there have been prohibitions of Christian-Jewish interactions, and the faithful have been forbidden to seek care from Jewish physicians. We learn, however, that popes and kings alike found loopholes so that they could be treated by Jewish physicians. Jewish physicians walked a constant tightrope in their practice: although they were admired for the centuries of medical knowledge to which they were heir, they were feared for their perceived hatred of Christ and his servants. Even when religious bigotry was not overt, Jewish physicians knew that it lay beneath the surface of daily life, requiring them to excel at their art. Typical of the multitude of dramas to which Heynick treats us is the story of Jacob Henle, the grandson of a rabbi. Born in Bavaria in 1809, Henle studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn, where the curriculum still included bloodletting. Working with microscopes illuminated only by the sun, Henle searched for microorganisms in corpses of typhoid victims, smallpox pustules, and the scabs of scarlet fever. The search would be futile for decades to come because of the limited state of the art of microscopy. Henle, however, deduced from his observations that contagious conditions have a life of their own. Other treats include the story of Aletta Jacobs, the daughter of a provincial Dutch doctor, who broke the barrier against women in medicine and went on to have a pioneering role in birth control and women's rights at the end of the 19th century; the tales of Paul Ehrlich and Eli Metchnikoff of Germany and Russia, respectively, who shared the 1908 Nobel prize in medicine for their elaboration of a theory of immunity; Ernst Chain's work with penicillin; Freud's development of psychoanalytic theory; and the determination of Selman Waksman to find an organism that could kill the tubercle bacillus. It is ironic that this Jewish soil chemist began his quest while, across the Atlantic, Hitler was raving about the "racial tuberculosis" of Judaism. Almost all of Heynick's heroes labored under some form of persecution. In some cases, their travails were minor, but many Jewish physicians were forced to convert or flee, and academic advancement was often blocked in the name of religion. For several millennia, Jews were recognized by their benefactors and persecutors alike as gifted healers. Even in intolerant surroundings, they swelled the ranks of physicians greatly out of proportion to their numbers in the population. In examining the reasons for the link between Jews and medicine, Heynick identifies the importance of education to Jews, their religious attitudes toward the body, superstitious awe of Jews among gentiles, the portability of medical knowledge across borders, historical tradition, and in the last half-century, the independent and creative thinking of the immigrant. The final chapters of Jews and Medicine are a sad reminder that in the early 20th century, religious persecution awaited Jewish doctors even on their arrival in the United States. Because of their different manners, customs, and speech, they became the target of a general nativist sentiment. Quotas were established at medical schools, with the specious argument that gentile patients preferred gentile physicians. Jews and Medicine is a deep reservoir of historical information. It will be savored by students of world or medical history. Steven G. Friedman, M.D.
Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

From Booklist:

In his introduction, Heynick offers an engrossing history of the "eternal wandering Jews" as doctors--citing folktales, legends, and literary renderings through the centuries. For more than a millennium, Jewish physicians have been what Heynick calls medical superstars of society at large. Among modern medical contributions made by Jews, the author chronicles their pioneering of the germ theory, immunology, chemotherapy, penicillin, antibiotics, and psychoanalysis. Heynick, who has a doctorate in medicine from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, discusses the Talmud's profound influence on generations of Jewish doctors. Many passages testify to some advanced medical knowledge. Such passages include references to anesthesia for surgical operations, amputations, artificial teeth and limbs, and Caesarean sections. Many of the best-known rabbis, philosophers, poets, and grammarians of the Middle Ages were doctors by occupation. In this fresh and well-documented work, Heynick offers a fascinating history of Jews in medicine. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0881257737
• ISBN 13: 9780881257731
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 602