[From Fabricius d’Acquapendente: Opere chirurgiche, Padova, 1684.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY . New Series, Volume X March, 1938 Number 2

THE ROLE OF THE JEWISH PHYSICIAN IN THE PROGRESS OF HIS PEOPLE*

By HARRY AUSTRYN SAVITZ, M.D. BOSTON

HE story of the And in the sight of great men he shall be Jewish physi­ admired. The Lord created medicines out of the earth; cian is as long And a prudent man will have no disgust at as the history them. of his race. In this lengthy This feeling of admiration for the narrative, he physician has been continued up to the occupied a present time. In a much more prosaic prominent and vulgarized manner, it is portrayed part and played an important role. One by the “Shadchen” in the matrimonial market, to whom an M.D. still means reason for this is, that from time imme­ “More Dowry.” The Jewish physician morial, the physician was held in high of the past appreciated this esteem and esteem by the Jews. Though not deified, endeavored to deserve it. He not only yet he was placed on a pedestal and peo­ delved into the mysteries of the healing ple looked up to him. In ancient times, art and science, and tried to advance it, Ecclesiasticus,1 the wise son of Sirah, but at the same time participated in all sang: the great movements of his people. He Honour a physician according to thy need of not only did not shirk his duties to his him with the honours due unto him: people, but he even endeavored to lead For verily the Lord hath created him. and guide them. For from the Most High cometh healing; And from the King he shall receive a gift. In the formation of the Talmud, that The skill of the physician shall lift up his great spiritual fortress, which preserved head; Jews and Judaism, for nearly 2000 *Read before the Greater Boston Medical Society, October 6, 1936. years, a number of physicians took part. ishness, being always ready to subordi­ Physicians were consulted whenever nate his own interests to those of the medical knowledge was to be applied to community. He said once, ‘‘A man may legal, ritual, and ecclesiastical ordi­ never exclude himself from the commu­ nances of Judaism, and physicians par­ nity, but must seek his welfare in that ticipated in a great many discussions of society.” adding much to the pattern of this From the close of the Talmud all gigantic encyclopedia. Very few physi­ through the so-called Middle Ages, the cians are mentioned by name in the thread of Jewish history was consist­ Talmud, nor is there a special section ently being woven. There were great dedicated to medicine. But in a perusal men in every generation who left monu­ of its numerous pages we come across a mental literary works. A great number number of physicians. One that is fre­ of these scholars were physicians. Not quently mentioned is Thudos or Theo- only did these physicians carry on the doros. The name of another physician, healing art and science during the so- Bar Girnte, occurs in connection with called Dark Ages, but in many instances his traveling in a sedan chair to visit his it was they who advanced Jewish culture patients on the Sabbath owing to his ad­ and learning in its various branches. vanced age. Other physicians mentioned Maimonides, whose eight hundredth in the Talmud as examples of gen­ anniversary was celebrated in 1935, was uine Jewish piety and benevolence, are by no means the only star in the Jewish Benjamin, and Aba, the surgeon. Al­ firmament. In the tenth century we find though the latter was dependent upon the famous Isaac Israeli (845-940) in his earnings, he was so unselfish and North Africa. He was the author of sev­ considerate that in order to avoid em­ eral medical works, the best known of barrassing the poor among his patients, which is his book on fever. He also he would never accept pay directly from wrote a commentary on the book Sefer any one, but instead had attached a box Yezirah (Book of Creation) . Graetz, in which each might place what he the historian, says of him: ‘‘His exam­ pleased. ple made a place in Rabbinic studies Yet another Talmudic physician was for the scientific method that shaped the Samuel Yarhina-ah (165-257), director activity of the succeeding generations.” of the Academy of Nehardea, who was A disciple of Israeli was Dunash ben not only a great teacher of the law but Tamin, a famous physician and favorite also an excellent physician, a research of the Court, accomplished in all the worker and a great observer. He spent known sciences, who composed an astro­ eighteen months with a shepherd to nomical work on the Jewish calendar. study eye diseases of animals. He was In southern Italy during the same pe­ especially skilled in the treatment of all riod lived Sabbatai Donnolo (913-7°) diseases of the eye. He discovered an eye who also wrote a commentary on the salve which was known as the “Killurim book of Creation. He was also the au­ of Mar Samuel.” He traced many dis­ thor of a Hebrew book on materia eases to a lack of cleanliness. He made rnedica. the statement that after venesection he The contemporary of Donnolo in fed his patients a meal made of spleen.2 Spain was a Jewish physician, linguist As a man Mar Samuel was distinguished and statesman, who was one of those for his modesty, gentleness and unself­ who made the protection and further­ ing of Judaism the task of his life. I refer takes the poet’s view of Judaism and the to the eminent physician, Chasdai Ibn Jews. If Maimonides’ writings repre­ Shaprut (915-70) . In spite of his high sent the intellect and mind of Judaism, position and great wealth, he felt a call so Halevi represents its heart and emo­ to be active in the cause of his religion tional side. Halevi’s “Songs to Zion’’ are and race. As one historian says:* his most beautiful works, symbolizing He was to some extent the legal and po­ the deepest of his emotions. One of litical head of the Jewish community of them is chanted today in Jewish Con­ Cordova. He gathered around himself a gregations all over the world, on the band of talented philosophers and poets ninth of Ab. It is an “Ode to Zion.’’ who immortalized him in their works and “Zion! Wilt thou not ask if peace be in their poems. More than any man he with thy captives. That seek the peace— gave impetus to the unfolding of the that are the remnants of thy flocks,” etc. golden period of the Judao-Spanish cul­ The following letter that he wrote ture. from Toledo, Spain, to a friend, more The zenith of Spanish-Jewish culture than 800 years ago, could be read today was attained with the two immortal apropos of what is now going on in physicians, Jehudah Halevi and Mai- Spain: monides. We shall say little of the latter as our ears still echo with the orations I occupy myself in the hours which be­ delivered throughout the civilized long neither to the day nor to the night, world in 1935 on the eight hundredth with the vanity of medical science, al­ though I am unable to heal. The city in anniversary of his birth. Judah Halevi which I dwell is large, the inhabitants are was born in old Castile in 1086. He giants, but they are cruel rulers. Where­ passed his years as a practicing physi­ with could I conciliate them better than cian in the City of Toledo. The his­ by spending my days in curing their ill­ torian, Graetz, thus eulogizes him: ness. I physic Babel but it continues in­ In the annals of mankind his name de­ firm. I cry to God that He may quickly serves a separate page with a golden bor­ send deliverance unto me, and give me der. To describe him worthily, history freedom, to enjoy rest, that I may repair to would need to borrow from poetry her some place of living knowledge, to the most glowing colors and her sweetest tones. fountain of wisdom. Judah Halevi was one of the chosen, to One of the great cultural contribu­ whom the expression, “an image of God,’’ may be applied without exaggeration. He tions of the Jews in the Middle Ages is was a perfect poet, a perfect thinker, a the work of the Jewish translators. Due worthy son of Judaism, which, through his to the work of these scholars Hebrew poetry and thought was ennobled and became a vehicle of expression for idealized. philosophic and scientific ideas. It also The physician Halevi was the author brought the learning of the Orient and of a work, the “Kuzari,” which is con­ the Occident together. Here again we sidered one of the classical works in find the Jewish physician playing an Jewish philosophical literature. The important role. This task of translation treatise is a series of five Dialogues, and was first undertaken by Judah ibn is romantically framed in the medieval Tibbon (1120-90) who emigrated to story of the King of the Khazars, the Provence from Spain. He translated royal convert to Judaism. Judah Halevi Halevi’s work. His son Samuel com­ * Graetz,3 Vol. 3. pleted the works of the Jewish philos­ ophers by rendering into Hebrew the matics, astronomy and philosophy. His “Guide to the Perplexed’’ of Maimon- works on astronomy -were translated ides. The translator par excellence was into Latin and he is known to the Gen­ Moses Tibbon, the grandson. The num­ tile scholarly world as Leo Hebraus. ber of works he translated into Hebrew But to the Jewish world he is known as amounted to more than a score. Here a commentator and philosopher. He are three generations of physicians who wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch, were engaged in this noble task. Jacob the Prophets, Job and the Proverbs. In ben Abba Mari Anatoli (1200-50), son- these commentaries symbolism, allegory in-law of Samuel ibn Tibbon, upheld and philosophy were interwoven. These the family tradition and rendered many writings were greatly cherished by the works into Hebrew. Anatoli was later intellectuals of subsequent generations employed by Frederick the Second of and were well preserved. The summa­ Naples to translate Arabic works into ries of these commentaries where the Latin. ethical teachings of the Bible are en­ Of the other leading translators the hanced were held in such esteem that most outstanding was the physician, scholars of succeeding generations re­ Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (1287- printed them separately. 1337) • The number of books he trans­ The most interesting figure at that lated into Hebrew is considerable. Na­ time among the Jews of Italy was the than Ha Meati of Rome translated the physician, scholar and satirical poet, Canon of Avicenna into Hebrew Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome (1279) . Nathan Ha Meati also trans­ (1265-1330) . He was deeply versed in lated the “Liber ad Almansorem” of the Talmud and in Jewish philosophy, Rhazes, a unique fifteenth century ms and mastered Hebrew, Latin and Ital­ of which is in the Solomon M. Hyams ian. He occupied an important position collection in the Boston Medical Li­ in the Jewish community in Rome and brary. The “Canon’’ of Avicenna was ■was also respected by the Gentiles, es­ the most important medical text in this pecially by the literati of the age. He period.* There were many other trans­ was a friend and adviser of Dante, and lators, who were physicians, and partici­ wrote an elegy on him in Italian after pated in this spread of knowledge. In Dante’s death. He wrote commentaries this way Hebrew became the key to on the Bible, a grammar of the Hebrew many of the world’s classics. language and other books, but his fame The outstanding scholar at the end of rests on his collection of poems. The the Thirteenth and the beginning of outstanding characteristics of his poems the Fourteenth Century was Levi Ben are, according to Meyer Waxman:4 (1) Gerson (Ralbag), or Gersonides (1288- his exceptional linguistic ability and 1340), a renowned physician who prac­ dexterous workmanship; (2) his keen ticed medicine in Avignon and dis­ humor and biting satire, and (3) his tinguished himself in that science. He love of life and optimistic spirit. mastered practically all of the known The following is an example of one sciences of his time, including mathe- of his satiric stanzas: * There are Hebrew mss of the fifteenth Of what good can Paradise be century as well as a complete Arabic manu­ When the company there is so boring script of 1309 of the “Canon” in the Hyams Old, homely hags always snoring, collection. I’d rather my Paradise sell. On the other hand, some of his other charges against the Talmud and the en­ poems reveal that he was a God-fearing emies of the Jews accepted them with­ man. out further inquiry. For this act, Santa Immanuel also patterned after Dante Fe is remembered by the well-earned a vision entitled “Ha Tofet weha- sobriquet of the Calumniator (Mega- Eden” (Hell and Paradise). As the his­ dof). torian, Graetz, puts it: But a character of Santa Fe’s type is really an exception to the rule. On the Whereas Dante’s was “A Divine Com­ other hand, in a number of disputations edy,” his was a human comedy. Imman­ it was a physician who defended the uel’s description is free from dogmatism, and is true to human nature, and his point Jewish cause. As a matter of fact, this of view is also more human and tolerant very disputation at Tortosa was de­ than is the one expressed by Dante, who fended by a committee of twenty, at the excludes all non-Christians as such from head of which was a Jewish physician, eternal felicity. Immanuel, entering Para­ Don Vidal ben Beneveniste ibn Labi dise sees a troop of the blessed, whom he (Ferrar). does not recognize and asks their leader This was also true in other disputa­ who they are. “These are,” answers the tions. In 1263, another physician and latter, “righteous and moral brethren, who scholar, Nahmanides, defended Juda­ attained the height of wisdom, and recog­ ism against another baptized Jew, Pablo nized the only God as the Creator of the Christiani. Not only did the Jewish World and the bestower of grace.” Im­ physicians excel during these disputa­ manuel too attained for himself a place among the immortals. tions and show themselves to be experts in comparative religion, but they also But, of course, no race or profession excelled in comparative literature. The has a monopoly on saints. There are first Jew to compare the language of the Jews in every walk of life in every gen­ prophets and psalmists with Cicero was eration who crash the gates of the Gen­ the physician, Messer Leon, or as he is tiles and having entered, endeavor to known by his Hebrew name, Judah ben outdo them. In their great zeal and en­ Yechel of Naples (1450-90). He was thusiasm they inflict much insult and thoroughly versed in Hebrew literature injury to their former brethren. Of and a finished Latin scholar. He wrote course, this is all done with a selfish mo­ a Hebrew rhetoric (“Nofeth Zufim”), tive to strengthen their own position. in which he laid down the laws upon A classic example of this was the phy­ which the grace, force and eloquence of sician Joshua Lorqui of Lorea. On his style depend, and he proved that the baptism he assumed the name of Gere- same laws underlie the sacred litera­ mino de Santa Fe, and he became phy­ ture. sician in ordinary to Pope Benedict. He In the next century we find the cele­ tried to convert his brethren by every brated physician, David de Pomis possible means. He finally urged the (1525-88), who together with medical Pope to summon the learned Jews to a knowledge showed a familiarity with religious disputation. In 1492, in the Hebrew and classical literature. He city of Tortosa, the disputation lasted wrote both Hebrew and Latin with ele­ for sixty-eight sittings and extended gance. De Pomis wrote an important over a period of more than a year. literary dictionary of the Talmud in Santa Fe finally fabricated some deadly three languages. He also wrote a Latin work entitled, “The Hebrew Physi­ Jewish people by a physician in a later cian.” In this work he enumerated the century in Holland. Jewish refugees various Hebrew physicians who had at­ began to pour into Amsterdam and the tended princes of the Christian Church, Jewish community began to flourish. cardinals and popes, and restored them But no Jewish community is complete to health. without books, and no production of There were a number of other Jewish books is possible without printing. So physicians who excelled as grammarians we find Menasseh ben Israel, “A divine and lexicographers. and doctor of Physicke,” as he called With the invention of printing in the himself, establishing the first Hebrew fifteenth century, it was a Jewish phy­ printing press in Amsterdam. He was sician who became celebrated as one of aided by a friend, the physician and the earliest printers of Hebrew books literateur, Ephraim Bueno. A printing in Europe. I refer to Dr. Abraham Ben press was set up in Menasseh’s own Solomon Conat, who flourished at Man­ house. According to one modern histo­ tua in the second half of the fifteenth rian, Cecil Roth, “This enterprise of century. In addition to his medical Menasseh’s was the small beginning of training he must have also been a pro­ what became a great industry in Am­ found Hebrew scholar, for he obtained sterdam. At the close of the seventeenth the title “hober,” or associate of a rabbi, and throughout the eighteenth century, for his learning. He and his wife Estel- that city was the center of Hebrew print­ lina learned the art of printing. In 1475 ing for the whole world.” he established a printing office at Man­ Menasseh like Conat was proud of tua from which were produced the third his work. He allowed nothing to appear to the tenth of the Hebrew incunabula, until he had himself corrected and as recorded by De Rossi. passed the proofs. In the introduction Dr. Conat displayed excellent taste in of a Bible, in the author’s collection, the choice of the works he selected for published in his press in 1635 (one year printing. Two of the publications are before the founding of Harvard Col­ the works of physicians, “The Behinath lege) , he writes, “If my memory does Olom” (The Examination of the not fail me I have corrected more than World) by Yehodoya Bedersi (1280- three hundred mistakes. . . . With all 1340), and the commentary on the my might and with profound love I en­ Pentateuch by Levi ben Gershon (Ral- deavored to inspect every word, letter, bag), or Gersonides (1288-1340), a and punctuation mark, etc.” As his dis­ copy of which is in the Hyams collec­ tinctive printer’s mark, he adopted the tion.10 figure of pilgrim, with staff and bundle, Dr. Conat was proud of his work; his and the motto, “Peregranando quaeri- name in the colophons was accompanied mus” (by our wanderings we seek), an by the words “who writes with many accurate characterization of his own pens, without the help of miracles, for restless, inquiring nature. the spread of the Torah in Israel.” He With the rise of national conscious­ was especially delighted that he could ness in the nineteenth century and the produce two thousand pages every day. development of the Zionist Movement, The shape of his type was such that his we again find Jewish physicians taking editions are often taken for manuscripts. a leading role. With the same skill with A similar service was rendered to the which they excelled in the individual struggle for existence, they exerted fancy. Thus the hatred of the nations for their energies into the eternal fight for Jewish nationality is a pyschic disease of the survival of their people and nation. the kind known as “demonopathy”; and It was Dr. Leon Pinsker (1821-91), having been transmitted from generation long before the immortal Theodore to generation for some two thousand years, Herzl appeared in the Jewish arena, it has by now become so deep-rooted that it can no longer be eradicated. who enunciated the message of political Zionism, in a pamphlet entitled “Auto­ As one historian* says of his pam­ emancipation,” which he published in phlet, it is like “the prescription of the German in 1881, under the nom de physician who has studied his own dis­ plume, “Ein Russischer Jude.” Like a ease and is ready to plunge the scalpel skillful, able physician he observed the into his own flesh.” signs and symptoms of the disease, Anti- It was the suffering of his people that Semitism, explained its cause, and pre­ concerned Dr. Pinsker. Personally he scribed remedies for it. Dr. Pinsker dis­ was very successful. After receiving his covered that the cause of “our being m.d. in the University of Moscow, he hated and despised more than other returned to Odessa and practiced medi­ human beings lies deep in human psy­ cine. Shortly after the Crimean War chology.” He wrote: came to an end, Odessa was full of We cannot know whether that great day soldiers suffering from typhoid fever. will ever arrive when all mankind will live There was danger of an epidemic. He in brotherhood and concord, and national gave up his practice and devoted him­ barriers will no longer exist; but even at self to the stricken soldiers. He was gen­ the best, thousands of years must elapse erously rewarded for this by Czar Alex­ before that Messianic age. Meanwhile na­ ander ii. But the observation of his tions live side by side in a state of relative suffering brethren gave him no rest and peace, which is based chiefly on the funda­ he searched for a cure for that. mental equality between them. . . . But Another physician who took a lead­ it is different with the people of Israel. This people is not counted among the na­ ing part in the Zionist movement, from tions, because since it was exiled from its its inception, and a conspicuous figure land it has lacked the essential attributes at several Zionist Congresses, was Pro­ of nationality, by which one nation is dis­ fessor Max Mandelstam (1838-1912). tinguished from another. . . . True, we He was the leading ophthalmologist in have not ceased even in the lands of our Russia, a student of Graefe, Virchow exile to be spiritually a distinct nation; and Helmholtz, head of the eye clinic at but this spiritual nationality, so far from the University of Kiev. Yet he continu­ giving us the status of a nation in the eyes of the other nations, is the very cause of ally kept his eye on all Jewish affairs and their hatred for us as a people. Men are took a leading part in them. always terrified by a disembodied spirit, a When Herzl came on the scene of soul wandering about with no physical Jewish leadership, a world-famous Jew­ covering; and terror breeds hatred. This is ish psychologist was his guide and main a form of psychic disease which we are supporter. Dr. Max Nordau (1849- powerless to cure. In all ages men have 1923) was one of the first to respond to feared all kinds of ghosts which their Herzl’s call and he was practically sec­ imaginations have seen; and Israel appears ond to Herzl in building up the organi- to them as a ghost—but a ghost which they see with their very eyes, not merely in * Raisin,7 p. 398. zation. Here is what the great historian Institute, who afterwards made a great of Zionism, Sokolov, says of Nordau8: name for himself by his important work in India, and Alexander Marmarek, an­ Nordau placed his genius, his enthusi­ other worker in the Pasteur Institute, asm and his powerful eloquence at the service of the Zionist idea and organiza­ who was one of the earliest of modern tion. His authority and influence in the Zionists. Alexander and his two broth­ propaganda of Zionism became the most ers were the principal advocates of the powerful and influential force in the national idea in academic circles. For movement. Nothing could surpass the several years he served as President of overwhelming logic and the admirable the French Zionist Federation. He was spirit of his speeches, pamphlets, essays, one of the founders of the Echo Zioniste. and articles. From the very beginning he Marmarek was decorated with the Cross played the part of a great leader with of the Legion d’Honneur. splendid confidence, inspiration, and dig­ In the United States was Dr. Aaron nity. No Zionist has exercised a stronger or Friedenwald, born a century ago, De­ a loftier influence by sheer strength of cember 20, 1836 (d. August 26, 1902), character and sound judgment. No orator or writer in modern times has so forcibly Professor of Diseases of the Eye in the portrayed the great tragedy of his people College of Physicians and Surgeons in as he has in his speeches at the Zionist Baltimore, President of the Medical and Congresses, and none has voiced so elo­ Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland (1889- quently the claims and hopes of his na­ 90), and a member of the medical staff tion. He had always a message to de­ of a number of hospitals. At the same liver, and delivered it always effectively. time he was one of the most active mem­ He helped to make Zionism a world-wide bers of all the local and national Jewish movement, with an appeal not only to the organizations. He was one of the found­ Jewish people, but also to other nations. ers and vice-president of the Jewish His forcible eloquence and untiring zeal Theological Seminary Association, the in the service of Zionism are generally Jewish Publication Society, and of the known. Nor does his public activity ex­ Federation of American Zionists. But haust his services to the cause. He gave much useful advice to Herzl, who never he did more than that. In 1898 he vis­ undertook anything of importance in ited the Holy Land to study the condi­ Zionist politics without consulting him. tions of the Jewish colony and to be an Nordau exercised enormous influence dur­ eye-witness to the Jewish Renaissance. ing the whole period of Herzl’s and Wolff- It was during the same period that a sohn’s presidency, and is still doing so at Jewish physician, single-handed, with­ the present moment. A man of great liter­ out any financial assistance, laid the ary and journalistic achievement, with ex­ foundation for a Jewish National Li­ tensive associations and wide interests, a brary in Jerusalem. I am referring to champion of all great causes of humanity Dr. Joseph Chazanovitz, of Byalistok. In and justice, zealously engaged in various 1928 when the Zionist Organization domains of human thought, he has always took charge of the library it consisted of placed his time, his pen, and his matchless eloquence at the service of Zionism. some 30,000 volumes, assembled chiefly through the zeal and tireless effort of Dr. Herzl also found support in a Dr. Chazanovitz. number of other great physicians, It is in full keeping with the tradition among them, Waldemar Mordecai, of Jewish history that when the work of Wolff Hafkine, member of the Pasteur restoring the Jewish Homeland began in the United States Jewish physicians The soul gives the author the following should take part and associate them­ six rules, by observing which he might selves with the founding of a Hebrew succeed in his profession:—The Golden university. A committee of prominent Aphorisms: physicians is now engaged in raising (1) Powder your hair white, and keep funds to build the medical department on the table of your study a human skull of the Hebrew University. and some animal skeletons. Those coming The same tradition of the Jewish to you for medical advice will then think physicians taking an important part in your hair has turned white through con­ all Jewish movements we find holds in stant study and overwork in your profes­ the rise of modern Hebrew literature. sion. It was Juda Lob Ben Joseph Kantor, (2) Fill your library with large books, who received his doctor’s degree in Ber­ richly bound in red and gold. Though you lin, who started the first Hebrew daily never even open them people will be im­ newspaper, Ha Yom, in St. Petersburg. pressed with your wisdom. In 1890 he was the associate editor of (3) Sell or pawn everything, if that is necessary, to have a carriage of your own. the Ha-Meliz. He also contributed to (4) When called to a patient pay less many other journals. attention to him than to those about him. Another physician, Isaac Ben Abra­ On leaving the sick-room, assume a grave ham Kaminer (1834-1901) who for fif­ face, and pronounce the case a most crit­ teen years served as associate to Profes­ ical one. Should the patient die, you will sor Mering at Kiev, was an able Hebrew be understood to have hinted at his death; writer and an especially talented satirist. if, on the other hand, he recovers, his rela­ His numerous contributions to period­ tions and friends will naturally attribute icals, such as Baraitot de Rabbi Yizhok, his recovery to your skill. were very popular. (5) Have as little as possible to do with Another of the modern Hebrew sati­ the poor; as they will only send for you in rists was Dr. Isaac Erter (1792-1851) of hopeless and desperate cases; you will gain Brody, a graduate of the University of neither honor nor reward by attending Budapest. He practiced in Galician them. Let them wait outside your house, that passers may be amazed at the crowd towns. He was popular among the poor waiting patiently to obtain your services. and needy who found in him a kindly (6) Consider every medical practitioner benefactor. Nearly a hundred years ago as your natural enemy, and speak of him he urged the establishment of agricul­ always with the utmost disparagement. If tural colonies for the employment and he is a student of history dabbling in the benefit of young Jews. But his fame annals of the past, say his work is alien to rests chiefly on his satires, which the his­ the practice of medicine. If he be young, torian, Graetz, says resemble in many you must say he has not had sufficient ex­ ways those of Heinrich Heine. The fol­ perience; if he be old, you must declare lowing is a quotation from one of his that his eyesight is bad, or that he is more most attractive and stinging satires, or less crazy, and not to be trusted in im­ called Gilgul HaNefesh: portant cases. When you take part in a It is the story of the many adventures consultation with other physicians, you of a soul during a long, earthly career; would act wisely by protesting loudly how it frequently passed from one body against the previous treatment of the case into another, how it had once left the by your colleagues. Whatever the issue body of an ass for that of a physician. may be, you will always be on the safe side. Another Hebrew writer and contrib­ Judah Halevi to the present time there utor to Russian and Hebrew periodicals is a golden tradition of the Jewish phy­ was the Russian physician, Judah Lob sician playing on the Hebrew lyre. B. Israel Katznelson (1848-1916), who Even a superficial study of Jewish his­ wrote under the pen name of Bukki tory fills one with amazement and pride Ben Yogli. He was graduated from the at the achievements of the Jewish phy­ Imperial Medical Academy in St. Peters­ sician. Not only did he distinguish burg in 1877. He took part in the war himself in his art and science, but he against Turkey and was decorated continuously shouldered the task of fur­ twice by the Czar. He wrote a book on thering the progress of his people in its “Medicine in the Talmud” and “Shirat various ramifications. When the student Ha Zamir,” a novel. of history confronts these intellectual Even in the new Palestine of today, giants this feeling of pride gives way to the poet laureate is a physician. From one of humility and meekness. References 1. Ecclesiasticus, Chap, xxxvin. 8. Sokolow, N. History of Zionism. Lon­ 2. Babylonian Talmud-Sabbath 129a. don, 1919. 3. Graetz. History of the Jews. Phila., 1894. 9. Selected Poems of Jehudah Halevi; Transl. into English by Nina Salaman. 4. Waxman, M. A History of Jewish Litera­ Phila., 1928. ture. N. Y., 1930. 10. Gerson, L. B. Commentary on the Penta­ 5. Roth, C. A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel. teuch. Mantua, Dr. Abraham Conat, Phila., 1934. 1476. (In the Hyams Collection of the 6. Biblia Hebraica. Amsterdam, Menasseh Boston Medical Library.) Ben Israel, 1635. 11. Gerson, L. B. Teolyoth (Summaries of 7. Raisin, M. History of the Jews in Mod­ Ethics). Riva, 1540. (Author’s collec­ ern Times. N. Y., 1919. tion.)