|
February 2, 2001
Contact: Steve Townsend, (313)
577-7727, stownsen@med.wayne.edu
SAVE THE DATE:
MAY 6-7, 2001
WSU
hosts international conference on Jews and medicine to examine religious
thought, cultural patterns, practical applications
It is hard to imagine the healing profession
without Jews. The deeply rooted connection between Jewish society and medicine
had its beginnings in the biblical statement: “Therefore choose life”
(Deuteronomy 30:19). It continued into medieval and early modern periods when
Jewish physicians served as an important link of transmission of Arab medicine
to Europe. In the modern period, Emancipation allowed Jewish physicians to play
an active role in the development of new fields of medical research. More
recently, Jewish thinkers and practitioners have grappled with the perplexing
and challenging dilemmas resulting from devastating illness and persecution on
the one hand, and from revolutionary advancements in technology and health care
on the other.
The conference will explore various themes
that define the Jews’ historic encounter with medicine and healing: biblical
religion and folk remedies, the emergence of medicine as a distinctive
profession, the image of the Jewish doctor, the Jewish medical response to
catastrophe and Jewish approaches to the distribution of health services.
Sunday night’s program at Temple Shir
Shalom in West Bloomfield will feature a keynote address by David B. Ruderman,
Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History and director of the Center
for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Monday’s three
conference sessions will be hosted at McGregor Memorial Conference Center on the
campus of Wayne State University.
For more information or to register,
contact Sandy Loeffler, Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies, at (313)
577-2679. Media representatives should contact Steven Townsend, WSU School of
Medicine, at (313) 577-1429.
Co-sponsored by The Cohn-Haddow Center
for Judaic Studies and the School of Medicine at Wayne State University
|
