1

Ulrike Steinert, Freie Universitt Berlin: Concepts of the female body in Mesopotamian
gynaecological texts
In contrast to the Greco-Roman medical literature on womens diseases, Mesopotamian
gynaecological texts lack general theoretical statements about the anatomy and physiology as specific
to the female body, i.e. the anatomical differences between men and women, the female
reproductive system, and processes restricted to women such as menstruation, menopause,
pregnancy, gestation and birth. Yet, the extant sources on womens healthcare from the 2
nd
and 1
st

millennium BCE Mesopotamia, notably diagnostic and therapeutic texts, contain a wealth of implicit
and explicit information regarding the indigenous healers knowledge and concepts of female
anatomy and physiology. Our reconstruction of these concepts has to take into account that on the
one hand, the information preserved in the medical texts stems from the necessities to diagnose and
treat womens complaints, and as such focuses on morbid and abnormal processes (e.g. bleeding, not
menstruation). On the other hand, concepts of physical processes are mainly expressed through
metaphors and comparisons with phenomena in nature and everyday life, which are found especially
in the incantations that accompanied medical treatments. This contribution will review the available
information to assess the questions: What did the Mesopotamian healers know about the anatomy of
the female body and the processes pertaining to it? Do these concepts share traits with comparable
theories found in Jewish traditions?


-

Ulrike Steinert studied Assyriology and Social
Anthropology at Freie Universitt Berlin in 1997-
2004, and at Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen in
2004-2007. In 2007 she was awarded a Ph.D. in
Assyriology at the Georg-August-Universitt
Gttingen for a study about the Mesopotamian
concepts of the human person in Akkadian texts of
the 2
nd
and 1
st
millennium BCE. In 2011, she was
awarded a Medical History and Humanities
Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust London for a
research project on women's diseases in Babylonian
medical texts, which brought her to University
College London, where she worked from 2011-
2013. Since 2013 she has been a Senior Researcher
in the ERC Project BabMed Babylonian Medicine
at Freie Universitt Berlin. Ulrike's work focuses on
the Akkadian language as well as the cultural
history, anthropology and medicine of Ancient
Mesopotamia from an intercultural perspective.
Tzvi Langermann, Bar-Ilan University: Nu'man al-Isra'ili's unstudied commentary on Abu Sahl al-
Masihi's Kitab al-Mi'a


Tzvi Langermann received his PhD in History of
Science from Harvard University. Upon receipt of his
degree, he immigrated to Israel, and after working
for some fifteen years at the Institute of
Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at Jerusalem, he
joined the faculty of Bar Ilan University, where he is
now Professor of Arabic. His research covers a wide
variety of topics in science, religion, and philosophy
in Judaism and Islam; most of his papers make use
of texts found in unpublished manuscripts.




2

Gerrit Bos, University of Cologne / Guido Mensching, University of Gttingen: Jewish
multilingualism in medieval medical lexicography and translations


Our talk is about some aspects of Jewish medicine in the Romance speaking countries during the 13
th

to 15
th
centuries. Many Jewish scholars had left Al-Andalus during the time of the Almohads and
Almoravides and found new working environments particularly in Northern Spain, Catalonia and
Southern France. Arabic medicine was thus transported to territories in which Arabic was not a
common language. Therefore, translation aids were needed, hence the existence of numerous bi- or
multilingual glossaries. Since Hebrew itself had not an established medical terminology, Arabic terms
were calqued or explained by their Romance equivalents. Translators would also often use Romance
instead of Hebrew words in their translations.

We shall focus on (i.) the lexicographic/linguistic makeup and the transmission (from Spain through
Southern France to Italy) of around 25 glossaries and synonym lists that we have been studying and
editing; (ii.) our edition of Ibn Tibbons translation of Ibn al-Jazzars Zad al-musafir, in which we shall
illustrate the use of Occitan words as translation equivalents to Arabic in the Hebrew text; (iii.) Shem
Tov Ben Isaac`s translation of the Kitab al-Tasrif (Sefer ha-Shimmush), our edition of the synonym
lists (Arabic-Hebrew-Latin-Occitan) contained therein, and Shem Tovs attempt to create a Hebrew
medical terminology.

Gerrit Bos is emeritus chair and professor of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of
Cologne. In addition to preparing the Medical Works of Moses Maimonides he is, with Guido Mensching of
Gttingen University, involved with a series of medical-botanical Arabic-Hebrew-Romance synonym texts written
in Hebrew characters, and is producing an edition of Ibn al-Jazzars Zad al-musafir (Viaticum). He is also studying
the Hebrew medical terminology used by the major translators of the thirteenth century; a first analysis can be
found in his Novel Medical and General Hebrew Terminology from the Thirteenth Century (2 vols.). Another
project that is currently being carried out in cooperation with Guido Mensching is the edition and translation of
Jonah Ibn Janahs Kitab al-talkhis, a work that had a tremendous impact on Arabic pharmacognosy.


Guido Mensching graduated in 1990 in Romance and German Philology and obtained his PhD degree in Cologne
in 1992 with the commented edition of what can be considered the first Old Spanish medico-botanical dictionary
(Sinonima delos nonbres delas medeinas griegos e latynos e arauigos, published in Madrid in 1994). During his
time as a research assistant in computational linguistics in Cologne, he wrote his thesis in synchronic and
diachronic generative syntax (on Romance infinitive constructions) and, in 1997, received the venia legendi in
Romance Philology. From 2000 to 2013, he was a full professor at the Freie Universitt of Berlin and, since April
2013, he has held the chair of Romance Linguistics at the Georg-August-Universitt of Gttingen. Since 1999,
Guido Mensching has been working together with Gerrit Bos on Romance elements in medieval Hebrew medical
texts (with a special focus on Occitan) and now co-directs (also with Gerrit Bos) a project on the edition of Ibn
Ibn an's Kitb al-Tal. His other areas of research include Sardinian and general Romance syntax.





3

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, Goldsmiths, University of London: Counting body parts: views from the Hebrew
Book of Asaf
How many bones do we have? How many veins? Why these numbers and not others? Different
medical traditions have given different answers to these questions. This paper will focus on the
Hebrew Book of Asaf also known as Sefer refuot (Book of Remedies) and notes some parallel
concepts in other traditions. Sefer refuot is an extensive medical compendium, containing a kind of
medical history: sections on anatomy, embryology, sections on pulse and urine diagnosis, seasonal
regimes, a medical oath and a long materia medica section. It has long been considered one of the
greatest mysteries of Hebrew sciences with regard to fundamental questions such as the date and
place of its composition and the identity of its author or authors. It has been dated anything between
the seventh and the eleventh centuries, and its composition has been located anywhere between
Persia to southern Italy. Its syncretic nature makes it a particularly interesting case for comparative
analysis as in the case of its views on anatomy.

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalims research deals with the
transmission of medical knowledge between the so-
called east and west. Within this general scope,
she has been working on the history of early
Tibetan medicine, based primarily on manuscripts
found in the Dunhuang caves. This work followed
up on her work which comprised part of the 'Islam
and Tibet' project at the Warburg Institute. Her
current research project is titled: "Re-Orienting
Early Medicine: Bridges of Knowledge between
'east' and 'west'", focusing on the Hebrew Book of
Asaf (Sefer Refuot). She has co-edited three
volumes with Anna Akasoy and Charles Burnett:
Rashd al-Dn as an Agent and Mediator of Cultural
Exchanges in Ilkhanid Iran (2013); Islam and Tibet:
Interactions along the Musk Routes (2011) and
Astro-Medicine: Astrology and Medicine, East and
West (2008). She teachs history of medicine in the
History Department at Goldsmiths, University of
London




Lennart Lehmhaus, Freie Universitt Berlin: On the medical discourse(s) in the two Talmudim
This paper focuses on the medical knowledge that can be found in rabbinic texts of Late Antiquity.
The Talmudic literature comprises four main traditions the basic authoritative text is the Mishnah
(early 3
rd
ct.) and its contemporary tradition of the Toseftah (Supplement). Discussion,
commentaries and elaborations of the Mishnahs lore and other early traditions are provided in two
Talmudim: the Palestinian Talmud (or Yerushalmi/ ca. 5
th
-6
th
ct.) and the Babylonian Talmud (or
Bavli/ 6
th
- 7
th
ct.)
In striking contrast to Greco-Roman culture, the Jewish medical discourse in Late Antiquity was
always embedded in other textual corpora. Up to the Middle Ages no Hebrew or Aramaic book was
exclusively concerned with medicine. However, both Talmudim contain many single and sometimes
also complex and detailed medical teachings (about physiology, anatomy, therapies, remedies, diet
and regimen etc.). Rather than forming systematical structures this information is generally scattered
throughout the whole Talmudic corpus and provides medical knowledge en passant in different
contexts. Still, in some instances one can find more coherent frameworks, clusters and other textual
structures that point to elaborated medical discussions, well integrated in their thematic contexts.
This talk will engage in a comparison between the two Talmudic traditions (Yerushalmi/ Bavli) with
regard to terminology, conceptual and structural as well as discursive and literary features. This
comparative approach focuses on passages about therapeutic advices, mainly in form of cures,
pharmacological recipes or more general advice on diet and regimen.


4

Lennart Lehmhaus studied Jewish Studies, German Language and Literature and Political Sciences at University
of Duisburg, Heinrich-Heine-Universitt Dsseldorf and at the Hebrew University Jerusalem. In his M.A. thesis
(2006) he analyzed Style, language and topics in the textual variants of the Alphabet of Ben Sira. In his
dissertation (2013) on Seder Eliyahu Zutah (SEZ) at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg he presented a
first-time annotated German translation, and a study on the literary, discursive and socio-cultural dimensions of
the work. His research on rabbinic literature focuses on approaches from literary theory, intertextuality and
socio-cultural readings of texts. Currently he is working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Collaborative
Research Center Episteme in Motion-Transfer of knowledge from Ancient times until the modern period at Free
University Berlin. The project he is involved in examines the medical discourses in the Talmudim and their
encyclopedic dimensions in comparison with their early-Byzantine counterparts of medical encyclopaedias in
Greek.

Gad Freudenthal, University of Geneva: Philosophy and Medicine in Jewish
Provence, Anno 1199: Samuel Ibn Tibbon and Doeg the Edomite Translating Galens Tegni
Simultaneous discoveries have been a frequent phenomenon in the history of science and historians
and sociologists have identified their causes and social functions. Gad Freudenthal is interested in an
analogous phenomenon - simultaneous translation. In ca. 1199, Galens Tegni was translated into
Hebrew twice, both times in Provence: one translation was done from Latin, by the anonymous
convert who called himself Doeg the Edomite; and one from Arabic, by Samuel Ibn Tibbon. Only the
latter included also Ali Ibn Riwns commentary.
In this contribution he will briefly recall the history of the Tegni, and then attend to the two
translators and their respective translations. He will describe the intellectual projects of each of the
translators and situate his translation of the Tegni within it. He will then show that the simultaneity of
the translations was far from being accidental.
The research underlying this contribution was carried out together with Dr Resianne Fontaine,
University of Amsterdam.


Gad Freudenthal is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
with the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche
scientifique) in Paris, France and (until 31 July
2014) Professor at the University of Geneva. He has
written on the history of science in Antiquity and in
the Middle Ages, especially in Jewish cultures. His
books include: Aristotle's Theory of Material
Substance. Form and Soul, Heat and Pneuma
(1995); Science in the Medieval Hebrew and Arabic
Traditions (2005) and the edited volumes: Studies
on Gersonides - A Fourteenth-Century Jewish
Philosopher-Scientist (1992); AIDS in Jewish
Thought and Law (1998); Torah et Science:
Perspectives historiques et thoriques. tudes
offertes Charles Touati (with J.-P. Rothschild and
G. Dahan, 2001); Mlanges d'histoire de la
mdecine hbraque. tudes choisies de la Revue
de l'histoire de la mdecine hbraque, 1948-1985
(with S. Kottek, 2003); Science in Medieval Jewish
Cultures (2011); Latin-into-Hebrew. Volume 1:
Studies (with R. Fontaine, 2013). He also is the
editor of Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and
Judaism, established in 2001.


Justine Isserles, UCL: Bloodletting and medical astrology in Hebrew manuscripts from medieval
Western Europe (13
th
-15
th
c.)
This paper will focus on the practice of bloodletting as a prophylactic measure for excess blood, in
association with astro-medical precepts, expounded within the pages of Hebrew liturgical, historical,
calendrical and medical miscellanies from Franco-Germany and Southern France, dated between the
13
th
and 15
th
centuries. Firstly, a survey of unlucky and dangerous bloodletting days (including
Egyptian days and Dog days) found in Hebrew and Latin Julian calendars as well as lists and tables
will be presented, followed by several examples from Hebrew and Latin regimen calendars, where


5

bloodletting was considered a necessary hygienic measure for maintaining good health. The second
part will describe how bloodletting was related to medical astrology, and more precisely to
melothesia, which assigns areas of the human body to the signs of the zodiac. The layouts and
contents of textual, tabular and figurative portrayals of melothesia will be analyzed; some of which
will be compared with contemporary Latin examples. The overall objective of this presentation will be
to demonstrate to what extent the bloodletting procedure, as seen from the contents of these
Hebrew manuscripts, was influenced by the surrounding Christian environment, testifying to yet
further medically oriented Jewish-Christian exchanges in medieval Western Europe of the 13
th
to 15
th

centuries.
Justine Isserles completed her PhD in 2012 at the
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and the
University of Geneva on the study of the corpus of
extant Mahzor Vitry manuscripts, and was an
associate researcher at the department of Hebrew
and Jewish Studies at UCL between 2011 and 2013,
working on a Leverhulme Trust funded project led
by Sacha Stern on Jewish and Christian calendars in
Hebrew medieval manuscripts of various literary
genres from Western Europe. This year she has
been continuing the project as an independent
scholar and is shortly due to begin the creation of
the catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts at the
University Library in Geneva (BGE). Her recently
published and forthcoming articles related to this
project are Some Hygiene and Dietary Calendars in
Hebrew Manuscripts from Medieval Ashkenaz, in
Time, Astronomy and Calendars in Jewish Tradition,
(Sacha Stern and Charles Burnett, eds.,2014),
Calendars beyond Borders: Exchange of Calendrical
Knowledge Between Jews and Christians in
Medieval Western Europe (12
th
-15
th
c.), Medieval
Encounters, 20 (2014), and The astrological and
calendar section of the earliest Mahzor Vitry
manuscript, (2015).


Samuel Kottek (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) - The Physician in Bible and Talmud: Between the
Lord and the Ailing.
In order to define "Jewish Medicine" we would have needed some medical works, if not in Biblical
times, at least in Talmudic times. However there are no such documents available.
Samuel Kottek will argue that medical practice was not relevant in the world vision of the Pentateuch.
In the other Biblical books, diseases and healing are mentioned, but not particularly described.
In the Talmud, the situation is quite different. We find numerous descriptions of diseases, of
medications, of popular medicine, even of magic devices. A number of physicians and of Rabbinic
authorities who had some kind of medical knowledge, are named and their practice delineated.
However there is no systematic presentation of these data.
Samuel Kottek will choose a number of descriptions regarding physicians and surgeons, stressing
particularly the legalistic principles applied to medical practice. Two elements seem most important:
first, the fact that ethical behavior in the Jewish tradition is quite stringent, it is the Law (Heb.
halakhah). Second, both physicians and surgeons (rather bloodletters) are praised on the one side,
while being spurned on the other side. This shows the plain realistic ways of Talmudic literature.
There is certainly a Jewish way of practicing medicine, if
leaning on the positive side of these Talmudic
descriptions. There is however, he will argue, no Jewish
medicine. In other words, the question of whether there
is a Jewish medicine depends on the definition given to
Jewish Medicine.

Samuel S. Kottek was born in Strasbourg, France
and attended Strasbourg University. He became a
specialist in paediatrics in 1964 and made aliyah to
Israel in 1975. He is the author and editor of
numerous works, including Medicine and Hygiene in
the Works of Flavius Josephus (1994), Medicine


6

and Medical Ethics in Medieval and Early Modern
Spain (with Luis Garcia-Ballester, eds, 1996), From
Athens to Jerusalem: Medicine in Hellenized Jewish
Lore and in Early Christian Literature (with M.
Horstmanshoff et al., eds, 2000) and Moses
Maimonides and his Practice of Medicine (with
Kenneth Collins & Fred Rosner, 2013). He has held
the Chair of History of Medicine at Hebrew
University-Hadassah Medical School since 1976,
Emeritus since 2000. He is a disciple of Joshua
Leibowitz, the first incumbent of the Chair.

Alan Jotkowitz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev:The role of Talmudic Narratives in the
Development of Jewish Medical Ethics
It has been pointed out that over the last three decades, stories have been important to medical
ethics in at least three ways: (1) stories as cases for teaching principle-based medical ethics, (2)
narratives for moral guides on what is considered living a good life and (3) stories as testimonials
written by both patients and physicians. A pioneer in this effort, particularly in regard to using
narratives as moral guides, has been the ethicist and philosopher Stanley Hauerwas. Heavily
influenced by virtue ethics, Hauerwas believes that it is a person's particular narrative tradition that
provides one with convictions that form the basis of one's morality. From a Jewish perspective, there
has been much less written on the use of narrative in medical ethics. However, it is a mistake to think
that narrative has little, if any, role in Rabbinic ethical decision making. The purpose of this paper is
to demonstrate the centrality of narrative in the thought of Orthodox Jewish decisors and the
problems inherent in this methodology.


Alan Jotkowitz, is a graduate of Yeshivat Har Etzion,
Yeshiva University and Yale University School
of Medicine. He is Director of the Jakobovits Center
for Jewish Medical Ethics and Associate Director for
Academic Affairs Medical School for International
Health and Medicine, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev and a Senior Physician at Soroka University
Medical Center both in Beer-Sheva, Israel. He has
published widely in the field of medical ethics with
a particular emphasis on Jewish medical ethics in
such journals as American Journal of Bioethics,
Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Religious
Ethics, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Modern
Judaism and Tradition.

Shimon Glick, Ben Gurion University of the Negev: 20th century Jewish medical ethics - a historic
overview
Credit for the term Jewish medical ethics belongs unquestionably to the late Lord Rabbi Immanuel
Jakobovits whose book by that title appeared in 1959, actually antedating the revival of academic
interest in bioethics in the West by a decade or more.
But for Jews the basis for the ethical practice of medicine goes back several millennia from the Torah
and Talmud in continuity through the responsa literature until contemporary times. The first half of
the 20
th
century had minimal published activity in the field. But thereafter we have been blessed by a
plethora of publications and activities in the field. Leading halakhic decisors both in Israel and abroad
have published widely in the field. But perhaps even more impressive and encouraging has been the
entry of Jewish physician-scholars into the field, in contrast to the preceding decades in which most
Jewish physicians were neither observant nor learned in areas of Judaism. These physicians with their
knowledge both of medicine and of Torah together with their positive interaction with halakhic
decisors have yielded a rich and vibrant literature in Jewish medical ethics; hopefully with more to
come in the future.


7


Shimon Glick received his MD degree from the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn in 1955 . He is a specialist
in internal medicine and endocrinology. He was Clinical Professor of Medicine at State University of Medicine
Downstate in Brooklyn, NY. He served as president of the Association of Orthodox Scientists in the USA. In 1974
he became Professor of Medicine and founding Chairman of the Division of Medicine at the Ben Gurion University
Faculty of Health Sciences in Beer Sheva, Israel, where he subsequently served as Dean, head of the Moshe
Prywes Center for Medical Education and as acting head of the Lord Rabbi Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical
Ethics. For over a decade he served as ombudsman for Israel's National Health Service. He is currently Professor
(emeritus) at BGU. He has six children, 46 grandchildren and 50 great-grandchildren.

Avraham Steinberg, Hebrew University and Shaarei Zedek Hospital, Jerusalem: Nature has
changed" Talmudic and modern medicine re halakhic decisions
Scientific and medical data are scattered throughout the Talmudic literature. Religion and science in
general and Talmudic and medical knowledge in particular are mostly integrated with and
complement each other, but occasionally these fields intersect and contradict each other. There are
several areas of medical information in the Talmud which appear to be in contradiction with current
medical knowledge, i.e., regarding foods, fertility, circumcision, anatomy, remedies and treatments.
In this presentation Avraham Steinberg will cite specific examples. He will propose various options to
reconcile these discrepancies.




Avraham Steinberg was born in 1947 in a displaced
persons camp in Hof, Germany. He immigrated with
his parents as an infant to Israel (1949). Avraham
Steinberg studied at the Rabbinic Academy Yeshivat
Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem. He then studied
medicine at the Medical School of the Hebrew
University-Hadassah in Jerusalem and graduated in
1972. After serving in the army as a medical officer
in the Air Force, he trained in Pediatrics at the
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and in
Pediatric Neurology in New-York. He has worked as
a senior Pediatric Neurologist at Shaare Zedek and
Bikkur Cholim Hospitals in Jerusalem, as well as in
the various Sick Funds in Jerusalem. Steinberg
served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Israeli
Society of Child Neurology. Since 1969 he has been
engaged in researching and publishing extensively
in the fields of general and Jewish medical ethics,
history of medicine, medicine and law and pediatric
neurology, and he has been lecturing Medical Ethics
in the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School.
His major work is the seven-volume "Encyclopedia
Hilchatit Refuit" (in Hebrew) for which he received
the Israel Prize in 1999, as well as a variety of other
prizes.


8



Kenneth Collins, Hebrew University of Jerusalem/ University of Glasgow:The Entry of Jews to the
Medical Schools of Early Modern Europe
The university medical schools of Christian Europe were generally closed to Jewish medical students
through the mediaeval period into the early modern period. Exceptions to this were few and were
usually to be found in Italy. Fortunately, during this period Jews were able to enter the medical
profession through apprenticeship to an established practitioner and were often able to obtain a
license to practise from the local authorities. The University of Padua, near Venice, was open to
Jewish students who graduated there from the early fifteenth century and attracted students from all
over Europe. Indeed, it was the only European medical school consistently open to Jews during all of
this period. During the seventeenth century the Dutch universities offered places for Jews to study
medicine in an atmosphere which encouraged (Marrano) Jews from Spain and Portugal to return to
their faith. Among these were a number of physicians who had graduated in Iberia while still
ostensibly Christian. In the English speaking world the University of Edinburgh was the first to attract
numbers of Jewish students, some from England but others from the United States and the West
Indies. This paper examines the beginnings of Jewish entry into the modern medical profession
through the experiences of students of the universities in Padua, Leiden and Edinburgh.



Kenneth Collins was a general medical practitioner
in Glasgow for over thirty years. He has been chair
of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and
president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative
Council. He chairs the Scottish Jewish Archives
Centre and was a member of the Chief Rabbinate
Trust. He has written extensively on Jewish medical
history and medical ethics and published several
books on Jews and medicine in Scotland. He has
written on aspects of Maimonidean medicine and
co-edited Moses Maimonides and His Practice of
Medicine in 2013 with Fred Rosner and Samuel
Kottek. He is Editor of Vesalius, Journal of the
International Society for the History of Medicine and
a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the
History of Medicine at the University of Glasgow.
Kenneth Collins made aliyah in 2009 and is
currently visiting professor at Department of the
History of Medicine at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem.

Gerry Black, Past President, Jewish Historical Society of England : Lord Rothschild and the Barber.
The struggle to establish the London Jewish Hospital
In 1906, when the large voluntary hospitals in England were suffering severe financial difficulties, a
barber, Isador Berliner, a Russian-born Jewish Immigrant, together with a small group of his working
class, Yiddish-speaking friends, decided to attempt to raise sufficient funds to establish a Jewish
Hospital in London. They believed that Jewish immigrants felt uneasy as patients in the general
hospitals, and would greatly benefit if a Jewish hospital, with Jewish doctors and nurses could be
there to tend to their needs. They were fiercely opposed by Lord Rothschild, and by Lord Knutsford,
the chairman of the London Hospital, by the King's Fund, and for some years by the editor of
the Jewish Chronicle. Quite why Lord Rothschild, the most generous supporter of the poor Jews took
such a stance, and the twists and turns that followed the efforts of Berliner and his friends to
establish a Jewish hospital, is a remarkable and touching story.



9



Gerry Black gained his Ll.B (Hons) from the London School of Economics and his Ph.D from Leicester University
with a thesis entitled 'Health and Medical Care of the Jewish Poor in the East End of London 1880-1939'. He has
been a member of Council of Jewish Historical Society of England from 1992 and was President of JHSE form
1998 to 2000. He was a Trustee of the London Museum of Jewish Life and Jewish Museum (1983-2013).His
publications include: Lender to the Lords, Giver to the Poor. Biography of Samuel Lewis, the philanthropic
moneylender (1992), Living Up West. Jewish Life in the West End of London (1994), J.F.S. The history of the
Jews' Free School London since 1732 (1997), Lord Rothschild and the Barber. The struggle to establish the
London Jewish Hospital (2000), Jewish London. An Illustrated History (2003) and Frank's Way. A biography of
Frank Cass and his 50 years in publishing (2008).



Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes University: Jewish Victims of Nazi Medical and Racial Research, and
their Responses
In their onslaught on Jews, the Nazis attacked not only the idea of Jewish medicine, but also
exploited thousands of Jewish research subjects. Nazis denounced Jewish medical scientists as
inhumane in their experimental practices, and some sought to place medical science on Germanic
values. This paper considers some ways in which the Nazi medical experiments had an impact on
ideas of Jewish medicine. The first part of the paper concerns the place of Jews within the wider
spectrum of experiment victims. The timing, type of experiment, and location of those experiments
with Jews as research subjects are identified. The question arises to what extent religion shaped
responses to pain and suffering? Post-war survival and the question of compensation provide links to
Jewish physicians who assessed the injuries both physiologically and psychologically. Some
considered the Nazi experiments as ethical violations within an emerging bioethical framework,
whereas others considered specifically Jewish religious and moral issues.




Paul Weindling is Wellcome Trust Research
Professor in the History of Medicine at Oxford
Brookes University. His research covers Social
Darwinism and eugenics, international health in the
twentieth century, and human experimentation
post-1800, notably Nazi coerced experimentation.
His publications include Health, Race and German
Politics between National Unification and
Nazism (1989), Epidemics and Genocide in Eastern
Europe 1890-1945 (2000), Nazi Medicine and the
Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to
Informed Consent (2004), John W. Thompson,
Psychiatrist in the Shadow of the Holocaust, (2010)
and Victims and Survivors of Nazi Human
Experiments: Science and Suffering in the
Holocaust (2014, in press).