Free Public Lecture
Germany and the Rise of the Modern Jewish Doctor
Dr John Efron
University of California at Berkeley
This talk focuses on the role played by medicine in the formation of modern Jewish identity in Germany. Beginning with the Berlin Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Jewish medical practitioners outlined a vision for a healthy Jewish future, and sought to introduce changes in such things as the Jewish diet, child-care, and burial practices. This was part of an overall program of Jewish physical regeneration, designed to prepare the Jewish masses for political emancipation. It was a process that continued well into the next century. Having produced large numbers of physicians (and scientists), the character of German Jewry rapidly changed between 1800 and 1900 from a traditional and observant community to one that was secular, scientific and skeptical. This talk will trace that process and shed light on how medicine came to occupy such an exalted place among Jews that it became known as a quintessentially “Jewish” profession.
John Efron, a specialist in the cultural and social history of German Jewry, holds the Koret Chair in Jewish History at UC-Berkeley, and is Director of Berkeley’s Institute of European Studies. A native of Melbourne, Australia, he has a B.A. from Monash University, has studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, took his M.A. at New York University and earned a Ph.D. (awarded with Distinction) at Columbia University. In addition to many articles, his books include: Medicine and the German Jews: A History (Yale University Press, 2001); and Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de-Siècle Europe (Yale University Press, 1994). He also co-edited the volume, Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (University Press of New England, 1998). His most recent book is The Jews: A History (Prentice Hall) and he is currently at work on another volume entitled Orientalism and the Jews in the Age of Empire.
- Date:
- Sunday 3rd August 2008
- Time:
- 7:30pm
- Location:
- Beth Weizman Community Centre, Caufield
- Enquiries:
- Dvir Abramovich
Centre for Jewish History & Culture
(+61 3) 8344 3789
dvir@unimelb.edu.au