Jewish Medicine: What It Is and Why It Matters

Although conventional wisdom holds that there's no such thing as "Jewish Medicine," Dr. Nevins disagrees, suggesting it's not so much what Jewish doctors have done as why. For example, in premodern times Jewish doctors viewed their work as a sacred calling in collaboration with God. Later, there often was a perception that Jewish doctors practiced differently because they were familiar with mystical and magical techniques. While many Jewish physicians through the ages have been inspired by such values as selflessness, compassion and profound respect for life itself, contemporary medicine seems to have lost its soul. To rectify this, Dr. Nevins proposes the Jewish cultural icon the "mensch" as a model of virtuous behavior for all doctors to emulate. This book is written for a general audience as well as for physicians. In it Dr. Nevins surveys Jewish medical history and, along the way, describes many remarkable "medical menschen."