Friday, April 11, 1958—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-32 Dr. Schick Pediatricians' Dean By DR. SAMUEL WOLFF (Standard Feature Syndicate) —AJP Photos Baltasar Laureano Ramirez, spiritual leader of a community of 50,000 Mexi- can Israelites, holds a 17th century Torah (right) ; while pictured at the left is a front view of the Israelites' synagogue situated on the outskirts of Mexico City. Community of Mexican Israelites Number 50,000; Trace Descendancy to Sephardim (From an Article by David Horowitz) An AJP Feature A group of Mexican Israelites, who have been mistakenly re- ferred to as "Indian Jews," ex- ists scattered throughout the entire country of Mexico. Seldom heard of, the group claims to be descendants of the Sephardim, the first Jews in "New Spain." As such there was mingling with Mexicans of the north and some intermarriage with Indians. Leader of the community is Baltasar Laureano Ramirez, of Mexico City, where the Mexican Israelite Synagoguge is located. A lawyer by profession, Ramirez In Moses Leavitt, Jewry Lost an Engineer But Gained a Statesman , By MIRIAM SPITZ XCopyright, 1958, JTA, Inc.) If things had been better for consulting engineers back in 1923, a top social service exec- utive would not today be cele- brating the 35th year of a dis- tinguished career. But in those days, when engi- neering clients were hard to get, a friend of a friend happened to know about a job with the United Hebrew Charities of New York. So Moses A. Leavitt, a for- mer chemical engineer, but at this point a man in need of eat- ing-money, went up and got the job. When Moe Leavitt became supervisor of the Self-Support Department of what later be- came the Jew- ish Family Social Service Assoc i ation (and after that the Jew- ish Family Service Asso- ciation), he had no social service train- ing. Leavitt It was only later, as he found himself more and more absorbed in the prob- lem of the people with whom he was dealing, that he took time off to go to the New York School of Social Work. When the Joint Distribution Committee some years back un- dertook its Malben program on behalf of aged, ill and handi- capped newcomers to Israel, Leavitt noted with some sur- prise: "You know, it has just oc- curred to me that I am doing the same thing in Israel that I was doing years ago when I started out in social work. Then 1 was rehabilitating handicapped Jewish wage-earners in New York City, and now I am doing the identical thing for victims of Nazism." His talents in social service took him to the Joint Distribu- tion Committee for the first time in 1929 as assistant secre- tary. In 1933 he became vice- president and secretary of the Palestine Economic Corpora- tion, and it was only in .1940 that he returned to JDC. Since 1947 he has been JDC's execu- tive vice chairman, as well as secretary. During the years he came to be recognized as an authority in the field of assistance and welfare. Mayor James Walker in 1929 named him to a com- mission to investigate the open- air markets of New York City, and little more than a year ago he was appointed by President Eisenhower to the President's Committee for Hungarian Refu- gee Relief, and served during the entire life of that commit- tee. A tribute from professional colleagues was his election at the beginning of 1954 as chair- man of the American Council of Voluntary Agencies, and his re- election to that office, year after year. Perhaps the single appoint- ment of which he is proudest is one which came to him in 1952. It was not astonishing to any- one but Moe Leavitt to find himself on the way to The Hague for the negotiations on restitution as chairman of the delegation of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. "I was looking for a first- class lawyer to head the dele- gation,, which figured to be long, arduous and in many respects highly technical," he recalls. "But despite my feeling that a different kind of specialist was needed, a number of people— including then Jewish Agency treasurer Giora Josephthal—in- sisted that I take over the dele- gation. So I did, somewhat against my better judgment. also is rabbi, mohel, teacher and chaZan, and in his latter duties he works on a purely voluntary basis. He bemoans the fact that though Mexico has many wealthy Jews, there is no sup- port for his synagogue, which is in particular need of a ceme- tery. Since the Israelites are spread throughout the country, a n d there is no cemetery for them, they must be buried, as Rabbi Ramirez says, "under the bitter shadow of the cross," even though they live "under the altar of the Torah." A 1 t h ough religious services are held each sabbath, they are attended by only the few dozen adherents who reside in the im- mediate vicinity; however, they come in droves during the major holidays. Hundreds of American tour- ists visit this unique temple yearly, and in a little office off the corridor as one enters there is a huge visitor's book contain- ing thousands of signatures that have been accumulated during the past few decades. Motto: "It is within the power of civilized man to cause the infectious diseases to disappear from the earth." —Louis Pasteur. Jews have been renowned physicians from antiquity on. Their important contributions to medicine have greatly ad- vanced this science in its re- lentless battle against lethal dis- eases. Dr. Bela Schick is a leader among them. He was born in Boglar, Hungary, in 1877, and obtained his M.D. degree in 1900 from the University of Graz. From there, the young physician went to the world-renowned Vienna Medical Faculty to con- tinue his studies. He became an assistant to and collaborator with the famous Dr. Pirquet with whom he published his first book in Vienna (1905). Together the two physicians studied the principles of im- munization which led to the practical discoveries of the Schick Test for immunity to diphtheria. In 1918, he was ap- pointed professor of pediatrics. But in 1923, when the first great waves of anti-Semitism swept over a truncated Austria, Dr. Schick packed his trunks and gratefully accepted an in- vitation as Harvey lecturer in the United States. When he was a few years later offered a position as pediatrician-in-chief to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, he remained in the U. S. and became a lecturer on children's diseases at Columbia University. Dr. Schick's outstanding contribution to pediatrics is his epoch-making discovery (1909-1913) of the method for determining susceptibility to diphtheria, a dangerous ill- ness that had become the scourge of mankind. It can be found among the case histor- ies of Hippocrates, who lived in the fourth century B.C.E. The Babylonian Talmud men- tions it; in the Middle Ages it was defined as the "throat sickness" or "throat pestil- ence." Diphtheria raged among the first and worst epidemics that ravaged the New England colonists; The Schick Test, for the first time, made it possible to sep- arate immune and susceptible children, which meant a main step in conquering this dread- ed disease. Aided by this test, DR. BELA SCHICK the City of New York won an overwhelming victory in pre- ventive medicine. Another important contribu- tion is Dr. Schick's monography on scarlet fever, which has be- come a classic. The New York Academy of Medicine awarded him their Gold Medal for his outstanding work, so did the Midwest Forum on Allergy in Indianapolis, which conferred the Addingham Gold Medal to him. In 1954, he was given the coveted John Howland Medal. In 1942, Dr. Schick's grateful pupils, associates and friends raised $2,000 for the establish- ment of a lectureship at Mount Sinai Hospital known as the "Bela Schick Lectures." Dr. Schick also waged a relentless war against de- structive tuberculosis; he brought out the BBC vaccina- tion which is being given to millions of children all over the world as a preventive measure. Although he recently cele- brated his 80th birthday, he is still full of ideas and working relentlessly. Dr. Schick is married and owns an estate in Garrison, N.Y. "Pediatrics is my life!" he ry used to say. The Schick Test has become as much a part of modern life as the measure- ment of voltage and the pas- teurization of food. Dr. Schick's relentless cam- paign against diphtheria will re- main as an eternal monument to his genius and constitutes one of the most far-reaching and important Jewish contribu- tions to the science of medicine and human welfare. Israeli Tank Defends Position in Huleh Region —International Photo Israelis have been working for more than seven years to reclaim the swampy area in the Huleh region (shown in circled area in lower photo). An attack by Syrian troops temporarily halted this work, but it was resumed when the UN sur- veyors' report was accepted by Israel and the United Arab Republic. The upper photo shows an Israeli tank making a direct hit on Syrian troops, in an effort to silence a Syrian bunker position during the attacks that resulted in much damage to Kibbutz Halatha.