`A Small Kit and a Good Word'—Dean of Technion
Medical Center Recalls the Not-So-Good Old Days
wounded, and the sole con- countries. It also will provide
nection with the rest of Jeru- increased opportunity for Is-
raelis who until now had to
salem was by wireless.
go abroad for want of open-
"I had a message from the
health department in Tel ings•
The medical school is re-
Aviv that Haifa had been
liberated and would I like to cruiting bright young scien-
take over the surgical depart- Lists, and one of Erlik's tasks
meet at the Rambam Med- on this trip is to interest
ical Center." Dr. Erlik Americans in what the center
responded that he would be has to offer.
Another task was to visit
more than happy to do so,
but there was the little detail Dr. William Kolff, head of
the
artificial organs division
of bow to get down from
Scopus. at the University of Utah
With a Red Cross-super- College of Medicine, who on
one of
vised truce, Dr. Erlik was Sunday will receive
BY MARLOWE DUBLN
Medicine has come a long
way since David Erlik was a
young doctor in the Jezreel
Valley.
The dean of the Technion
ladical Center contrasted
what it was to be a doctor
then — a small kit "and a
good word for the patient"
were the sum total of his
equipment — with what it
is to practice medicine today,
assisted by computers and
Issol.e best devices that tech-
nology can produce.
Erlik was in the United
States to speak on behalf of
the four-year old medical cen-
ter. Last week, he addressed
the Detroit Chapter of the
American Society for Tech-
nion.
The center's uniqueness lies
in its pioneering relationship
with the Israel Institute of
Technology — Technion. As
medicine becomes increasing-
ly technical, there is greater
need for. engineers who un-
derstand physiology a n d
Ir.'"- --:ctors who understand engi-
neering.
"If you go into a surgical
ward or a medical ward,
you're surrounded by ma-
chinery, all kinds of techno-
logical devices and artificial
organs that help keep a pa-
tient alive," said Dr. Erlik.
DR. DAVID ERLIK
able to leave. He has been two Harvey Prizes as the in-
with Rambam ever since, ventor of the artificial kidney.
earning international recogni- Dr. Erlik also was to meet
tion for pioneering surgical with the other recipient of
techniques. the Tech ni o n prize, Dr.
Last year, Dr. and Mrs. Claude E. Shannon, professor
Erlik and nine other Israeli of science at the Massachu-
surgeons attended the Inter- setts Institute of Technology.
national Surgical Congress in The Technion Medical Con-
Moscow. It wasn't easy to ter is doing research of its
obtain visas, and the papers own in the fledgling neuro-
arrived only after the presi- physiology, biochemical and
dent of the international so- and immunology d epart-
ciety threatened to transfer ments. One young scientist is
the congress elsewhere if the doing original work in trails-
Israelis were not permitted plantation immunology, par-
to attend. l ticularly _important with the
Although they met few increasing number of organ
emigrated to Palestine in
1924, left to study medicine
in France and returned fol-
lowing graduation in 1935. He
went to work in the Jezreel
Valley, assisting kibutzim
that were without any medi-
cal facility.
"Those were days of big
troubles in Palestine," he re-
calls. At one lonely hillside
kibutz, two young shepherds
were killed by Arab attack-
ers, and Dr. Erlik was sent
there for a week "to cheer
up the kibutz." But how to Jewish doctors — Dr. Erlik transplants taking place.
get .there? "A friend went believes it was fear — the While in Detroit, Dr. Erlik
with me, and we rode a Israelis did speak with many invited Dr. Adrian Kantro-
horse, without a saddle, up young Soviet Jews, in Mos- witx, Sinai Hospital's noted
the mountain. I was a very cow, Leningrad and Kiev. heart surgeon, to lecture on
young doctor then."
He reports that most of the mechanical heart at the
There was the time he ac-
Technion.
companied a pregnant worn- those he met are now in
Dr. Erlik said be often is
an from Nahalal to the Israel, including a surgeon
asked if increasing technol-
central hospital in Afula 20 who is at work in the Rain-
ogy is removing the human
miles away. It was a fright- barn Hospital. "During the
element from the practice of
ening ride through the Arab last two years, we've had 400
medicine. "But consider how
town of Nazareth, which was doctors come to Israel from
many are alive today, thanks
under curfew, btit they made the Soviet Union," be said,
fees to technology," he said. "In
the r a n s o in
it. The woman died at the "but
road accidents, a man can
hospital due to complications, threaten to cut that off."
be kept alive with artificial
but doctors managed to save Dr. Erlik anticipates that
resuscitation until his organs
her twins. Last year, Dr. young Soviet Jews who are
Erlik met the two women he leading in the effort to emi- recover.
"The purpose of technology
helped to deliver 35 years grate will refuse a university
education to avoid being is not to take out humanity,
When Hadassah Hospital charged later for their educe- but to help humanity. Y ■ s,
there would be moral and
opened on Mt. Scopus in 1939, tion.
One beneficial side-effect of ethical problems if there
Dr. Erlik was the first doctor
on duty. And he was the last the opening of the Technion were human experimentation.
the Medical Center is the new But in Nazi Germany, tech-
to leave in 1948. During
availability of positions for nology wasn't guilty; men's
Arab siege, he was the only
surgeon for hundreds of medical experts from other morals were."
Boris Smolar's
'Between You I
... and Me' 1
Editor•in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1972, ./TA Inc.) •
. —
— —
EDUCATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH: Israel considers
itself standing now on the verge of an educational break-
through with regard to providing academic education to
young men and women coming from Asian and North
African families.
The issue of providing higher education to young Orien-
tal Jews in Israel has been a burning issue during the last
few years. It is one of the major grievances voiced by the
restless Israeli "Black Panthers " The latter complain that
talented and dedicated young Israelis from Asian and
North African homes feel themselves culturally deprived.
They are not given the possibility to obtain the education
needed for admission to any of the Israeli institutions of
higher learning, the Black Panthers assert.
To understand this complaint, one must be aware of
the fact that 60 per cent of all youngsters in Israel of
elementary school age come from Asian and North Afri-
can families. But among high school pupils they constitute
only about 30 per cent. The percentage. shrinks to 15 per
cent when it comes to passing Israel's matriculation exam-
inations. This, at a time when 1,500,000 of Israel's more
than 3,000,000 citizens are immigrants from North African
and Asian countries.
The shrinkage in higher education of the Oriental
youngsters is due primarily to the fact that only elemen-
tary education is free in Israel. Post-elementary education
must be paid for—something which most Oriental Jews
cannot afford financially. The government realizes that
nation building in Israel depends on successful absorption
of all the various elements of young Jews in the country,
economically, socially and educationally. It therefore helps
some of the Oriental young people in their aspiration to
secure higher education: especially when they proved them-
selves in the Israel defense forces. However, these for-
tunates constitute a very small group in the total student
body of Israel's institutions of higher learning.
•
•
•
THE SLAWSON FUND: The Hebrew University now
offers new horizons to these culturally starved Oriental
Youngsters. It has established a Pre-Academic Program at
the university with intensive courses intended to help those
who would otherwise be denied the possibility of a univer-
sity education.
The Pre-Academic Program is concentrating on bring-
ing , up students of disadvantaged backgrounds to the uni-
versity standards. It is built on the recognition that one
of the greatest dangers faced by Israel is the division of
The medical school, which
the population into socially and culturally advantaged and
is affiliated with the modern
disadvantaged. Experimenting for several years, the He-
Rambam Medical Center and
brew University regards its Pre-Academic Program as one
the Rothschild Hospital be-
of its focal programs. This year this program is helping
came a part of the Technion
some 1,100 students to start on full university courses. It
only last year. Dr. Erlik is
considers the early results of this program a breakthrough.
considered the driving force
A lending hand to the Hebrew University has now been
behind that merger, as well
given by the John Slawson Fund for Research, Training
as the architect of the school
and Education of the American Jewish Committee. The
fund has voted a grant of $25.000 to enable the univer-
itself.
sity to conduct research for the evaluation of its Pre-
Russian-born, Dr. Erlik
Academic Program as practiced.
It is intended that this study not only would be limited
to evaluation but would also include a program of action
been no comparable large scorned," and where the gen-
_-
roots,
he
claims,
is
both
good
A Review
research which would result in the discovery of innovative
civilization in which fa- eral method of child care is
and bad in human terms.
measures for the program. It is also intended that this
BY LOUIS PANUSH
thers have counted for so a "fascinating experiment"
What is good or bad depends
FAMILY MATTF.R.S, by Lawrence
study would provide a model for similar programs.
which Americans may well
little.")
H Fuchs. Published by Run- on one's version of the good
The research program financed by the Slawson Fund
N. Y. 1972. 268
- dom House,
There is very little refer- watch.
life. He describes the Amer-
will be conducted under the direction of the authorities
pages. 16.95..
The author describes the
.
ican family system by, what ence in this book to the Jew-
of the Pre-Academic School headed by Dr. David Harman.
The decline of the Amer- he considers, its most impor- ish family per se, except in cult of independence, the
A year ago the American Friends of the Hebrew
ican f a m i I y, the conflicts 1 a n t characteristics a n d connection with some of the downgrading of the father,
University pledgd to stablish a $10,000,000 scholarship fund
within families that separate which contributed to the at- above characteristics. Thus the lack of intimate and in-
for students of the Center for Pre-Academic Studies at
tense relationships between
members of families from tack on the institution and the author states, for exam-
, the Hebrew University. A gift of $1,200 will now provide
ple, that the Hebrews con- parents and children, and
each other—indifference, ali- the conflicts within it:
one
student with a year's scholarship; $5,000 will underwrite
family tributed too, together with the absence of support sys-
enation, the generation gap, —the rejection of the
one student's expenses through to the bachelors degree.
tems for the family by socie-
infidelity, drugs, sex, frustra-
from which one has come Romans, Greeks and Chris-
JEWISH FEDERATIONS' AID: Speaking of higher
ty. "Children need loving
tion, anger, and other mani- -one's own parents and tians to the subordination of parents who speak and act education in Israel. it will be interesting to many in this
women (very debatable, L.P.)
festations of families in trou-
authoritatively in order to country to know that the American Jewish communities
grandparents;
ble—are a matter of public --the young who see it as the And, while they believed that grow into healthy adults," he are currently providing support to the seven institutions of
"husbands and fathers must
knowledge and concern.
primary enemy of human
concludes. Also, the "resto- higher learning in Israel in the amount of $52,000,000. The
be given power to command
Rabbi Groner, of Cong.
individuality;
so that the entire family ration of fathering may mean money is allocated by the United Israel Appeal and the
Shaarey Zedek, considered —the widespread belief in could fulfill God's law they the survival of parenting it- Jewish Agency from United Jewish Appeal funds.
th e bsolute value of hn .
Aid from Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds to
the present status of the
made stringent rules which self and the building of hap-
man independence;
Jewish family and the direr-
the institutions of higher learning in Israel has grown
checked the abuse of male pier, healthier families in
tion toward which it was — th e precocity, aggressive-
tremendously
since 1967. The federations also have been
never justified pa- America." And, also, "What
mess and self-centeredness Power
and in terms of either is good for children—listen- making direct grants averaging $700,000 a year to the
.neading serious enough to
triarchy
of small children;
discuss it in his sermon dur-
sinful- ing, sensitive, emphatic but Hebrew University-Technion maintenance campaign.
intense, open romped- female inferiority or
The board of directors of the Council of Jewish Federa-
— the
ing the High Holy Days.
authoritative fathers—is also
ness."
Hon
between
siblings;
In this book, the author—
pr. th at the Jewish bus- good for mothers and mar- tions and Welfare Funds requested that the Jewish Agency.
prolonged agonizing ad'
the institutions of higher learning in Israel and the United
professor of American Civil- —the
olescent rebellion with par- band and father, " once seen riages."
in Eastern European villages This advice, combined with Jewish Appeal should make clear that the basic support
ization and chairman of the
cuts who do not know how
Jewish atti- for university maintenance in Israel comes frtini the Jewish
of A m e r i c an
as authoritative even in Si- the historical
to cope with it;
Studies at Brandeis Univer-
became, according to tudes and practices and em- Agency—and that the bulk of these funds, which comes
lence,
sity who has encouraged new the extraordinary freedom a rich literature, a passive phasis on the uniqueness and from the United States and Canada, are received from the
of unmarried females;
federations and welfare funds through the United Jewish
approaches to education in
member of the family, the humaneness of the family,
parenting and family—deals —the power and assertive - good Jewish boy grown up." may restore happiness and
Appeal and United Israel Appeal.
mess of married women;
with the problem of why the
The CJFWF regards funds for scholarships as part of
he spends on this health to the Jewish family
—the
anxieties
of
mothering
The
most
American family is in trou-
subject is on family life in in America. This book will funds for maintenance. The seven institutions of higher
provoke;
they
ble and offers some common-
the kibbutz in Israel (four help the reader to get a bet- learning supported in Israel by the Jewish Agency from
—the ambiguity' of male an-
sense suggestions.
P a g e s ) where, be notes, ter understanding of the funds raised by Jewish Federations in this country include
thority and the decline of
The American family sys-
- . - monogamy is American family in general the Hebrew University, Technion, Weizmann Institute, Tel
patriarchy
("t
h
e
r
e
has
"today
tern, which has deep cultural
staunchly entrenced and ex- and, perhaps, of his own Aviv University, Bar Dan University, Haifa University
"Our purpose, then, is to
let the medical students look
into electronics and technical
devices and to let engineers
interested in hi -medical eng-
ineering get an opportunity
to understand physiol•
ogy. And we're just at the
c beginning."
Restoring Family Happiness: Lawrence Fuchs' Notable Analysis
52 — Friday, Oct. 20, 1972
THE DETROIT
Jamul Dints
t r a in a r i t a 1 affairs are family situation.
and Beersheba University.