Jewry's Role in
Human Health

CONQUERING DISEASE THE WORLD OVER - I

.

The names of Drs. Salk and Sabin have been written into medical history
as physicians who rid the world of a dread ailment killing and crippling
children, adolescents and young adults in their very prime. Less well
known is an Argentinian Nobel Prize winner who nevertheless was
enormously influential in developing disease fighting antibodies of basic
importance to medical treatment and biological research.
All three dedicated men of healing have stood for what is central
to Jewish tradition--a concern for the needful and afflicted, a strong
responsibility to minister to all, no matter what their status or beliefs. And
since their entry into the art and science of medicine, Jews have far
outnumbered all health care colleagues in proportion to their small ethnic
presence in America.

JONAS SALK
(1914-95) b. New York City Physician/Micro-
biologist Before his discovery, the scourge of
poliomyelitis knew no bounds; Franklin D.
Roosevelt was its most notable victim. Salk was
to attack the incurable disease soon after earning
an M.D. degree and joining the University of
Michigan School of Public Health in 1942. Here
he helped develop an influenza vaccine before
moving to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for intensive
studies of the polio virus. Guided by his previous anti-influenza work, Salk
and his team produced a killed-virus vaccine for immunity against paralytic
polio. After large-scale field trials in 1953 and 1954, the injectable vaccine
was licensed for widespread use in the U.S., dramatically reducing the
incidence of polio. Internationally praised and honored, Salk researched
other advanced vaccines and joined the battle against AIDS until his death.

ALBERT SABIN
(1906-93) b. Bialystok, Poland Physician/
Virologist Immigrating to America with his
parents at age fifteen, Sabin received his M.D.
degree from New York University in 1931.
During the many years that followed, he searched
for protective polio vaccines while on the staffs of
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, the
Children's Hospital Research Foundation, and the
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. A lifetime devoted to
formulating vaccines for serious childhood illnesses finally bore fruit in the
mid-1950s. Sabin had developed a live, but weakened, oral vaccine for safe
use. Undergoing worldwide, mass field tests, the Sabin vaccine was
released in 1961 and--in hand with the Salk vaccine--virtually drove the
disease from the U.S. and most of the world. He also investigated viral
causes of infectious diseases and a possible virus-cancer link.

CESAR MILSTEIN
(1927-) b. Bahia Blanca, Argentina Immunologist
They are called "monoclonal antibodies," and
Milstein's pioneering discovery of how to form
them made him co-winner of a 1984 Nobel Prize
for Physiology or Medicine. He had merged cells
that produce natural antibodies with those of a
tumor that multiplies indefinitely. The result: a
new combined cell that generates a specific anti-
body in quantity--to target single disease organisms invading the body,
unlike the generalized attack of most antibiotics. The landmark
development in 1975 came from a gifted researcher whose model was
Louis Pasteur. His Ph.D. was earned at England's University of Cambridge
following studies at the University of Buenos Aires. Dividing his time
between South America and Great Britain, Milstein today holds that
country's prestigious Companion of Honour award.
- Saul Stadtmauer

Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org

COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY

10/2
1998

28 Detroit Jewish News

Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson

Embassy Question

Jewish groups push the U.S. on
moving its Israel embassy.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

T

he issue of moving the
U.S. embassy in Israel
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
which the Clinton admin-
istration claims is a time bomb in the
middle of the current Israeli-
Palestinian negotiations, is ticking
again, thanks to a petition being cir-
culated by the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations.
The petition originated with an "ad
hoc interfaith group of people con-
cerned about Jerusalem," said
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vicechair
of the umbrella group.
The decision to distribute the peti-
tion, which calls for the Jerusalem
Embassy Relocation Act to be imple-
mented by May 1999, came from the
group's Jerusalem committee, he said.
But some member agencies object-
ed — some because of the idea of
forcing the embassy issue at this junc-
ture, others on procedural grounds.
"Agencies were being asked to sup-
port a petition with very unclear spon-
sors," said Mark Rosenblum, political
director of Americans for Peace Now.
"The petition originated with
Americans for an Undivided
Jerusalem,' but there were no names
attached to the organization and
nobody knew who they were. If the
Conference of Presidents wanted to
move toward a public campaign on
Jerusalem, this was not the way to go."
But APN's objections weren't just
procedural.
"We're at a delicate moment in the
19-month stalemate," Rosenblum
said. "To throw this as a grenade in
the middle of very sensitive negotia-
tions would help scuttle Oslo and give
Hamas a new issue around which to
rally. The timing is terrible."
In Washington, the issue is being
downplayed by pro-Israel leaders who
say there is even less movement on the
issue than usual — in part because of
heightened concern about the security
of U.S. embassies abroad.

-

"There's a great desire not to raise
the issue now because the sanction (in
the congressional legislation mandat-
ing the move) involves cutting off
funds for the operation of U.S.
embassies abroad," said a top pro-
Israel activist. "There is widespread
agreement that the embassy should be
moved to Jerusalem, but pushing the
issue now would put us in the
uncomfortable position of seeming
like we're jeopardizing the safety and
security of embassies around the
world."

U.S. Jets For Israel?

Was it a New Year's gift to Israel, or a

Pentagon ploy intended to get Israel to
help pay for weapons U.S. forces
want? Probably the latter, pro-Israel
sources say.
Last week's Pentagon announce-
ment that U.S. officials are ready to
sell $5 billion worth of advanced jets
to Israel reportedly came as a surprise
to defense officials in Jerusalem, who
want more planes — but not neces-
sarily a sale with such a high price
tag.
According to the Pentagon, Israel
will buy 90 planes. The sale was
described last week as a boost to U.S.
security.
But Israeli newspapers reported that
the bottom line of the sale was a sur-
prise to the Defense Ministry, which
has allotted only half that amount for
new airplanes.
What's the deal?
"It was a trial balloon intended to
test the Israelis' interest," said a
defense expert with a major Jewish
group. "The Pentagon has a strong
interest in selling the planes because it
lowers the unit costs for the aircraft
that U.S. forces will buy. So they
made the announcement and hoped
the Israelis would rise to the bait."
According to a Washington source,
the administration also will propose
some creative financing for the deal —
if Israel moves forward with the
American proposals for the next West
Bank redeployment.

