Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

THE MAKING OF MEDICAL MARVELS

Detroit's 48th Annual

Jewish Book Fair

Here's the schedule of events through Nov. 14, sponsored by the
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.

All lectures, family shows and other events take place at the D. Dan
6- Betty Kahn JCC Building in West Bloomfield unless otherwise
indicated at the Jimmy Prentis Morris (JPM) JCC Building in
Oak Park. Events are free of charge, except where indicated.

SATURDAY, Nov. 6 — Opening Night
8 p.m. Alan Dershowitz Just Revenge

SUNDAY, Nov. 7

10 a.m. Moshe Pelli Hebrew Culture in
America, 80 Years of Hebrew Culture in
the United States (The lecture will be in
Hebrew.)
11 a.m.-4 p.m. Local Author Fair
Noon Batya Gur Murder Duet
2 p.m. Lori Palatnik Remember My Soul.
What to Do in Memory of a Loved One
(JPM)
2 p.m. Eileen Pollack Paradise New York
(featured local author)
4 p.m. Ron Coden Show (family show;
there is a charge)
6:30 p.m. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Simple
Words
8:30 p.m. Howard Fast Redemption
8 p.m. Yitta Halberstam Small Miracles
of Love and Friendship (JPM)

MONDAY, Nov. 8

10 a.m. Yitta Halberstam Small Miracles
of Love and Friendship
Noon-2 p.m. Lunch & Learn for Jewish
communal professionals with Rabbi
David. Baron Moses on Management
(there is a charge)
3 p.m. IRP Glenn Frankel Rivonia's
Children (JPM)
6:30 p.m. Richard Z. Chesnoff Pack of
Thieves
8 p.m. Judith Viorst You're Officially a
Grown- Up
8 p.m. Bea Kraus A Time to Remember:
A History of the Jewish Community in
South Haven (JPM)

TUESDAY, Nov. 9

10 a.m. Tova Mirvis Ladies Auxiliary
1 p .m.
Goldy Rosenberg Clouds of Glory
OPM)
1 p.m. Rabbi Elyse M. Goldstein
ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a
Feminist Lens
6:30 p.m. Joshua Levine the Rise and
Fall of the House of Barneys
8 p.m. Nathan Englander For The Relief
of Unbearable Urges
8 p.m. Rabbi Elyse M. Goldstein
ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a
Feminist Lens (JPM)

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10

10 a.m. Belva Plain Fortune's Hand

1 p.m. Anne Roiphe 1185 Park Avenue
1 p.m. Ben G. Frank A Travel Guide to
Jewish Russia and Ukraine (JPM)
6 p.m. Dr. Michael Simon (cancer
genetics lecture)
6:30 p.m. Hilda Raz Living on the
Margins
8 p.m. Edwin Black Format C.
8 p.m. Belva Plain Fortune's Hand
(JPM)

THURSDAY, Nov. 11

1 p.m. Hope Edelman Mother of My
Mother: The Intricate Bond Between
Generations (JPM)
1 p.m. Leo Spitzer Hotel Bolivia
3 p.m. Arieh Lev Breslow When Less Is
More (t'ai chi discussion and demo)
6:30 p.m. Hope Edelman Mother of My
Mother
8 p.m. Ray Scheindlin The Book ofJob
GPM)
8 p.m. Rabbi Daniel Gordis
Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to
Explore Spirituality and Tradition
With Your Children

FRIDAY, Nov. 12

10 a.m. Judy Zeidler 30 Minute Kosher
Cooking
10 a.m. Susan Friedland Shabbat
Shalom (JPM)

-

SATURDAY, Nov. 13

8 p.m. Eddie Fisher Been There,
Done That

SUNDAY, Nov. 14

11 a.m. Helen Fremont After Long
Silence
1 p.m. Willard Manus The Pigskin
Rabbi
1 p.m. Eileen Pollack Paradise New York
OPM )
2:30 p.m. Sefer Safari (JPM)
3 p.m. Yaffa Eliach There Once Was a
Time: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl
of Eishyshok
4 p.m. JPM Target Concert Series
performance, Noah Budin (family
show; there is a charge) (JPM)
6:30 p.m. Itamar Rabinovich Waging
Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of
the Century
8 p.m. Carl Reiner How Paul Robeson
Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy
Stories

Many of the century's advances in medicine trace to physicians and
researchers of Jewish descent with an impressive presence in their
profession. While the U.S. has eclipsed most of the world in laboratory
research and discovery, strides forward have been taken everywhere, often
with Jewish doctors at the frontiers. One example is Iranian-born
Shemooil Rhabar (1929-) who, during more placid years in his country,
directed a research center at the University of Teheran and became the
principle immunologist of the Muslim world.

Another is French biologist Francois Jacob
(1920-) whose work on the influence of viruses and the
role of regulatory genes in heredity earned him a 1965
Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. Jacob had also
fought with the Free French forces during World War
Two, was severely wounded and won several of his
nation's highest awards for valor and patriotism. Fernand
Widal (1862-1929), his Algerian-born countryman, had
gained fame during the First World War for formulating a
typhoid vaccine that protected soldiers at the front. He
also helped develop the first low-salt diet to treat perilous
forms of kidney and heart disease. And Sir Louis Barnett
(1865-1946) of New Zealand was among the earliest to
develop radium and X-ray protocols for treating cancer.

A sizeable number of foreign nationals in the
medical field emigrated to the U.S. whose university
curricula and laboratory facilities were without equal.
Venezuelan Baruj Benacerraf (1920-) attained a Harvard
professorship and a 1980 Nobel Prize for Medicine or
Physiology for discovering immune-response genes related
to the rejection of organ transplants. German American
Gustav Buck), (1880-1963) escaped the Nazi threat and
took the post of professor of radiology in New York's
Bellevue Hospital. While there, he invented the famous
Bucky Diaphragm that greatly sharpened X-ray photography, and designed
a camera for superior medical color photography.

It was an American endocrinologist who
launched a social revolution that resounds around the
world: Gregory Pincus (1903-67) won the title of
"Father of the Pill" after developing the first practical
and effective birth control pill that played a large role
in emancipating women. Another major contributor to
the pill's evolution was Carl Djerassi (1923-) of
Stanford University. Alexander Wiener (1907 76) co-
discovered the Rh blood factor, and Leo Buerger
(1880-1943) was a leading American pathologist with the dubious honor of
a disease in his name. The Dressler Syndrome also outlived its namesake:
William Dressler (1890-1969), once among our nation's most prominent
cardiologists. And the discovery by Michael Brown (1941-) of the genetic
defect that deposits high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream led to a
1985 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology.

-

A little known historical footnote deals with feet--those of
Abraham Lincoln. The President heard testimonials to the
work of English-born Isachar Zacharie who was reported
as "perhaps the best chiropodist (podiatrist) in America."
Zacharie had treated such national figures as Henry Clay
and John Calhoun, as well as prominent'Union generals,
before surgically taking in hand what was wryly said to be
d°t
the nation's largest feet. Earning the President's trust and
personal friendship for his demeanor, eloquence and courage, Zacharie was
also sent on a secret mission bearing a peace plan to Confederate officials
which was too premature to succeed.

- Saul Stadtmauer

Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson

11/5

1999

Detroit Jewish News

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