Jewry's Role in
Human Health
CRUSADERS FOR CARING
Our nation often prides itself in heeding voices advocating services for our
needful citizens. Such services have strengthened the sinews of our society
which owes the public the assurances of health and caring. An example
was the notable mission of Isaac Rubinow and Abraham Epstein who we
profiled earlier. In partnership they laid the groundwork for several
governmental programs we now live by: Social Security and Medicare. As
•did they, Abraham Flexner and Lillian Wald helped put systems in place
which have since saved or bettered the lives of innumerable Americans,
young and old.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER
(1866-1959) b. Louisville, KY Educator Bulletin
No. 4, issued in 1910 by one of the nation's most
creative scholars, sounded a sensational call to
drastically reform the sorry state of medical
training in North America. The .two-year report
by Abraham Flexner, Ph.D., Medical Education in
the United States and Canada, was a critical
analysis of 155 medical schools. He found they
I
did not consistently adhere to quality standards: admission policies were
lax and basic science courses were seldom given. Students were often
poorly taught by physicians with less interest in academics than in class
size; their pay was pegged to enrollment numbers.
Flexner was not a physician but nevertheless brought ample credits
and adminiStrative experience in higher education to his task--as a "whistle
blower" of his time. -
From 1890 to 1904 Flexner directed a college preparatory school
which he had established in Louisville. Putting his revolutionary ideas into
practice, his remarkably successful school eliminated all records, exams
and learning timetables. He went on to publish The American College
1908), a condemnation of our national system of lectures, assistantships
and elective studies.
Many of Flexner's proposals for remodeling our educational
environments have forever changed college-level academic programs, and
Bulletin No. 4 has been credited with saving the lives of numerous hospital
patients. Toward the end of his distinguished career of public service, he
persuaded Louis Bamberger, a department store magnate, to endow
Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study (associated with Albert Einstein)
which he directed from 1930 to 1939.
:*:*:':*:******:*::::::::::: LILLIAN WALD
(1867-1940) b. Cincinnati, OH Nurse /Social
Worker "The Angel of Henry Street" unfolded
her wings to embrace many more than just the
*: dislocated European immigrants coming to her
Lower East Side Manhattan settlement house at
the turn of the century. She was influential in
developing the world's
first public school nursing
. .
i
system and inspiring
the establishment of the
federal Children's Bureau.
Abandoning an affluent lifestyle for nursing, the idealistic young
woman felt called upon to work with the many sick, confused and fearful
newcomers arriving here with no adequate medical attention and little
knowledge of personal hygiene. Helping them as best she could, Wald
soon undertook a more ambitious venture as co-founder of the world's
first visiting nurse service - a program which expanded nationally
through the aegis the American Red Cross, and recruited over 20,000
nurses within fifty years.
Her non-sectarian Henry Street settlement house also became the
local headquarters for that service. Fame attended the landmark building
which was visited by such prominent figures as Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt, the Gershwin brothers and Governor Al Smith. Wald later
wrote two popular books about the institution: House on Henry Street
(1915) and Windows on Henry Street (1934).
Tireless in her passion to build the framework for a decent and
humane society, she also spoke out against the abuses of child labor and
campaigned for reforms proposed by America's leading social agencies.
For these reasons Wald was cited as one of the century's most outstanding
social workers. - Saul Stadtmauer
Visit many more notable Jews at our websile: www.dorledor.org
3/1
2002
52
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