John Efron, University of California, Berkeley
Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, UPenn
Time: 4:00 pm
Location:
National Museum of American Jewish History
101 S. Independence Mall East
5th and Market Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Free and open to the public
Pre-registration strongly recommended
Reserve your free tickets now at nmajh.org
For many Jews, the Jewish doctor personifies success, but most don’t realize the central importance of medicine in Jewish modernization. Physicians were important to politics as well as health in the nineteenth century, especially in Germany. Medical advice about such things as Jewish diet, childcare, and burial practices helped narrow the cultural gap between Jews and the rest of society, just as Jews were on the cusp of attaining equal rights. This talk will explore how medicine helped bring science to German Jewry, and, more broadly, how it shaped modern Jewish culture.
Professor John Efron of the University of California, Berkeley, specializes in the cultural and social history of German Jewry. His scholarship focuses on the ways German Jewry has attempted to reinterpret and reinvent Jewish culture in the wake of its complex encounter with modernity. In particular, he has written on medicine, anthropology, and anti-Semitism. His books include Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de-Siècle Europe, and Medicine and the German Jews: A History.