The Role of Medicine During the Holocaust and its Contemporary Relevance: Countering Antisemitism in Medicine
Tuesday 28th January 2025 – 19:30 GMT (11:30 PT and 4:30 EST)
We are honoured that Dr Hedy Wald Clinical Professor in Family Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University Commissioner, Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust Adjunct Professor, Oakland University School of Nursing has agreed to speak to the JMA (UK) webinar to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025.
Dr Wald will give us a historical overview, threading narratives of her teaching to German and US medical students with her narrative as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor. She will then discuss how this relates to the “echoes” of the Holocaust today.
Dr Hedy Wald
Dr. Hedy Wald is a renowned educator and speaker with roles at Brown University and the Lancet Holocaust Commission. She is a Gold Humanism Foundation Harvard Macy Scholar, Fulbright Specialist at Ben Gurion University, and Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford’s Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism. Dr. Wald lectures internationally on reflective writing to enhance professional identity, resilience, and wellbeing. She also researches and speaks on Medicine and the Holocaust, including as a UN Holocaust Outreach Programme panellist.
A cancer caregiver advocate, she has presented for the National Cancer Policy Forum and writes extensively on the family perspective. Her creative writing and commentary appear in prominent outlets like The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Jerusalem Post.
Register here.
Grappling with antisemitism in medicine has become an international issue. We have been fortunate to have been able to communicate with Canadian colleagues who face similar problems to those which we have encountered in the UK. Jerry Teitel and Ted Rosenberg have agreed to give us an update webinar to tell us about their experiences, and where they feel we all are at the start of 2025.
Speakers:
Jerry Teitel MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, is a haematologist, whose academic and clinical work focuses on haemophilia and related bleeding disorders. He has led several inter-denominational trips to Israel (before 7/10/23) and is currently working on developing a formal academic collaboration between the University of Toronto Division of Haematology and haematology programmes at Israeli universities.
Ted Rosenberg MD MSc FRCPC is a primary care geriatrician who does house calls for frail elderly people, with specialty training in public health. He started a unique model of care described in JAGS and BMJ open see: www.hometeammedical.ca. He resigned from the University of British Columbia in Jan 2024 because of their refusal to acknowledge blatant antisemitism in the faculty or recognize the word antisemitism in their DEI program. He has met with political leaders and testified before Parliament. He is on the board for Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism and has a Blog on TOI.
Click here to register.
Thursday 12th December | 8pm
Tista Chakravarty-Gannon | Head of Operations Outreach, General Medical Council
This meeting will be an opportunity for a two-way conversation to explore the GMC’s work on fitness to practise and how they respond to antisemitism.
Tista will give a short presentation to cover the GMC’s work before moving to a discussion and feedback session.
In order to facilitate this, please when you register remember to send us your questions so that we can put them to her.
Click here to register.
The Jewish Medical Association is excited to collaborate with JAMI (now part of Jewish Care) on a comedy evening with Dr Benji Waterhouse on 1st December.
Aimed at Jewish doctors and healthcare professionals this event provides a good opportunity to meet each other and includes Kosher fish and chips supper.
Further details and booking can be accessed here.
More information about Dr Waterhouse: see an interview from the BMJ which can be accessed here.
Thursday 6th June 2024 | 8pm
Speaker: Lord Turnberg
We are honoured that Lord Turnberg, one of the leading British physicians of our times (and a Patron of the Jewish Medical Association) will be joining us to talk about his latest book “Patients First: How to Save the NHS”, published 20th May 2024.
Leslie Turnberg was President of the Royal College of Physicians; head of the Public Health Laboratory Service; a founder of the Academy of Medical Sciences; and for over 20 years has spoken in the House of Lords on health issues and the NHS. In his latest concise, accessible and focused book, he explains how the caring services must evolve, with a patient-centred model taking centre stage. He outlines how he feels that in 2024 the important aim must be to bring the disillusioned workforce back into satisfying and contented employment.
In addition, Leslie makes outstanding contributions to debates in the Lords about “Middle East issues”, supports Jewish healthcare professionals, and promotes links between the medical communities in the UK and Israel.
Copies of Lord Turnberg’s book will be available for sale at the webinar for £10; if you are going to be attending online you will be able to order them.
Option to join in person, or online.
In person: At South Hampstead Synagogue, Eton Rd, NW3 4AY
Pre-lecture reception: 7:15-8:00pm
Online: Lecture will commence at 8:00pm
(Please indicate your choice when you register)
Special online webinar to mark Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day)
Thursday 9th May 2024 at 8:00pm
Speaker: Mr Elliot Sorene
Eliot is a British Israeli Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon, veteran of the Lebanon security zone conflict and reserve service in Gaza. He was a trauma surgeon during the second Intifada. He is the father of Ariel Sorene, who survived the Nova massacre in 07/10/23.
Probably many of you will have read his moving articles, and heard his talks, particularly his London Jewish News opinion piece which concluded: “Hamas has accompanied me my whole adult life and has now entered my son’s life. I hope that my grandchildren will never know of this evil. This story, however, is not about me and my son, who are alive. It is about Marnie Kimelman, Dominique Hass, and Jake Marlowe, whose faces will never leave my mind. As I have continued with my life and career, married, built a home, and raised a family, and as I age, they remain the same, forever young and frozen in time forever”.
To watch a recording of the event click here.
Speaker: Dr Charlotte Benjamin
(Chief Medical Officer, NHS North West London, and GP Partner at St George’s Medical Centre, Hendon)
Dr Charlotte Benjamin graduated from University College London Medical School in 1997. She has been in General Practice in North West London since 2002. In addition to her patient contact work, she plays a key role in medical leadership and management. As Chief Medical Officer she brings the clinical voice to the ICB Executive.
Dr Benjamin is responsible for weekly coordination of chief medical, nursing, and operating officers in order to optimise urgent and emergency care performance across North West London. Her role includes enabling endorsement of clinical pathways and support of the clinical reference groups via the clinical leadership community. Her approach, as Senior Responsible Officer for London wide primary care deliberation, aims to foster the role of patients in deliberative engagement in healthcare.
In her lecture, Dr Benjamin focused on the doctor-patient partnership: how to maximise patient activation to optimise patient health wellbeing outcomes. The aim of patient engagement is to improve quality of services. To achieve this, it requires both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Dr Benjamin will also discuss her work on “re-imagining mental health”; and in understanding communities who are more hesitant to engage with healthcare, as manifested during her Covid-19 vaccine work.
The recording can be accessed here.
Speaker: Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari
Founding Academic Director, Rackman Centre for Advancement of Womens’ Status,
Bar Ilan University.
The Dina 7/10 Project was formed on an ad hoc basis after Oct 7, and consists of a group of senior female lawyers (from a wide variety of legal disciplines) and other experts who got together after identifying the need for assistance and advice, and for the treatment of the challenges that had arisen.
Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari is an expert on family law and international women’s rights. She is the Founding Academic Director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University Law Faculty in Israel. She served 12 years on CEDAW, twice as Vice-Chair and as first Chair of the Working Group on Inquiries. She has published extensively in her areas of expertise, including “Women in Israel” (pub Univ. of Pennsylvania Press) and co-editor of the CEDAW Commentary (2nd edition OUP).
International awards include the US States Department Women of Courage Award and the Human Rights Award 2024 of the Ingrid zu Solms-Stiftung Foundation in Germany. In 2018 she was one of Apolitical 100 most influential people in gender policy worldwide.
She is committed to achieving justice and recognition for the victims of the sexual violence and gender-based atrocities executed by Hamas on Oct. 7. Since Oct. 8 her reputation as a leading human rights defender and her experience on CEDAW has allowed her to navigate and gain access to international human rights bodies and Israeli authorities. She has held meetings with leading decision-makers at the UN and was instrumental in arranging the fact finding mission by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten.
In Prof Halperin-Kaddari’s presentation she discussed Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (CRSGBV), focusing on the atrocities committed by Hamas during the October 7th massacre. She examined the evolution of international responses, Israeli authorities handling of an unprecedented event within its borders, the fostering of an international narrative, advocacy for an international investigation, and the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators.
Watch a recording of the event here.
Thursday 14th March 2024 | 7pm
With Professor Daphna Hacker
(Professor of Law, Tel Aviv University; Independent Expert Member of CEDAW)
Prof Hacker is a legal scholar and a sociologist in the Law Faculty and Women and Gender Studies Programme, Tel Aviv University. She is an Israeli feminist and is currently an independent expert member of the International Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
In her talk Prof Hacker discussed the atrocious attack of Hamas on Israel through the gender lens, including gender violence, female hostages, men and women as combat soldiers and as medical assistance providers and recipients, and mothers at the home front. It will also discuss the lack of women around the decision making table, and women’s leadership through civil society in an attempt to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and bring security and prosperity to the region.
Watch a recording of the event here.
An update report on Jewish Medical Association UK Activities | Tuesday 27th February 2024 | 8pm
Speakers: Charlotte Benjamin (London President), David Katz (Executive Chair) and Fiona Sim (Professional Regulation Officer)
Register to the event here.
