ONLINE HISTORY COURSE “My Son the Doctor: Medieval Jewish Physicians in the Muslim and Christian Worlds”

Course Description:

It is an old saying that every Jewish parent, particularly every Jewish mother,  wants their sons (and more recently their daughters) to grow up to be doctors. Many, myself included, would argue that this is an (admittedly mild) antisemitic trope as it deals in stereotypes and plays on some of the ancient prejudices against Jews. It is also, of course, not true, although like many stereotypes there is an element of truth contained within it.

In this course I will be focusing on what life was like for Jewish doctors in both the Christian and the Muslim Middle Ages roughly from about 500 to about 1500 CE.  In both Christian Europe and in the Middle East and Muslim controlled  Iberia (al-Andalus) there were many physicians and surgeons working who were Jewish. Some converted to Christianity or Islam to continue to practice. Depending on the time and place, the ability of Jewish healers to work with non-Jewish patients varied and there was almost everywhere and throughout the period strict supervision, prejudice and restrictions placed on these “outsider” doctors. Nevertheless, their expertise was valued, often above that of their fellow non-Jewish healers. and There are many examples of Christian rulers in Europe and sultans and caliphs in the Muslim world employing Jews as their personal court physicians.

How did a Jew manage to train to become a doctor when with rare exceptions, Jews and women were not allowed to matriculate at university medical schools? What do we know about the Jewish men and a small number of Jewish women who managed to receive the needed training and work as healers? Practically all doctors during this period were Hippocratic/Galenic physicians, firmly wedded to the belief in the humoral theory. Was there in the Middle Ages something special about “Jewish medicine” as distinct from that practiced by non-Jewish doctors? Did faith and the strong emphasis on the primacy of learning, especially study of the Torah and the Talmud, play a role in the development of “Jewish medicine”? We will discuss the complex relationship between Jewish medical practitioners and the non-Jewish societies in which they were embedded. While prejudice and persecution are the primary themes of that relationship, the on-the-ground reality for actual doctors was more complicated and worthy of a more granular analysis.

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings, syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings: Information will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

Complete syllabus will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

LECTURE 1 – Becoming a Jewish Doctor: Faith and Learning in the Service of Medicine

– Wednesday, November 18

In this introductory lecture we will explore the ancient origins of medical knowledge for Jews in antiquity. I will then discuss the later (2nd-5th centuries CE) Talmudic traditions that governed and influenced medical thought and training and led to the rise of the doctor-rabbi, an individual trained and learned in both religion and medicine. We will discuss prominent Jewish family medical dynasties where medical knowledge was passed down from father (or uncle) to son as a substitute for formal training in universities.

 

LECTURE 2 – In the Service of the Sultan: Jewish Doctors in the Medieval Islamic World

– Wednesday, November 25

In our second lecture we will turn to a consideration of the lives of Jewish doctors in the great learning centers of medieval Islam (Damascus, Baghdad, Tehran). In general, there was greater acceptance of Jewish medical practitioners by medieval Muslim communities and rulers although the degree of tolerance varied widely from time and place. The fact that many of the Jewish scholar-physicians living and practicing in the Muslim world could read Arabic, led to the translation of a great number of medical works from the Hippocratic Canon that had been translated from Greek and Latin into Arabic, Farsi, and Syriac. Jewish doctor-translators then copied these works into Hebrew and established a separate corpus of Hebrew medical literature. We will also discuss the lives of Jewish doctors living in al-Andalus (Spain and Portugal) during the Muslim dynasty, the Umayyad Caliphate 661-750 CE.

 

LECTURE 3 – Between Acceptance and Annihilation: Jewish Doctors in Medieval Christian Europe

– Wednesday, December 2

In our final lecture, we will turn to an examination of the lives of Jewish physicians in medieval Christian Europe. Periods of relative tolerance alternated with persecution and often led to expulsion of not just doctors but all Jews from entire countries (England in 1290, Spain in 1492 for example). Jews were not uncommonly blamed for disease outbreaks including bubonic plague and driven out or killed. Despite this, Jewish physicians had roles to play in both the Jewish communities and those of Christians during this period. Many Christians believed that Jews possessed “special knowledge” linked in part to the mystical tradition of Kabbalah.

Their expertise was prized by Christian rulers and in many instances felt to be somehow superior to that of their Christian co-professionals.

Jeremy Wasser, Ph.D. is a physiologist, medical historian and educator. Dr. Wasser lends his history of medicine expertise to various causes and speaking engagements in the United States and Europe. He is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Physiology at Texas A&M University and continues to serve as an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology. He was from 2020-2024 an Affiliate Professor and Scholar-in-Residence in the Marymount Institute for Faith, Culture and the Arts at Loyola Marymount University. For 20 years, Dr. Wasser was the program leader for study abroad programs in Germany, focused on the history of medicine, providing future doctors and biomedical science researchers with a foundation in physiology and the medical humanities. He is the Director and co-founder of galerie PLUTO based in Bonn, Germany. PLUTO is an exhibition, research and project space that uses a salon format to bring together artists, musicians, poets and scientists to create a global dialogue at the intersection of art and science. Along with his scientific published works, he has lectured and written about topics as varied as the culture of disease, the history of public health and health policy, the history of human experimentation, the intersection of art and medicine, and the role of physiological education in contemplative practices. He has formal training in voice and cantorial singing and has sung professionally in the United States and Germany. His training in opera and theatre inform the unique personas that he creates for lectures in the history of medicine and performances related to science and storytelling.