From Maimonides the physician to the physician at Maimonides Medical Center: A brief glimpse into the history of the Jewish medical student throughout the ages

Abstract

is is the third issue of a medical halakhah journal edited and written primarily by a group of Jewish medical students at a medical school in the Diaspora under Jewish auspices, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. To my knowledge, this is the rst such endeavor of its kind in all of Jewish history. Of course, there have been Jewish medical students in previous generations; of course Jewish medical students have contributed articles to the literature of Jewish medical ethics; but never before has there been a student publication of Jewish medical ethics at a Jewish medical school in the Diaspora published under the press of a Jewish university. My purpose in writing this brief essay is to give historical context to this publication, and to give the reader an appreciation of the challenges that faced our predecessors in their attainment of higher education, in particular, medical training. In addition, our discussion will reveal that the unfettered religious expression in this generation would have simply been unthinkable in previous centuries. Ultimately, it is the establishment of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine by Yeshiva University that has created the milieu that has made this publication possible. (from Introduction)