The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1920-09-08
Jews Prominent in the
American Medical Field
LONG LIST OF. NAMES FILLING
HONORABLE PLACES IN THE
PROFESSION.
BY Leon NJ. Herbert
Copyright. 1920. by I. j. p. b


America is young. This Is one of the
superficial. empty phrases that pass
lightly from mouth to mouth. In truth,
the culture of the United States is
based upon English culture, and, 10
begin with, is not younger than it. TIE
term young is only convenient
phrase.
1t means that in many of its phases
American life is freer, less bound by
tradition, less formalized, less sub
jected to the tyranny of convention.
l recall how Professor Bruckner, the
Polish literary Investigator, at one time
expressed himself that all races are
really equally old. His remark aroused
n great deal of interest and discussion.
After some thought all had to admit
that lie was right. Thus for example.
the French somehow got the notion that
they were of an older race with COM
pick civilization and would not be able
TO withstand the pressure of the
younger. more primitive Germans.
Then the war came, and the whole
mythical bubble of French degeneration
was burst. The French peasant con-
tinued in his primitive hardness, just
as before. and all the talk of the sem
timentalists and phrasemakers of the
boulevards turned out to he mere wind
and smoke. They are now trying to tell
us. Jews. that we, too, are an old civil
lied race, and will not have the energy
to build our new home. Yet we all
know that there is still n great deal of
vigor, harlihood and primitiveness in
large sections Of our people.
We are all young, il you will, quite
primitively young. Some were civil
lied few hundred years earlier, others
somewhat latcr-that is-bcgan to live
in better organized social forms. The
adaptation of life to the new inventions
and improvements in the technical and
scientific sphere has really only oc-
Cured during the last half n century
or so. With out regard to these re-
fcrences to the antiquity of civilization,
we may rightly say that we are now
standing on the threshold of human
history The history of the world is
really just beginning.
In its forms of life, America is just
as old as England The difference be-
tween the two lies in the greater ex-
panse, the broader horizon, the more
complex plan OF life, the frcer and
more fertile field of activity, the pio-
neer spirit. the breaking of the shack
les of convention.
No country is so willing to test an
idea as America. Every new creed,
however. fantastic, finds its devotees
in America. Perhaps in no other sphere
does this craving for the new so ex-
press itself as in the field of science
and technical research. Many of the
greatest inventions which have brought
about the industrial revolution and
have made modern life what it is, were
the products of American genius.
If by civilization we mean the ad
vance in scientific research, and the in
crease in the comforts of life, then from
this standpoint civilization stands
highest in America.
Two sciences made the new life pos
sible: engineering and medicine. Both
are adaptions and applications of the
discovered facts of abstract knowledge
to the common ordinary problems Of
every day life. Both sciences have
,.o, tul, Of
ment here in America, and to both,
especially medicine, have the Jews con-
tributed greatly. proportionally very
much more than the other elements of
the American population.
Whence comes this deep-rootcd in
tcrest of the Jew in the medical
science? That is problem which is
closely bound up with the psycholo-
gical research into the Jewish spirit.
This is not the place to go into this
subtle analysis. Jewish national genius
is still II riddle to ourselves, and its in
vestigatOrs have as yet not arrived.
What we have in consideration of il is
largely polemic. word battle with anti
Semitic interpretations of the Jewish
spirit. that skim the surface as lightly
as the water-fly.
The anti-Semitcs claim that the jew
studies medicine, especially the chemis
try of medicinc,-the Jews are so pro-
ficient in physiological chemistry, he
cause they are gross materialists. Ac-
cortling TO them the lew is not capa bic
of delving into n subject for the sake
of creating on idea. He must have the
crude amterial formula the naked ma
terialisitc explanation, which should
triL lifc Il IT, il.iSI., nd ralIicc