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33 results total, viewing 11 - 20

Isidore and Jacob Gershwin: Who could ask for anything more?

Morris Gershovitz left St. Petersburg, Russia, in the early 1890s to seek a new life in America. He married Rose Bruskin in 1895, and they were blessed with four children. The first son, Isidore, was born in December 1896. Another son, Jacob, was … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 4/24/14

The welfare of the many or the liberty of the few?

Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, provided the ancient Hebrews with an instructional manual during their years of wandering. Some of these guidelines pertained to ways of maintaining the health and integrity of this nomadic community: … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 10/20/14

Witness to a stack of Bibles

It is widely said, and almost universally believed, that every American home possesses a Bible. Certainly, in many homes, the Bible stands quietly apart from other texts, seen more as a moral commitment than as a text to be studied; yet it is … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 6/21/13

A new year but an old, sectarian calendar

The newly-placed wall calendar in the dentist’s waiting room in Providence declares the year to be 2014; but if one reckons by the Hebrew calendar, the year is 5774; by the Mayan calendar, 5133; by the Buddhist calendar, 2558; by the old Imperial … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 1/17/14

A Rose by any Other Name

Over a half century ago, there had been a large Jewish hospital in the New York region fulfilling a unique societal need. It had opened its many long-term beds for the continuing care of people impaired by chronic, essentially incurable, neurologic … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 10/10/13

Public health and the limits of private rights

If human illness were strictly a private matter, never impinging upon the health, freedom or affairs of others, there would be little ambiguity or dispute concerning the need for health regulations; indeed, there would be no need for any public … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 4/10/14

And Joseph was told: Ye shall eat the fat of the land

Primitive societies invested much labor in growing or otherwise obtaining food. Drought, insect depredation and war periodically threatened the community’s food supply, making food central to tribal survival. And on those infrequent occasions … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 9/30/14

A pioneer physician in the Virginia colony

The role of Jewry in the expanding culture, prosperity and destiny of the United States had been minimal until the great Jewish diaspora of the 19th century.Certainly there was passing mention of clusters of Jewish immigrants as early as the New … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 6/6/13

Noel Comes to Brownsville

The time: A mid-December weekend, 1935, on a residential street in inner Brooklyn. Two 14-year-old youngsters inspect the thin layer of snow covering the streets and decide that this is not a good day for roller-skating. They then glance in both … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 1/3/14

Pilgrimage to the West: Dreams, hopes, reality

The travails of newly arrived immigrants and the tragedies that marked their first few decades in the slums of lower Manhattan are well-documented by writers who placed more faith in authentic documentation than in nuanced mythology. There are, … more

Dr. Stanley Aronson | 9/11/14