Page 254 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

In the 1840s, British missionaries established the first hospital in Jerusalem. Jews were admitted
there at a low cost, but while hospitalized they were exposed to Christian missionary activity,
and some converted as a result. To save the Jewish patients from the missionaries’“subversive
claws,” the Rothschild Hospital, the Bikur Holim hospital, and later also the Misgav Ladakh
hospital were established in Jerusalem. These institutions competed with each other and there
were conflicts between them, and more than once these conflicts came at the expense of the
patients and those hospitalized in them. In 1878, Havatzelet reported that in a single year, over
forty patients had died at Bikur Holim hospital. Yet despite all this, the hospitals improved the
condition of the city’s patients and became a source of pride, and in 1902, when Shaare Zedek
hospital was established, the Hashkafah newspaper reported that it was “the finest building
in Jerusalem, which could stand unashamedly on a par with the great hospital buildings of
the world’s nations.”

The newspapers of the time often mentioned the doctors who worked in Jerusalem, in good
times as well as in hard times. One of the most infamous cases was the “Wallach-Berger affair”
in the summer of 1913, when Dr Wallach refused to treat a young Jewish patient sent from Jaffa
to Shaare Zedek hospital for urgent care on a Saturday. The patient was turned away from the
hospital, and only admitted when the Sabbath was over; on Sunday morning he died. Many
newspapers of the period attacked Dr Wallach, but the Jerusalem doctors who examined the
case concluded that due to the patient’s critical condition, Wallach could have done no more for
him than he did. They did however decide that he should be reprimanded for “in this instance,
unjustifiably introducing religious issues that are not connected with medical affairs.”

From the medical aspect, during the decades immediately preceding World War I, Jerusalem
was changed beyond recognition. Hospitals, clinics, and doctors specializing in specific fields
such as ophthalmics and dentistry began to operate in the city. Most of the fatal diseases
disappeared from the city. Doctors advocated taking preventive action against diseases, and
ex post facto adopted the recommendations of the author and researcher, Avraham Moshe
Luncz, from the end of the nineteenth century: “1) Take a long daily walk outside the city wall;
2) Eat nourishing and clean food, in the correct amount and at the right times. Beware of foods
that will cause great turbulence and upset in the stomach. Refrain from drinking a lot of water,
especially after eating fruit; 3) Guard yourself against anger. Always be happy, and as far as
possible take care to avoid worry; 4) Refrain from excessive walking in the summer and, when
walking, at least make sure that the head is shaded from the sun’s rays by a parasol or large
hat; 5) Do not sleep on the ground floor; 6) Wash your back every day in a bath of cold water
and immediately on getting out of the water, walk around for a few minutes.” Apart from the
superstitious beliefs, most of this advice can still be adopted today.

Doctors and Patients in Jerusalem in Former Times ■ 49e