For reasons both positive and negative, Jewish Americans often are associated with the medical profession. “Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews & Medicine in America,” the current exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore, examines how the field of medicine has been a vehicle, by turns, for discrimination, acculturation, and strengthening Jewish identity.
According to a recent feature in Humanities magazine,
the show focuses on the last 100 years of American medicine, the so-called golden age, touring many sites where Jewish culture and medicine intersect: Jewish hospitals that served as training grounds for Jewish doctors; the local drugstore, where Jewish pharmacists dispensed health advice along with fountain sodas; the neighborhood gym, where young Jewish immigrants embraced athleticism as they adapted to their new environment; and the laboratory, where heroes like Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin helped make Jews synonymous with medicine.
“Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews & Medicine in America” received $300,000 in support from NEH for the exhibition, catalog, and public programs. The exhibition runs through January 16, 2017, at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore, before traveling to other venues.