Oh my, I seem to have hit a nerve.  Well, I guess we're even on that 
score.  Alas, I see no relationship at all between the two events (the 
conference on historic Jewish medicine and the situation in Palestine), 
so the irony passed me by.  But as it is said, "Your mileage may vary."  
Political commentary often leads to a flurry of off-topic postings, and 
I do hope we can avoid that, so this will be my last comment on this 
thread.  I hold no ivory tower beliefs about academia, and I do not 
expect academics to consider themselves above any particular fray.  
Heck, most of the years I spent in academia I was an active member of 
SDS; I guess that dates me.  I'd dismiss your perhaps ephemeral 
conflating Jewish scholarship and Israeli policy as your problem; alas, 
it pins a target on my (Jewish) chest.  So I trust you can understand my 
malaise, as we both condemn the current situation.  I think I was polite 
in my initial response, and I expect to continue to be.  When I say "I'm 
having a hard time...", I'm putting the onus on me.  I continually 
reexamine my own beliefs; I trust you do too.  As it is also said, 
"Those ideas we have, but don't know we have, have us."

Peace,
Ken

Hermes Lapis wrote:
> “You know, I'd expect members of an academic list to be able to” … refrain from ‘doing a Segal’ and leap into ad hominem.
>
> The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘irony’ (the root of ‘ironic’) as “an ill-timed or perverse arrival of an event or circumstance that is in itself desirable.” Thus I reiterate that the arrival of the conference email at the moment I was reading the report of the shelling of the hospital in Gaza in today’s ‘Telegraph’ newspaper to be ironic.
>
> “Chalk up” as you will – I have no fear of your name-calling; name-calling is usually the act of one who lacks any argument. Your statement “I’m having a hard time around that” would tend to support this.
>
> I’m surprised that you believe my brief post has the power to “derail apposite threads”. Political commentary has always been an aspect of the academy; something that totalitarians, oppressors and others of like-minded ideologies are only too acutely aware of, and something they have always sought to crush. The belief that the academy can be neutral, ‘objective’ and function in ivory towers is surely unrealistic. Not so long ago much of the academy was at the forefront of fighting against another vicious apartheid state, ie the Republic of South Africa, and like a growing section of today’s academy supported calls for boycott. Some of the speakers at the conference are, no doubt, reserve members of those forces shelling the hospitals in Gaza, so your point “able to distinguish between the modern actions of the Israeli state and the historical practice” rather misses the point.
>
> I trust that should you deem to reply to my post you will reply politely. Thank you.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of K R Perlow
> Sent: 21 July 2014 22:38
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Fw: CONFERENCES: Defining Jewish Medicine (London, 27th - 29th)
>
> You know, I'd expect members of an academic list to be able to distinguish between the modern actions of the Israeli state and the historical practice of Jewish ritual.  That you find the announcement ironic I'd prefer not to chalk up to anti-Semitism, but I'm having a hard time around that.  In any event, please do not derail the apposite threads of this group with political commentary.
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
> Hermes Lapis wrote:
>> A somewhat ironic announcement in the light of present news reports.
>>
>> "Earlier in the day, Israeli tanks reportedly shelled a hospital in Gaza, killing at least four people and wounding 60, half of whom were medical staff.
>>
>> A Palestinian health official said that 12 shells had been fired at
>> the Al Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah, striking parts of
>> the building that included the intensive care unit and the surgery
>> department." - The Telegraph
>>
>> "Wafa Hospital in Gaza’s Shujaiyya district has already been hit by
>> drone strikes, but staff say 16 elderly and terminally ill patients
>> are too frail to move despite Israeli warnings of further attacks." -
>> The Independent
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Davide
>> Ermacora
>> Sent: 21 July 2014 12:17
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Fw: CONFERENCES: Defining Jewish
>> Medicine (London, 27th - 29th)
>>
>> I n t e r n a t i o n a l  S u m m e r  C o n f e r e n c e
>>
>> O r g a n i s e d  j o i n t l y  b y  t h e
>>
>> Institute of Jewish Studies , UCL
>> a n d t h e
>> Jewish Medical Association ( UK)
>>
>> Defining Jewish Medicine
>> 27th - 29th July 2014
>>
>> UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
>>
>> The association between Jewish doctors and their calling has roots which go back to the Babylonian Talmud and proceed throughout the Middle Ages into modernity, with major contributions to medicine being made by Jewish practitioners. A fundamental aspect of this question is how to define 'Jewish medicine' throughout its long history. Developing a clear profile will have considerable influence on the way we view the connection between Jews and medicine.
>> This conference will
>> present different aspects of research on Jewish medicine - its origins, its historical context, how medicine could be influenced by Jewish law and custom (halachah) and how the role of the Jewish doctor has evolved over the centuries.
>>
>> This conference is funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust
>>
>> P R O G R A M M E
>>
>> Monday 28th July
>> Medicine in the Talmud and Middle Ages
>>
>> Venue: J.Z Young lecture theatre, Anatomy Building
>> 09.45 Mark Geller (UCL / Freie Universität Berlin) - Welcome and
>> Introduction
>>
>> 10.15 Ulrike STEINERT (Freie Universität Berlin) - Concepts of the
>> female body in Mesopotamian gynaecological texts
>>
>> 11.00 Coffee
>>
>> 11.30 Tzvi LANGERMANN (Bar-Ilan University) -Nu'man al-Isra'ili's
>> unstudied commentary on Abu Sahl al-Masihi's Kitab al-Mi'a
>>
>>
>> 12.15 Gerrit BOS (University of Cologne) and Guido Mensching
>> (University of Göttingen) - Jewish multilingualism in medieval medical
>> lexicography and translations
>>
>> 13.00 Lunch break (lunch not provided)
>>
>> 15.15 Lennart LEHMHAUS (Freie Universität Berlin) - On the medical
>> discourse(s) in the two
>> Talmudim
>>
>> 16.00 Tea
>>
>> 16.30 Gad FREUDENTHAL (University of Geneva) - Philosophy and Medicine
>> in Jewish Provence, Anno 1199: Samuel Ibn Tibbon and Doeg the Edomite
>> Translating Galen’s Tegni
>>
>> 17.15 Justine ISSERLES (UCL) -Bloodletting and medical astrology in
>> Hebrew manuscripts from medieval Western Europe (13th-15th c.)
>>
>>
>> Tuesday 29th July
>> Medicine, Jewish Medical Ethics and Jews
>>
>> Venue: J.Z Young lecture theatre, Anatomy Building
>> 9.45 Samuel KOTTEK (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) - The Physician in Bible and Talmud:
>> Between the Lord and the Ailing.
>>
>> 10.30 Alan JOTKOWITZ (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) -The role of
>> Talmudic Narratives in the Development of Jewish Medical Ethics
>>
>> 11.15 Coffee
>>
>> 11.45 Shimon GLICK (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) - 20th century
>> Jewish medical ethics -a historic overview
>>
>> 12.30 Lunch break (lunch not provided)
>>
>> 14.00 Avraham STEINBERG (Hebrew University and Shaarei Zedek Hospital,
>> Jerusalem) - “Nature has
>> changed" – Talmudic and modern medicine re halakhic decisions
>>
>> 14.45 Kenneth COLLINS (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of
>> Glasgow) - The Entry of Jews
>> to the Medical Schools of Early Modern Europe
>>
>> 15.30 Tea
>>
>>
>> 16.00 Gerry BLACK (Past President, Jewish Historical Society of
>> England) - Lord Rothschild and the
>> Barber. The struggle to establish the London Jewish Hospital.
>>
>> 16.45 Paul WEINDLING (Oxford Brookes University) - Jewish Victims of
>> Nazi Medical and Racial Research, and their Responses
>>
>> 17.30 David R Katz (UCL) - Concluding remarks
>>
>>
>> Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
>>
>> e-mail: [log in to unmask] tel: 020 7679 3520
>> website: www. ucl.ac.uk/ijs
>>
>>
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>>
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