A patient looks down and makes poor eye contact. Could he be embarrassed, worried, or depressed? Caring for Jewish Patients offers an alternative explanation: orthodox Jewish patients may avoid eye contact with a doctor of the opposite sex.
Figure 1.
Joseph Spitzer
Radcliffe Medical Press, £24.95, pp 232 ISBN 1 85775 991 5
Rating: ★★★
Author Joseph Spitzer is an orthodox Jew. He is also a general practitioner in Stamford Hill, north London, home to Europe's largest orthodox Jewish community. Spitzer writes eloquently about his community and with an admirable objectivity. Perhaps it is this mixture of insider insights coupled with the sort of neutrality you might expect from an outsider that makes this book so absorbing and thought provoking.
The Jewish community is more diverse than one might suppose, and alongside the different strands there are levels of religious observance that make generalising impossible. Spitzer's mission is clear: he wants to provide the non-Jewish doctor or nurse with information about his faith to help them understand, engage with, and treat Jewish patients. He does this with remarkable clarity. Readers are taken through a fascinating account of different festivals, rituals, and rites of passage.
Spitzer's text will spare doctors many potential blunders. Most non-Jews are aware of certain Jewish food laws, but most doctors probably don't realise oral medications must also be kosher. For example, Calpol contains glycerine and is therefore non-kosher. Medinol contains glycerine known to be of vegetable origin and is therefore kosher. In contrast with current medical practice, Jewish orthodoxy discourages doctors from telling patients that they are terminally ill. Hope, it is argued, should not be snuffed out prematurely, as this could cause unnecessary suffering.
The text is broken up with case vignettes. Sharon, a Jewish medical graduate, approaches the postgraduate dean and explains that she will not be able to do pre-registration house jobs that involve Friday or Saturday nights on call. Fortunately for Sharon, a job share partner—presumably a non-orthodox Jew—is found.
This book draws attention to connections between religion and health, faith and illness. Those reading it will learn about the impact of different elements of Jewish life and culture on wellbeing, disease, diagnosis, and recovery, and therefore be better placed to treat Jewish patients successfully.