Wherever There Is Jewish Pain

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bFew hospitals had a more dedicated and warm staff that, bworking under terribly difficult budgetary conditions, bbrought superb care to the poor residents of the neighbor- bhood. Nevertheless, spurred on by Puerto Rican militants of bthe Young Lords and a New Left group known as Young bDoctors and Health Care Workers, demands were made for b“community control” of the hospital on the grounds of b“racist neglect of the needs of the community.” The real bdesire of the militants was that Puerto Ricans and Blacks be bplaced in control of the hospital and Jews pushed out. bTakeovers and disruptions became commonplace until it breached the point that on July 12, 1970, twelve doctors, beleven Filipino and one Korean, asked to be relieved of their bjobs because of “harassment and intimidation.” Both the city band Yeshiva showed an abysmal lack of spine and failure to bback up their staff. Thus, forcible takeovers finally resulted bin the city’s giving in and appointing a Puerto Rican, Dr. bAntero Lacot, as administrator. In August, Director of bObstetrics and Gynecology Dr. Joseph Smith was held hos- btage for six hours by militants, but the tension reached its bclimax in November with demands that the Jewish Director bof Pediatrics, Dr. Arnold Einhorn, be removed from the bpost he had held for twelve years and replaced by his assis- btant, Dr. Helen Rodriguez. Dean Label C. Scheinberg of bEinstein Medical College capitulated to the demands and in ba confidential memorandum praised Einhorn for having bbeen “a superb director of the pediatrics service” but regret- bted that “the Pediatrics Department finds it essential at this btime to have a director of a different ethnic background.” bThis outrageous statement was not followed by the corol- blary: would the next step require that the dean also be bjudged on the scales of ethnic background?

bLest one think that the Jewish community was totally boutraged, it should be noted that Henry Schwartzchild, a bmember of the Commission on Social Justice of the bSynagogue Council of America, allowed that under certain bconditions it was “proper for a community to assert its bprerogative.” Majority Jewish reaction was one of anger but bjust as predictably one of nonaction, which, after two weeks b