Physician is still on the job at 94 Catholic colleagues at Notre Dame Hospital went on strike to protest Jew's promotion ALAN HUSTAK The Gazette
Living well is not the best revenge; it's outliving your enemies. Ask Sam Rabinovitch. Seventy years ago, he was the the victim of anti-Semitic abuse when he went to work as an intern at Notre Dame Hospital. When Rabinovitch, a Jew, was was named chief resident intern at what was then a Roman Catholic hospital, his colleagues went on strike in protest. Today, his opponents in that ugly chapter in Quebec medical history are long forgotten. But the intrepid doctor is still here. Even more remarkable, Rabinovitch, who is 94 years old, is thought to be the oldest physician in the country still on the job. A specialist in internal medicine, he walks to work each morning from his Westmount condominium to his office on Ste. Catherine St., where he sees about 20 patients a day. "I have it organized very well. I don't have to worry about paperwork of filling out forms," he said. "I do blood tests, take X-rays, and do diagnosis." Some of his patients have been in his care for 60 years. One of them, who spoke to The Gazette on the condition that her name not be used, described Rabinovitch as "a fantastic doctor." "He's up on everything, all the latest developments in medicine. Medicine is his whole life. Every time I go for a checkup, when I walk out, I feel like a new person." Rabinovitch and his four brothers - Boaz, Jacob, Phineas and Irving - were born in Palestine around the turn of the 20th century and immigrated to Canada as children. Driven by their ambitious mother, all five became medical doctors. As each brother obtained his degree, he was expected to help the next sibling through medical school. Sam was the last of the five. "Medicine appealed to us because it appealed to our mother," he said, dryly. "We didn't have much of a choice." He enrolled at the Universit� de Montr�al and in 1933 was accepted as an intern at Notre Dame Hospital. When he was made chief resident intern the following year, his Roman Catholic colleagues balked. They circulated a petition demanding Rabinovitch be fired. When he wasn't, they went on strike. Although the medical council then fired the striking interns and appeared determined to keep Rabinovitch on staff, the protest spread to four other hospitals. Rather than force the issue, Rabinovitch resigned. Today, the soft-spoken doctor is reluctant to say much about the incident. "I felt bad because the patients were left in the dark because of it. What else can I say? The other interns didn't want me. I was Jewish, they were French. "That was a long time ago," he recalled with a sigh. Rabinovitch left Montreal and went to St. Louis, where sympathetic doctors at Notre Dame had recommended him for a position. He tried a year in surgery at Baltimore, didn't like it, and finished his specialty in internal medicine and biochemistry at St. Louis University, a Roman Catholic institution, in 1935. He came back to Montreal and opened a private practice on Park Ave. Rabinovitch was attached to Reddy Memorial Hospital for 45 years until it closed six years ago. He had planned to retire when the hospital shut but the Atwater Medical Clinic "made me an offer I couldn't refuse." Rabinovitch said he has little time for anything other than medicine and golf. He scored a hole in one at the fifth hole at Pinewood when he was 80 years old and is still up for a game. He reads medical journals daily to keep abreast of the newest developments. If he needs to consult with specialists or get a second opinion, his children are only a telephone call away. His son, Mark, is a cardiologist at Montreal General Hospital; his daughter, Marlene, is a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University in California and research director for vascular disease at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in San Francisco. ------ 1934 Revolt March 1933: Sam Rabinovitch is accepted as an intern at Notre Dame Hospital. February 1934: The hospital's medical council appoints Rabinovitch chief resident intern. May 31: A petition demanding Rabinovitch, a Jew, be removed as senior intern is circulated at the hospital by 31 student interns, most of them Roman Catholic. June 14: The interns walk off their jobs in support of the petition. June 15: The hospital board fires the 31 striking interns. June 16: Interns at Ste. Justine, H�tel Dieu, Mis�ricorde and St. Jean de Dieu go on strike in solidarity with the dismissed interns at Notre Dame. June 17: Nurses at Montreal's five French-language hospitals threaten to join the strike. The Medical Council of Notre Dame Hospital upholds its decision to hire Rabinovitch. June 18: Rabinovitch resigns from the hospital, "deeply grieved that the French interns have taken up a racial question where the care of the sick should be their first and only consideration." "The duty of a captain is not to abandon; the first duty of a soldier is not to desert his post; the first duty of a physician is not to desert his patient. Taking all that into consideration, I feel that it is my duty as a physician and as a Jew to decide upon an action which will be in the best interests of humanity, to remove the obstacle which is preventing the relief of the suffering." [EMAIL PROTECTED] � Copyright 2003 Montreal Gazette http://www.canada.com/montreal/story.asp?id=5DA9066E-7B85-40C4-8E30-0A217DCE1407 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com --- URG-L Aimeriez-vous obtenir une adresse de courriel @URGENCES.CA? Suivez-le lien http://www.groupegiroux.com/messagerie pour de plus amples informations.
