Hospital Care for Jews in Nineteenth-century Amsterdam: The Emergence of the First Jewish Hospitals

In the early seventeenth century, the Jews formally established two separate communities in Amsterdam, the Portuguese Sephardi and the High German Ashkenazi congregations. Until the end of the eighteenth century, medical care for the Amsterdam indigent Jews had been controlled and regulated by the powerful Parnasim, the de facto rulers, of each community. The primary communal organizations that were exclusively responsible for medical care for the poor were the Bikur Holim societies. This approach for the care of the indigent Jewish sick became ineffective in the nineteenth century and was replaced by a hospital-based system. This essay describes how seriously ill indigent Jews in nineteenth-century Amsterdam received hospital care, tracing the establishment and development of the first Ashkenazi and Sephardi hospitals in the city. Although each community established their own hospital, they used different approaches to accomplish this goal

Comparative lipid profiles of milk bank breast milk and infant formulas

Lipid profiles of seven human breast milk samples obtained from milk banks and four infant formulas were compared in view of the potential food hypersensitivities of certain infants to human milk.The cholesterol (0.15-0.26 mM) content of the human samples was about 50% lower than that found in the infant formulas whereas the triglyceride (TG, 173-386 mM) contents of these products were found to be comparable.The major saturated fatty acid (SFA) and mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) were 16:0 and 18:1 respectively. The major poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) was 18:2 with otherPUFA members of the C18, C20 and C22 families identified and quantified. Although conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) was not detected in any infant formulas tested, no other major differences in the fatty acid patternswere found. However, the mean (13.6) of the ratio of n-6 PUFAs/n-3PUFAs in the human milk samples was about 50% higher than that observed in the infant formula samples.Although our results indicate that there are small yet significant differences in cholesterol and CLA content and the ratio of n- 6 PUFAs/n-3PUFAs, the lipid composition of milk bank, breast milk and infant formulas is quite comparable

The inhibition of the fatty acid oxygenase of sheep vesicular gland by antioxidants

Antioxidants inhibit the fatty acid oxygenase of sheep vesicular gland and soybean lipoxygenase in an instantaneous, reversible manner. Their inhibitory effectiveness was not related to their traditional antioxidant potencies but seemed to depend on the nature of the enzyme. The destructive effect ofeicosa-5,8,11,14-tetraynoic acid, a substrate analog, on vesicular gland oxygenase could be prevented in the presence of either [alpha]-naphthol or 2,2,4-trimethyl-6-ethoxy-1,2-dihydroquinoline (Santoquin).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33945/1/0000212.pd

Acetylenic inhibitors of sheep vesicular gland oxygenase

Biosynthesis of prostaglandins could be stopped by several acetylenic acids. They interfered with the oxygenase activity of the sheep vesicular gland enzymic system in two distinct patterns: an instantaneous, concentration-dependent effect and a time-dependent, destructive effect. Constants for both effects are reported. No measurable oxygen consumption was observed with the acetylenic analogs. Nevertheless, both oxygen and hydroperoxide were required for the inhibition to occur, whereas the inhibitory action could be blocked by the presence of diethyldithiocarbamic acid. The results support the concept of a highly reactive intermediate in the mechanism of oxygenase action.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33944/1/0000211.pd

Inhibition of sheep vesicular gland oxygenase by unsaturated fatty acids from skin of essential fatty acid deficient rats

Unsaturated fatty acids present in the lipids of essential fatty acid (EFA)-deficient rats were found to inhibit the oxygenase activity of sheep vesicular gland in an instantaneous, reversible manner. However, competitive inhibition by high levels of these acids cannot account fully for the reported loss of prostaglandin synthetic capacity of these EFA-deficient animals. A similar competitive inhibition pattern was observed with several anti-inflammatory drugs tested, whereas others also exhibited a time-dependent destructive effect on the oxygenase of the sheep vesicular gland. The relative effectiveness of these drugs in treating inflammations of the skin paralleled their effects on the vesicular gland oxygenase.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22411/1/0000861.pd

Jewish Hospitals in 20th Century Amsterdam: A Tale of Growth, Change, and Decline

Major improvements in medical diagnostics and treatments in Dutch hospital care during the second half of the 19th century led to a shift from a nearly exclusive focus on indigent patients to an increasing proportion of hospital beds dedicated to paying middle-class patients. To accommodate this change, three private non-sectarian hospitals for middle-class patients were established in Amsterdam between 1857 and 1902. However, the two Jewish hospitals in the Dutch capital, the Dutch Jewish Ashkenazi hospital (NIZ), and the Portuguese Jewish hospital (PIZ), initially established exclusively for poor Jews, were much slower to respond to the trend of increasing hospital care for the middle class. This study examines how these hospitals addressed the needs of both poor and middle-class patients in the first decades of the 20th century as well as the success of the Centrale Israelitische Ziekenverpleging (CIZ, Central Jewish hospital) that was established solely for middle-class Jewish patients. The report also investigates how, after the devastation of the Amsterdam Jewish community during WW2, the CIZ managed to remain and today is the only ritually observant Jewish hospital unit in the Netherlands

Evidence forH202 mediating the irreversible action of acetylenic inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis

Oxidizing intermediates formed during prostaglandin biosynthesis can be detected by ferrocytochrome c and epinephrine. Different intermediates were responsible for the oxidative colorimetric changes with epinephrine and ferrocytochrome c, and submicromolar amounts of oxidant were detectable.Catalase diminished the absorbance change with epinephrine, but it did not stop the conversion of arachidonate to prostaglandins. This result indicates that small amounts of H202 were formed when producing the colorimetric change, and these had no apparent effect upon the enzyme stability. No colorimetric changes were detected during the time-dependent loss of oxygenase activity caused by various acetylenic acids, indicating that negligible amounts of H202 were formed. Nevertheless, the destructive action of the acetylenic acid was prevented by catalase, and it thereby appeared due to small amounts of H202 generated in situ as a result of a metastable complex of enzyme, oxygen and the acetylenic substrate analog.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22537/1/0000082.pd

The Joles Jewish Hospital: A Short-lived Dutch Small City Hospital With an Unusual Resurrection

The Joles Jewish Hospital in Haarlem (a small city in the Netherlands) was established in 1930 to provide a Jewish milieu for local patients. Mozes Joles, a wealthy Jewish businessman, bequeathed his fortune to the Haarlem Jewish community to accomplish this objective, and its spiritual leader, Rabbi Simon Philip de Vries, was the driving force in successfully achieving this goal. The Joles Hospital was forcibly closed by the Nazis in 1943, and the postwar leadership of the Haarlem Jewish community decided not to reopen it. Instead, they used the Joles inheritance to build old age homes in both Haifa, Israel, and Haarlem, thus ensuring a Jewish environment for elderly care in both locales. The realization of one man\u27s charitable act bettered the lives of both ill and elderly individuals