Four medical students at The University of Western Ontario set aside their cultural differences to organize a collaborative presentation on health issues facing Muslim and Jewish communities held Tuesday, April 21.
At the beginning of the school year the co-presidents of the Western Jewish Medical Club, Danny Mendelsohn, a descendent of Mexican Jews, and David Gurau, a descendent of Holocaust survivors, were approached by executives of the Muslim Medical Student Association, Amina Benlamri, daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Abdulla Alabousi, who was born in Iraq, about organizing a panel discussion on health issues unique to their communities.
Although many world events have created tensions between the two cultural groups, Gurau says the foursome looked for a common thread.
“We have a lot more in common than we have differences,” says Gurau. “We are friends … that should be an example for many others.”
The event was held at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and featured Dr. Nabil Sultan, a London-based nephrologist (a physician with an expertise in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation, and dialysis therapy), who spoke about religion and healing and the Muslim physician’s perspective. Sultan was joined by William Fisher, a Western professor of Psychology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, who discussed Judaism’s perspective on contraception, abortion, end of life issues and the Jerusalem AIDS project.
“We hope that this event will serve as a symbolic demonstration that Muslim and Jewish students can see beyond their differences and work together to raise awareness about each others’ cultures,” says Mendelsohn.
As a Muslim physician, Sultan says spirituality and faith play an important role in his position. He believes his abilities as a doctor are a gift from God and signals a difference between treatment and healing.
Doctors provide scientific treatments for medical diseases, however it is his belief that healing fundamentally lies in the hands of God. From a Muslim patient’s perspective, Sultan says illness is believed to be a test by God and the success of that test is approaching the illness or morbidity with patience.
Sultan cautioned medical students to be aware of possible cultural and language barriers which could arise when treating a Muslim patient and not to make assumptions about the diverse cultural group.
“It is important for us to be sensitive to that,” he says. “It is best to accommodate those issues whenever possible.”
Similarly, Fisher says the spectrum of Judaism is widely diverse, including Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, Ultra Orthodox and Secular/Cultural Jews. Like Sultan, Fisher recommends treating the patient as an individual, not as a member of a particular cultural community.
Physicians must also understand there are also differences within Judaism when it comes to which types of medical treatments and cultural norms are practiced.
In most cases, circumcision is performed as a ritual when a boy is eight days old. Fisher says intermarriage between two people of different religions “is a very thorny subject” and various forms of Judaism may differ on issues of sex, contraception and abortion.
Some forms of Judaism do not approve of transplantation or autopsy and it is the Jewish tradition to bury an unembalmed body, however not all forms of Judaism practice this. In some cases, burial is expected to occur almost immediately and is followed by the family observing seven days of mourning.
Above all, saving a life overrides almost everything, adds Fisher.
The way to move forward, says Fisher, is by “identifying our similarities and exploiting our commitment to human health.”