This House of Noble Deeds: The Mount Sinai Hospital, 1852-2002 (review)

The American philanthropic landscape is dotted with institutions seeking to heal society's ills. Absent a national healthcare system, both religious and non-sectarian hospitals fill a critical niche in the nation's literal wellbeing, with most of them originating as charitable shelters for the poor. Very few of these facilities can boast a published history. A laudatory book issued in celebration of the sesquicentennial of New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, This House of Noble Deeds is one such rare history, co-authored by a longtime Mount Sinai surgeon and the hospital's institutional archivist. The volume highlights the numerous medical breakthroughs achieved under Mount Sinai's roof. Of greatest interest to the scholar of medical history, Aufses and Niss have gathered an abundance of evidence (both scientific and biographical) to establish Mount Sinai's preeminence in medical achievement during its first 150 years. As the authors state from the outset, this is not a chronological account, but instead a compendium of chapters divided by medical subspecialty. Rather than offering a narrative of the hospital as a whole, the authors' explicit purpose is to document the scientific evolution of the departments of cardiology, geriatrics, radiation oncology, and many others.

Mount Sinai Hospital opened its doors in 1855 , the first such institution operating under Jewish auspices in the United States; the Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia, another early medical center, would not be dedicated until the late 1860 s. By the time of Mount Sinai's establishment, New York City was already home to the largest Jewish community in the country. Founded as "The Jews' Hospital" by a small group of wealthy local men, the new institution was intended to serve "indigent Hebrews," most of them immigrants. The Civil War radically altered Mount Sinai's mission, as the facility opened its beds first to wounded Union soldiers and, in 1863 , to rioters injured in the violence that erupted in the city in protest of the Union Army's draft policies. The hospital's primary emphasis would remain on free care until early in the twentieth century. In 1866 the institution assumed a new name—the Mount Sinai Hospital—and dropped its sectarian status in order to reflect its changing patient profile and, more significantly, to qualify for public funds. The new Mount Sinai Hospital had officially shed its Jewish identity—and for most of this book, the authors follow the same course, often sidestepping the Jewishness of the hospital's staff doctors.

The abundance of noteworthy medical discoveries made by Mount Sinai physicians is astounding, including many that have become "name-brand diseases." The authors put a face on well-known names like Crohn or Sachs (of Tay-Sachs fame). This is an album of the scientific triumphs (great and small) that blossomed at Mount Sinai, and the book is enriched with abundant personal recollections and photographs.

As mentioned, Aufses and Niss only briefly address the question of Mount Sinai's Jewish identity, although the hospital's talented medical staff has, throughout most of its history, been disproportionately Jewish. This editorial decision is a frustrating one to the reader primarily interested in American Jewish history, since the text is so suggestive of the tensions brought on by exclusionary hiring practices at Christian-run hospitals in the late nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century. In the introduction, we learn that, "Young doctors eagerly sought House Staff positions at Mount Sinai, because of its distinguished staff and the opportunity for learning, as well as the lack of available openings for young doctors of the Jewish faith at other institutions" (6 ). Yet, no accompanying examples are given to provide context for this provocative statement. Later, passing reference is made to the growing professional acceptance of American Jewish physicians after World War II: "The desire for...