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Hedy Wald

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hedy Wald is an American medical educator and psychologist. Wald is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University. She is known for her Holocaust curricula and her activism against antisemitism in healthcare communities.[1][2]

Early life and education

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Wald's father survived three concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and lost his parents and siblings in the Holocaust.[3] Wald grew up on Long Island, New York. She obtained her B.A. from Clark University and her Ph.D. from Yeshiva University.[4]

Career

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Wald directed the reflective writing curriculum at Brown University medical school.[3] She serves as a commissioner for the international Lancet commission on Medicine and the Holocaust.[5][6] She developed a Holocaust and medicine course at several campuses.[7][8][9][10][11] Her creative writing has included her experiences as caregiver for her husband, a neurologist who self-diagnosed his lethal brain tumor at age 57.[12]

Awards

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Activism

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After the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, Wald objected to medical articles[15][16] which she perceived as “political indictment cloaked in academic language.”[2] She connected surging anti-Israel rhetoric with an increasingly hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty at medical schools,[17][18][19] noting that the lead-up to the Holocaust also featured the persecution and ostracizing of Jewish doctors.[2][18] Wald has characterized a letter to US President Joe Biden from a group of doctors who worked in Gaza during the Gaza war as antisemitic, and included the wearing of keffiyehs as an antisemitic act in her studies.[2] She cited examples of medical students and faculty tearing down hostage posters, accusing Jewish students of complicity with genocide,[20] engaging in Holocaust distortion and inversion,[21][22][23] and disrupting commencement ceremonies.[24]

Wald advocates for 4 E's to combat antisemitism, which can be incorporated into DEI programs: education, engagement, empathy and enforcement. These include disseminating information about the historic roles of Nazi and Nazi-supporting doctors[25][26] and nurses;[27] fostering respectful dialogue and personal connections in medical communities; and establishing policies to oppose hate speech and promote nondiscrimination.[2][28]

References

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  1. ^ "'Renowned medical educator' talks medicine during the Holocaust". Oakland University. 2020-02-28. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  2. ^ a b c d e Edelson, Daniel; York, New (2024-11-01). "'Echoes of the Holocaust': Professor speaks out against rising antisemitism on medical campuses". ynetnews. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  3. ^ a b Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy (2016-02-21). "Reflecting on medicine". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  4. ^ "Co-director of OUWB Holocaust and Medicine program from Brown University specializes in reflection, identity formation". Oakland University. 2022-06-08. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  5. ^ Czech, Herwig; Hildebrandt, Sabine; Reis, Shmuel P; Chelouche, Tessa; Fox, Matthew; González-López, Esteban; Lepicard, Etienne; Ley, Astrid; Offer, Miriam; Ohry, Avi; Rotzoll, Maike; Sachse, Carola; Siegel, Sari J; Šimůnek, Michal; Teicher, Amir; Uzarczyk, Kamila; von Villiez, Anna; Wald, Hedy S; Wynia, Matthew K; Roelcke, Volker (2023). "The Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust: historical evidence, implications for today, teaching for tomorrow". The Lancet. 402 (10415). Elsevier BV: 1867–1940. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(23)01845-7. ISSN 0140-6736.
  6. ^ Roelcke, Volker; Hildebrandt, Sabine; Reis, Shmuel (2021). "Announcing the Lancet Commission on Medicine and the Holocaust: Historical Evidence, Implications for Today, Teaching for Tomorrow". The Lancet. 397 (10277). Elsevier BV: 862–864. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00157-4. ISSN 0140-6736.
  7. ^ Wald, Hedy (2022-07-07). "Why we must teach medical students about the role of physicians during the Holocaust". AAMC. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  8. ^ "Holocaust and Medicine Education for Resilient Professional Identity Formation: A Holocaust Survivor's Daughter Teaches German Medical Students at Auschwitz". Happening @ Michigan. 2021-09-23. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  9. ^ Li, Maxwell; Stamatin, Ramona; Wald, Hedy S.; Wasserman, Jason Adam (2024-10-07). "The Impact of a Study Trip to Auschwitz: Place-based Learning for Bioethics Education and Professional Identity Formation" (PDF). Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. Cambridge University Press (CUP): 1–11. doi:10.1017/s0963180124000306. ISSN 0963-1801. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  10. ^ Wald, Hedy S (2024). "Auschwitz". The Lancet. 403 (10424). Elsevier BV: 344–345. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)00098-9. ISSN 0140-6736.
  11. ^ Riesen, Madelin S.; Kiessling, Claudia; Tauschel, Diethard; Wald, Hedy S. (2023). ""Where my responsibility lies": Reflecting on medicine during the Holocaust to support personal and professional identity formation in health professions education". GMS Journal for Medical Education. 40 (2). doi:10.3205/ZMA001606. ISSN 2366-5017. PMC 10285371. PMID 37361249.
  12. ^ Wald, Hedy S. (2019-04-01). "Helping My Husband Live and Die". JAMA Neurology. 76 (4): 396. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.0292. ISSN 2168-6149.
  13. ^ "2014-2015 Excellence in Teaching Awards" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  14. ^ "2013 Gold Humanism Scholars". The Arnold P. Gold Foundation. 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  15. ^ Marmon, Shoshana; Schwartz, Daniella M; Wald, Hedy S (2024). "A disingenuous one-sided challenge on the Hamas–Israel conflict". The Lancet. 404 (10448). Elsevier BV: 124. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01253-4. ISSN 0140-6736.
  16. ^ Roth, Steven; Wald, Hedy S; Spence, Nicole Z; Oratz, Ruth; Schwartz, Daniella M (2024). "Hypocrisy of moral imperatives in the Israel–Hamas war". The Lancet. 403 (10436). Elsevier BV: 1542. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)00241-1. ISSN 0140-6736. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  17. ^ Wald, Hedy; Roth, Steven (2024-11-13). "Root out antisemitism in hospitals, medical schools". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  18. ^ a b Reis, Shmuel P.; Wald, Hedy S. (2024-04-12). "The Hamas massacre of Oct 7, 2023, and its aftermath, medical crimes, and the Lancet commission report on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust". Israel Journal of Health Policy Research. 13 (1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1186/s13584-024-00608-w. ISSN 2045-4015.
  19. ^ Schwartz, Daniella M.; Lieba, Rotem; Feldman, Cassondra L.; Spence, Nicole Z.; Oratz, Ruth; Wald, Hedy S.; Roth, Steven (2024-12-01). "Social Media, Survey, and Medical Literature Data Reveal Escalating Antisemitism Within the United States Healthcare Community". Journal of Religion and Health. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/s10943-024-02191-5. ISSN 0022-4197.
  20. ^ Michelson, Kelly N.; Fishman, Alexandra C.; Feinberg, Eve C.; Ross, Sheri; Wald, Hedy S.; Auerbach, Charles; Roth, Steven (2024-12-11). "Antisemitism in American Healthcare: A Survey Study of Reported Experiences". Journal of General Internal Medicine. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/s11606-024-09159-x. ISSN 0884-8734.
  21. ^ Braunstein, Melissa Langsam (2024-12-19). "The antisemitism rooted in the US healthcare system". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  22. ^ Wald, Hedy S.; Roth, Steven (2024). "The Moral Imperative of Countering Antisemitism in US Medicine – A Way Forward". The American Journal of Medicine. 137 (10). Elsevier BV: 915–917. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2024.06.015. ISSN 0002-9343.
  23. ^ "Antisemitism aimed at health care professionals has grown since 2023, study finds". UIC today. 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
  24. ^ Roth, Steven; Wald, Hedy S. (2025-01-30). "US Medical Schools' 2024 Commencements and Antisemitism: Addressing Unprofessional Behavior". Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal. 16 (1). Rambam Health Corporation: e0001. doi:10.5041/rmmj.10537. ISSN 2076-9172.
  25. ^ Wald, Hedy S.; Mandelbaum, David E. (2021). "Holocaust and Medicine Legacy for Child Neurology Education and Practice: Contemporary Relevance of a Dark History". Pediatric Neurology. 117. Elsevier BV: 27–28. doi:10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2021.01.003. ISSN 0887-8994.
  26. ^ Tauschel, Diethard; Selg, Peter; Edelhäuser, Friedrich; Witowski, Andrea; Wald, Hedy S (2020). "Cultivating awareness of the Holocaust in medicine". The Lancet. 395 (10221). Elsevier BV: 334. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(19)32613-3. ISSN 0140-6736.
  27. ^ Kruse, Julie A.; Wald, Hedy S. (2022-05-16). "Legacy of the Role of Medicine and Nursing in the Holocaust: An Educational Intervention to Support Nursing Student Professional Identity Formation and Ethical Conduct". Nursing Education Perspectives. 44 (3). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health): 169–171. doi:10.1097/01.nep.0000000000000996. ISSN 1943-4685.
  28. ^ Wald, Hedy S.; Ehrenfeld, Jesse M. (2025-01-30). "Studying the Role of Medicine in Nazism and the Holocaust to Shape Professional Identity Formation". Academic Medicine. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000005988. ISSN 1040-2446.
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