The Heberden Society presents Jeremy Brown, MD

Diversity and Exclusion: The Jewish Pandemic Experience

Join Jeremy Brown at 5PM EST on March 19, 2024, as he tells the hidden story of how plagues and pandemics shaped the history of the Jewish people. His lecture will investigate the relationship between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, to the special vulnerabilities Jewish immigrants faced in the US as a result of prejudice, and to the curious practice of "Black Weddings," in which two orphans were married in a cemetery. Popularized during the 1918 influenza pandemic, the practice was revived in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that the intriguing relationship between Judaism and infectious disease remains relevant today.

Jeremy Brown is the Director of the Office of Emergency Care Research, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), where he leads efforts to coordinate emergency care research funding opportunities across the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and serves as the NIH's representative in government-wide efforts to improve emergency care throughout the country. He is the author of more than fifty peer-reviewed papers and three books, including The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19, published by Oxford University Press in 2022.

This is a hybrid lecture co-sponsored with the Division of Medical Ethics was held at 5 PM EST on March 19, 2024. The recording of the lecture can be found here.