Even in ancient times, Jews were often associated with the practice of medicine, an association that persists in both the popular imagination and in reality to this day. Edward Reichman tells the story of the first European medical school to accept Jewish students, and their battles against the plague that swept through the continent in the 17th century:

The university of Padua was the first officially to open its doors to non-Catholics, including both Protestants and Jews. Other Italian universities accepted Jews during this period as well, though papal permission was usually required. Thus, it was primarily in Italy, and particularly in Padua, that the majority of Jewish physicians of the Renaissance trained.

By the early 1600s a steady stream of Jewish students [from both] local Italian communities [and] from abroad availed themselves of this unique opportunity. . . . Their special status as physicians often exempted them from wearing the required Jewish garb. [Yet] Jewish physicians were largely confined by law to treating their fellow Jews. Only on rare occasions could one obtain special papal dispensation to treat non-Jewish patients as well.

Reichman zeroes in on four Jewish graduates of the Padua medical school whose careers, fortuitously well documented, placed them on the frontlines of the battle against the plague that struck Italy in 1631. Among them was one Clemente Caliman Kalonymus Cantarini, born in 1593 into a distinguished Paduan Jewish family:

[O]n July 8, 1631 Caliman’s father Shimon died from plague, to be followed by his uncle Menaḥem on July 22. Caliman himself would succumb to the disease only eight days later. He died on July 30, 1631, at age thirty-eight. His life and death are memorialized in the plague diary of Abraham Catalano, [himself a physician and one of the heads of Padua’s Jewish community]. Other Cantarini family members are also accounted for in the diary. Caliman lost two other brothers to the plague. . . . Three of Caliman’s brothers in Padua survived, and one . . . was in Venice during the outbreak and unaffected.

Caliman battled the plague, sacrificing his life in the process leaving no direct descendants.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.