A current exhibition at the Jewish Heritage Museum of Padua tells the story of that city’s famed medical school, one of the very first to open its doors to Jews. In her review, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett writes:

Among the highlights of the exhibition is a rare Yiddish manuscript about human anatomy. . . . The manuscript is a translation of De Humani Corporis Fabrica (“On the Fabric of the Human Body”), an anatomy treatise for medical students written by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Yiddish manuscripts before the year 1600 are rare, and this anatomical treatise in Yiddish is among the rarest of all.

The University of Padua was founded exactly 800 years ago, in 1222. Independent of papal control, it admitted students who were not Catholic and was exceptional in admitting Jewish students. Its highly regarded medical school opened in 1250, and Jewish graduates were among the most distinguished physicians of their day.

Vesalius was a professor of anatomy at the University of Padua and is considered the founder of modern anatomical science. His famous anatomy treatise, written in Latin, provided anatomical terms in several languages, including Hebrew. Jews played an important role in translating medical works and would certainly have found these translations useful. Vesalius was apparently assisted in preparing the Hebrew translations by a Jewish physician who was also a friend of his.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.