Who We Are
MIMEH is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that provides educational programming concerning the ways in which the power of medicine and the promise of scientific progress were used during the Holocaust to subvert the basic human rights of those deemed inferior in an attempt to improve the future of society. Our mission is to explore the ethical implications of the medical transgressions that took place during the Holocaust for modern scientific theory, medical practice, health care policy, and human rights endeavors.
Our organization combines online and physically-based programming to reach a broad international audience. Our flexible approach combines traditional educational models with new, innovative techniques that utilize the increasing presence of digital media in modern society.
Millions of people were killed in the name of scientific progress in Nazi Germany. We at MIMEH believe it is our responsibility to both those who perished and those whose lives were changed irrevocably to ensure that their suffering ultimately leads to the proliferation of a righteous medicine that places the dignity of the individual above all else.
Education and Remembrance Are the Only Cures for Hatred and Bigotry
—Miriam Oster
Why We Are Needed
To say that the Holocaust was an instance of "medicine gone mad" is to ignore the moral beliefs that allowed those sworn to the Hippocratic tenet of healing to become killers. The significance of fostering a personal and professional ethos that values the protection of human rights and the central principles of bioethics first and foremost cannot be overstated. Exploring the experiences of medicine preceding and during the Holocaust can help inform current and future medical policymakers and practitioners. Using this singular example of medically sanctioned genocide as a foundation for the development of moral decision making emphasizes the relevance of "reflecting on the past to protect the future" by instilling the absolute necessity of putting human life and dignity ahead of scientific progress and political expediency.
What We Do: Goals and Objectives
- Examine the unique confluence of events that took place in Germany in the early twentieth century that resulted in the merger of politics, science, and medicine in order to help better understand the rationale behind eugenics and Nazi racial hygiene policy.
- Use the Holocaust as the historical framework to explore current human rights abuses in vulnerable populations and examine the ways in which minority cultures have been subjected to unethical medical practices under the guise of scientific progress.
- Provide the tools for educating people regarding the continuing relevance of medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust for current medical practice, healthcare policy, and human rights endeavors in the United States and abroad.
- Develop and instill a personal and professional ethos within the medical profession that values the dignity of human life above the importance of scientific progress.
- Honor the victims of Nazi medicine by ensuring that the study of the Holocaust and its moral legacy is not forgotten.
How We Do It: Academic Programming, Medical Education, and Community Outreach
Academic Programming and Medical Education
- Create an academic clearinghouse for research and programming related to medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust.
- Establish a consortium of undergraduate, graduate, and medical institutions dedicated to educating future generations regarding the importance of medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust.
- Present regularly scheduled webinars on numerous topics within the field from both students and recognized scholars.
- Develop a standardized online curriculum on medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust that can be offered at various international institutions.
- Provide Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits for various courses and programs offered at local hospitals and universities and online.
- Establish a course on medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust as a requirement for graduate medical education and continuing medical education.
Community Outreach
- Organize and host conferences, colloquia, and symposia on medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust.
- Facilitate Grand Rounds at local hospitals.
- Offer presentations on medicine, ethics, and the Holocaust to local houses of worship, schools, community associations, and other interested organizations
- Collaborate with secondary school educators to integrate this topic into the educational curriculum as a means for the promotion of moral decision-making.
- Work with emerging scholars to empower the next generation of leaders, policymakers, and activists.
Staff
Stacy Gallin, Founder and Director
She earned her doctoral degree in Medical Humanities from Drew University in 2012, and subsequently taught courses on Bioethics and the Holocaust and Human Subject Research Ethics. Dr. Gallin founded MIMEH in 2015 as a way to transcend the generational, religious, geographical and professional boundaries in Holocaust education and protect the legacy of those whose lives were changed irrevocably by the horrendous events that took place during the Holocaust.
Dr. Gallin is the Director of the Center for Human Dignity in Bioethics, Health, and the Holocaust at Misericordia University, the Co-Chair of the Department of Bioethics and the Holocaust of the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics (Haifa) and the Medical Ethics Project Liaison for CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center. In addition, she works closely with several national and internationally recognized organizations to raise awareness regarding the relevance of medicine, ethics and the Holocaust for modern medical practice, healthcare policy and human rights endeavors.
Allen Menkin, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Dr. Menkin has a BA from Drew University and an MS from Rutgers University. He received his M.D. from The Bowman Gray/Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he published one of the first papers detailing the broad complicity of German physicians in Nazi medical war crimes. He did his post-graduate training at Bellevue Hospital/NYU Medical Center, where he was also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.
Dr. Menkin is a decorated Vietnam era veteran, has done missionary work in Ethiopia, and initiated the Taglit/Birthright medical student program. Prior to his retirement in 2015, he practiced pediatrics and developmental medicine for 44 years.
Ira Bedzow, Co-Director
Ira Bedzow, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. He is also a senior scholar at the Aspen Center for Social Values. Dr. Bedzow received his Ph.D. from Emory University, an M.A. from Touro College, an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Princeton University, as well as rabbinic ordination (Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin).
He is the author of six books, and numerous articles and chapters on law, medical ethics, and philosophy.
Tessa Chelouche,
Co-Director
Tessa Chelouche, M.D, is the Co-Director of the Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics and the Holocaust. She is a family physician and renowned scholar of medical history. Originally from South Africa, Dr. Chelouche has lived in Israel for the past 38 years working as a family physician and director of a primary care family medical practice.
Dr. Chelouche has served as Co-Director and Lecturer of a pre-graduate course on "The Study of Medicine and the Holocaust" for medical students as part of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel for the past 10 years. She has published numerous articles on the subject of Medicine and the Holocaust including a "Casebook on Bioethics And the Holocaust" as part of a program for the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics. Dr. Chelouche is also the Co-Chair of the Department of Bioethics and the Holocaust of the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics (Haifa).
Amanda Caleb, Educational Consultant
Amanda M. Caleb, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the Medical and Health Humanities program at Misericordia University. She received her PhD in English and MA in Nineteenth-Century Studies from the University of Sheffield and her BA in English from Davidson College. She specializes in the intersection of literature, medicine, and science, specifically in the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries.
She has published several articles on science, medicine, and literature, specifically on the works of H.G. Wells, Arthur Machen, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and was editor of (Re)creating Science in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007).
Jessica A. Rosh,
Educational Consultant
Jessica received her Juris Doctor from New York Law School. She earned an Advanced Certificate in Medical Ethics from New York Medical College where she is an Instructor of Medical and Inter-Professional Ethics, teaching medical and dental students to engage in ethical decision-making and to take action based on ethical principles and frameworks. Jessica also earned an Advanced Certificate in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from Albert Einstein School of Medicine and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she is currently completing her Master of Science in Bioethics. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston University.
Jessica serves on the Board of Directors of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Hudson Valley Chapter, where she monitors performance benchmarks that drive the mission and vision of the Foundation, ensuring accountability and maintaining legal and ethical integrity. She is also a Wish Granter, granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Emerging Scholars
Sidney Kabinoff, Emerging Scholar 2020-2021
Sidney Kabinoff is a senior at Misericordia University double majoring in Medical and Health Humanities and Philosophy. He has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Human Dignity in Bioethics, Health, and the Holocaust at Misericordia for two years, where he has taken an active role in programs such as the Reading of the Names of the Victims of the Holocaust.
Sid believes that, "Given all that can be misconstrued in contemporary political climates and the media, using the Holocaust to demonstrate the necessity of an objective human dignity is absolutely paramount." Sid will be working with MIMEH to develop resources to engage the younger generation and help encourage them to take an active role in education and issues of social justice regarding bioethics and the Holocaust.
Sidney Kabinoff, Emerging Scholar 2020-2021
Sidney Kabinoff is a senior at Misericordia University double majoring in Medical and Health Humanities and Philosophy. He has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Human Dignity in Bioethics, Health, and the Holocaust at Misericordia for two years, where he has taken an active role in programs such as the Reading of the Names of the Victims of the Holocaust.
Sid believes that, "Given all that can be misconstrued in contemporary political climates and the media, using the Holocaust to demonstrate the necessity of an objective human dignity is absolutely paramount." Sid will be working with MIMEH to develop resources to engage the younger generation and help encourage them to take an active role in education and issues of social justice regarding bioethics and the Holocaust.
Cal Freundlich, Inaugural Emerging Scholar
MIMEH is pleased to introduce Cal Freundlich, our Inaugural Emerging Scholar. Cal is a rising junior at Davidson College in North Carolina. He is a Music and Media major and a member of Davidson's Division I basketball team. Cal joined MIMEH on our summer 2018 trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was "reminded of the responsibility that we, as young people, have to be leaders of our generation and ensure that human dignity and equality are protected."
Cal will be scoring the music for the documentary MIMEH is producing based on our trip. In addition, he will be contributing posts to MIMEH's blog and working with established scholars in the field to help foster his desire to become an active agent of social change.
Advisory Board
Raul Artal, M.D.
Michael Berenbaum, Ph.D.
Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D.
Joseph Fins, M.D., M.A.C.P.
Susan M. Miller, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Sheldon Rubenfeld, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Matthew, Wynia, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
David Urion, M.D., FAAN
Board of Directors
Dr. Allen Menkin, Chairman
Dr. Alan Friedman
Dr. Susan Miller
John Zitel