JNS
“Students come here for those values, whether they view them as Jewish values or humanistic values,” said Alan Kadish, president of Touro University.
At a time when antisemitism in the medical world and on college campuses is rising at an alarming rate, the Jewish world is making some advancements. The New York College of Podiatric Medicine—the first of its kind in the United States—is now officially part of Touro University, a private Jewish university in New York, and New York Medical College, the institutions announced.
“Educating approximately 8,000 students annually in the health sciences, Touro is fast becoming one of the largest health-care educational systems in the United States,” said Alan Kadish, president of Touro University in an official press release issued last week. “Adding podiatric medicine to our existing network of medical and health-science schools and programs will serve to augment and strengthen our academic offerings.”
Touro has been working with the college for a few years before the acquisition and has already seen a “significant number of students enter podiatry,” he told JNS.
Touro, which serves 19,000 students total, was founded in 1970 “to focus on higher education for the Jewish community and humanity,” according to the university website, and has grown into one of the largest Jewish universities in the country. As the only Jewish health science institute in the country, according to Kadish, its mission is to “uphold the Jewish heritage, and more broadly to educate and serve ‘in keeping with the historic Jewish commitment to intellectual inquiry, the transmission of knowledge, social justice and service to society.’”
“Every school that Touro operates or starts is Sabbath-observant and has kosher food available,” Kadish told JNS. “It makes a more comfortable environment for Jewish students at any level of observance.”
According to the American Podiatric Medical Students’ Association, NYCPM has “graduated more than 25% of all active podiatrists in the nation.” Future students will now receive an education that upholds Jewish values, which Kadish says is just one of the reasons that people attend the school.
“Students come here for those values, whether they view them as Jewish values or humanistic values,” he told JNS.
An environment that teaches by ‘osmosis’
A recent study published in the Journal of Religion and Health concluded that more than 75% of Jewish medical professionals and students say they have been exposed to antisemitism. It also showed that since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, medical publications and social-media posts by medical professionals about Jew-hatred have increased by five times while posts actively promoting antisemitism by medical professionals have increased by some 400%.
At the same time, antisemitism on college campuses has skyrocketed, with one report by StopAntisemitism seeing a 3,000% rise in college antisemitism since Oct. 7.
Touro is helping to confront this through numerous means, Kadish said. He told JNS that the school is “very careful” about antisemitism and “that Jewish students feel protected.”
While many institutions of higher learning are only taking “baby steps” to combat antisemitism, said Kadish—acts that he noted are “unclear” in how they will work out in the long term—Touro is leaning on its laurels.
“We are engaged in creating our own antisemitism education program,” he told JNS. “We’re going to make it part of the orientation for all of our students, Jewish and non.” The program is set to be rolled out within the next few months.
The university is also working hard to make sure that all students understand aspects of Jewish life, whether it’s by taking Judaic studies classes or just being in a Jewish environment, absorbing the culture through “osmosis,” Kadish said.
“By and large, they develop a positive view of Judaism based on the environment they’re in,” he told JNS.
