Michael Pietsch
Modern medicine, Volume 26 (2020) Issue 1, 2020, pp. 75 - 90
https://doi.org/10.4467/12311960MN.20.004.12620Max Dienemann (1875–1939) is known primarily as a leading German liberal rabbi, acting inter alia for sixteen years in Racibórz in Upper Silesia. He is considered one of the intellectual fathers of Reform Judaism, which in 1935 ordained the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism – Regina Jonas (1902–1944). A publicist, philologist, and historian, he left behind significant intellectual achievements associated primarily with the analysis of Judaism as well as Jewish history and culture. Little is known that his activities are devoted to the connections between Judaism and hygiene, including writings on hygiene by Jewish doctors. Dienemann developed this subject, finding a starting point for his analyzes in the Talmud and its guidelines for health and purity as an ethical and religious obligation (Sabbath 50b et al.). In this paper, we present a poorly understood area of interest of Rabbi Dienemann, focused on issues of hygiene and religion, hygiene history and hygiene-related ethnomedicine among Jews in Europe.