From Nov ’10 Spotlight: The theme of this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival is “The Body,” and once again, high profile Jewish authors from around the world will be coming our way, but this year an unusually high number of local authors are also on the schedule including Rachel Havrelock (“The Body of Jesus”), Martha Nussbaum (“From Disgust to Humanity”), and Doug Peck (“The Music of Sondheim’s Follies”).
Of special interest is “The Late Great Michael Reese: The Wider Context of a Lost Local Treasure,” a panel discussion planned for the Newberry Library on Sunday, Nov 14. Originally dedicated in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a leader in urban health care for over a century, and credited as one of the first facilities in the United States to provide specialty pediatric care.
On Aug. 10, 2008 (Tisha B’Av 5768), panelist Marc Slutsky (who spent most of his career from internship forward at Reese) conducted a shiva at his home in Highland Park. At that time, he told the Chicago Tribune: “There was an attitude [at Reese] about real personal patient care… People had a sense of being part of a community. They had a sense of responsibility.”
Additional speakers include Rhoda Rosen (former director of Spertus Museum) and Alan Kraut (an American University historian who specializes in immigration and medicine).
CHF programs run from Nov. 2 through Nov. 14. To order tickets, visit: http://www.chicagohumanities.org/
11/12/10 ADDENDUM: The statute of Michael Reese was created by Richard Henry Park in 1893. According to Grahm Balkany (Director of the Gropius in Chicago Coalition) this statue is now in the possession of the JUF (altho I’ve had no confirmation of that from anyone at JUF yet).
Richard Henry Park (1832-1902) also created two other notable Chicago monuments: The Drake Fountain now located on 92nd Street, and the Benjamin Franklin Monument located in Lincoln Park.
I found this photo of the Michael Reese statue on a wonderful post by Allan Showalter MD (aka One Heck of a Guy) which includes many memorable photos of the hospital campus before the bulldozers arrived. Kudos to photographer Lee Bey & many thanks for permission to repost his photo of Richard Henry Park’s Michael Reese statue here.
- Lee Bey’s Blog
Click here to download this post as a printable pdf –> 10Nov12TziviPost
