Alice Rothchild, M.D. on her Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience

Talk Nation Radio for January 28, 2010
Alice Rothchild, M.D. on her Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience

Alice Rothchild has just returned from Israel and Palestine. She discusses the climate there as Israel continues to build settlements in East Jerusalem, and threaten further attacks on Gaza. Also, 60 years after the Holocaust we remember. We also discuss how an American physician became transformed about Zionism, Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.



TRT: 29:55 (sorry the show is a bit long this week)
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here if you are a member or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

It has been sixty years since the holocaust, the death of an estimated 11 million people in Europe, six million of them Jews. Nazi occupation forces ravaged Poland, Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, parts of Russia, Yugoslavia, and other countries. Their Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were designed to keep Jews out of every facet of public life. Jews were stripped of citizenship, property, and the basic right to life. More than 1 million children were killed either in death camps or the violence, and an estimated two-thirds of European Jews died.

Alice Rothchild, M.D., a Boston OBGYN doctor and assistant professor of at Harvard Medical School, was the successful daughter of a largely orthodox Jewish family. The history of the holocaust had profound meaning in her life. And in her book, Broken Promises, Broken Dreams, Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience, she writes: "I was born in Boston MA in 1948 to first generation parents and grew up with the state of Israel as my friend, my pride, and ultimately, my heartbreak."

Dr. Alice Rothchild devoted her life to helping the poor and under-served communities of Massachusetts, but what she learned about the Vietnam War taught her to look more deeply, even at the US Military that rescued Jews from death camps. That step took her ultimately to a long journey of exploration of Israeli history, and she is now working on a film about the year of her birth and beyond, Israel's birth and its profound consequences for both Jews and Palestinians of various religious backgrounds.