[A Thousand Years of Academic Medical Study for Jewish Students in Europe - From Shabtay Donolo to Hans Friedenthal the Head of Donolo Hospital in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa].

INTRODUCTION: A thousand years separated the graduation of Doctor Shabtay Donolo, the first Jewish medical student to graduate from a medical faculty in Europe (Salerno, Italy) and that of Doctor Hans Friedenthal, one of the last Jewish medical students who received MD degrees in Berlin's medical faculty and who was appointed 15 years later as head of the Donolo Hospital in Tel-Aviv-Yaffa. The medical faculties in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula were the first institutes to accept Jewish students and Crypto-Jews in medicine. Some Jewish communities' assisted Jewish foreign students to overcome procedural restrictions, cultural and linguistic obstacles. Beside the up-to-date topics in medicine, the students also received extensive knowledge in sciences and philosophy. Some of them became famous physicians and scientists. The Netherlands faculties followed the Italian example and accepted students of the "New Jews" who returned to Judaism and those from different European countries. The faculties in Germany, England and France were the last institutes in Western Europe to accept Jews. From the beginning of the Nazi regime and wherever they expanded, the Jewish medical students were dismissed from the universities.