Hornstein Lecture

Join us for the annual Stephen and Lusia Hornstein Lecture on the Holocaust and the Human Spirit at historic Union Terminal. This year’s featured speaker is Dr. Hedy Wald, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

The Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust urges the integration of Holocaust history into health professions education to foster morally resilient, history-informed practitioners. Confronting the ethical violations committed by health professionals under Nazism is essential to cultivating moral leadership, countering antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and upholding human dignity.

In this lecture, Dr. Hedy Wald—medical educator and daughter of a Holocaust survivor—explores this dark chapter through both personal and professional lenses. She shares her experience co-leading a study trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau with Germany’s Witten-Herdecke Faculty of Health for medical and psychology students, highlighting its impact and the growing adoption of similar initiatives in the United States.

This session underscores the contemporary relevance of this history for all health professionals, offering compelling historical examples of moral courage and resistance. It invites reflection on core values and aims to strengthen ethical awareness for humanistic healthcare and global citizenship.

Dr. Hedy Wald is Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Faculty, Harvard Medical School Pediatrics Leadership Program, Commissioner; Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, and Adjunct Professor, Oakland University School of Nursing.

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