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In 1850, the role of doctors was ill-defined due to a lack of standards and varied from person to person based on their education, experience, and location of their practice. The practice of medicine was left to the individual physician’s discretion, resulting in large disparities in the education, qualifications, and day-to-day practices of physicians. As a result, until 1850, most Jewish doctors in the Doctors United States, like their non-Jewish counterparts, could set their own parameters for their practice of medicine, and therefore, they did not have to sacrifice much, if any, of their Jewish identity to become doctors and practice medicine in America. However, after 1850, medicine started to professionalize, and this began to change. The professionalization process led to changes in how medicine was taught and practiced, which impacted Jewish doctors. During this time, the changes inherent in the professionalization process led many Jewish doctors to question their Jewish medical identity and to redefine it as they sought to adapt to the rapidly changing medical profession.
In this dissertation, the effect of the professionalization of medicine on Jewish doctors and what influence Jewish doctors, and in some ways, the Jewish community, had on the professionalization process with respect to the creation of modern medical standards and practices will be addressed by examining how Jewish doctors engaged with Jewish rituals and laws, notably through questions regarding autopsies, traditionally forbidden in Judaism, and kashrut in the hospitals and the larger community.