Limiting the number of Jewish pupils in St Paul’s School

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Anti-Semitism in mine and my parent's worlds

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Limiting the number of Jewish pupils in St Paul’s School

Oliver Sacks Scientist

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Later, Jews were cut down to an aliquot. What do I mean, an aliquot, or whatever? We were rationed to one or two percent, and there were fewer university scholarships. Isaiah Berlin, who was an old Pauline, was outraged at this and sort of resigned from the Old Pauline Association, and later this... this stringent limit was relaxed. But one felt somewhat more Jewish because on the whole the Jewish boys did not come to chapel, or weren’t there for morning prayers. We were supposed to have our own Jewish prayers, but... but we just exchanged dirty jokes, or... or whatever; I hardly remember any Jewish prayers. There may have been a few unpopular Jews who... who prayed, and they were ignored by the rest of us.

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.

Title: Limiting the number of Jewish pupils in St Paul’s School

Listeners: Kate Edgar

Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.

Tags: St Paul’s School, Isaiah Berlin

Duration: 58 seconds

Date story recorded: September 2011

Date story went live: 02 October 2012