Times Of Despair Research Articles

American Cyrus? Harry Truman, the Bible, and the Palestine Question

In 1978, scholars and statesmen from the United States and Israel gathered for a symposium to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Israel at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University. Among the presenters was Moshe Davis, a founding scholar in the field of America-Holy Land Studies, who offered his reminiscences of a 1953 meeting with Truman at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Truman's longtime friend Eddie Jacobson had escorted the former president to the meeting and introduced him to the gathered scholars as “the man who helped create the State of Israel.”1 According to Davis, the remark caused Truman to turn to his friend and say, “What do you mean ‘helped create?’ I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus,” evoking the Persian ruler from the sixth century BCE who was hailed in the Hebrew Bible for allowing the exiled Judeans to return to their homeland.2 Davis also recounted an earlier story from Eliahu Elath (formerly Epstein), who had served as the Jewish Agency's representative in Washington, DC and the first Israeli ambassador to the United States. About one year after the Israeli proclamation of statehood and Truman's subsequent recognition, the president had met with the ambassador and Rabbi Isaac Herzog, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. According to Elath, the chief rabbi had drawn the same parallel between Truman and Cyrus and claimed “that when the President was still in his mother's womb and before he had seen the light of the world, the Lord had bestowed upon him the mission of helping His Chosen People at a time of despair and aiding in the fulfillment of His promise of Return to the Holy Land.”3 The comment had clearly had an impact on Truman, who rose from his chair and, “with great emotion, tears glistening in his eyes,” asked Herzog “if his actions for the sake of the Jewish people were indeed to be interpreted thus and the hand of the Almighty was in the matter.”4 After relaying these two anecdotes in 1978, Davis asked his audience, “Where did this stream of biblical—Israel consciousness start? With Rabbi Herzog? In the earliest days of character formation? In Truman's mature reading of the Bible?”5 Davis then suggested that answering these questions might yield insight into Truman's decision to recognize the Jewish state—“Historians seek to know the ‘whole man.’ And it was the ‘whole’ Harry S. Truman who had to make his individual decision during those critical hours.”6

Transforming despair to hope in the treatment of extreme trauma: a view from the supervisor’s chair

The author considers how, when working with severely traumatised patients, times of despair can be transformed into moments of hope within the therapeutic process. She considers these moments from the perspective of ‘the supervisor’s chair’ and what emerges within the supervisory relationship when difficult and distressing sessions are openly and honestly bought to supervision. Drawing on Thomas Ogden’s ideas about ‘dreaming up the patient’ in supervision, and Michael Parsons’ thoughts about the supervisory relationship, she gives two examples of this process in action, the first about the transformation of despair to hope in the consulting room, and the second about the transformation of despair to hope in the professional network. She argues that these transformational moments of hope correspond to what Daniel Stern and his colleagues have described as ‘moments-of-meeting’ and are indicative of a potential turning point in the therapy. These fleeting moments need to be attended to and nurtured so that their potential for change and emotional growth and recovery can be harnessed.

Organ Donation in Israel—Achievements and Challenges

Israel's organ transplantation history dates back to 1964 when the first kidney transplantation from a living related donor was performed; the first kidney transplantation from a deceased donor followed in 1965. Currently, organ transplantations are performed in 6 Israeli medical centers with 6 kidney, 3 liver, 3 hearts, and 2 lung transplantation programs. All donor management and organ allocation are centrally coordinatedbytheIsraelNationalTransplantCenter(INTC) which was established in 1994 as a department within the Ministry of Health and functions through the work of nurse donor coordinators in each of the 16 large hospitals in Israel. An additional intensive care unit physician has been assigned in each of these 16 hospitals with responsibilities in supporting coordinators with donor management, appealing, and consenting for organ donation and the donation process. 1 TheINTC's responsibilities include maintainingupdated lists of transplant candidates and the coordination of procurements and organ allocation to all transplant programs. External auditors review all medical records of fatalities with the diagnosis of brain pathologies at regular intervals to assure identification of brain death and quality of donor management. A recent report documented that 98% potential brain-dead donors have been identified. Brain Death Determination and Deceased Donation Israel is a multicultural society with different religions— Jews, Muslims,Christians, and Druzes—and multiple ethnicities. Despite of Israel's economic strength and well-organized health care, deceased organ donation rates have consistently been low compared to most other Western countries. The most common reason for refusal to donate had traditionally been based on religious objections. 2 Many Jewish rabbinical leaders support the concept of brain death and consider organ donation as a noble decree. At the same time, a minority of only 8% of the population are ultraorthodox Jews who follow a strict interpretation of Halacha laws that define the time of death as the moment of cessation of cardiac and respiratory function, and therefore do not accept brain death. Yet, at times of despair, many of the additional 12% of the Jewish population who define themselves as “religious” and 13% who are “religious-traditionalists” tend to favor the stringent ultraorthodox interpretation of death criteria and therefore reject organ donation after brain death. 2 Moreover, 1.7 of 8.2 million Israelis are Arabs, mostly Muslims (83%), with additional cultural and religious barriers to organ donation. In 2008, the Israeli Parliament has adopted the BrainRespiratory Death law representing a consensus between medical community and religious authorities that define the criteria and diagnosis of brain death. 3 Brain death is documented by mandatory performances of an apnea test and an ancillary imaging test demonstrating the absence of blood circulation within the brain. Despite its strict implementation, the law has not yet received the anticipated response among rabbinical leaders, who still shy away from advocating organ donation. An additional cause of low donation rates is the so-called free-riding behavior of those who reject brain death and thus organ donation, yet do not abstain from being active candidates for organ transplantation themselves. This phenomenon causes significant antagonism toward organ donation in many circles and has been repeatedly cited in public opinion surveys in Israel as one of the major reasons for the low consent rate for organ donation. 2 To overcome this behavior and to incentivize deceased organ donation, the new Organ Transplant law includes a unique clause which grants prioritization to candidates who have either been registered as organ donors for at least 3 years before being listed, or have a first degree relative who has been a deceased organ donor, or have previously donated a kidney or a liver-lobe 2 Al ower priority is granted also to candidates whose first degree relative has been a registered donor for at least 3 years; however, this category of prioritization will soon be eliminated. 4 The preliminary results after implementation of this new policy show a significant rise in the number of new registered donors per month, and, most importantly, a significant increase in the actual consent rate for deceased organ donation from

A Beaked and Feathered God

A Beaked and Feathered God

Existential Anxiety and Growth

Until now, most existentially focused cancer research has been conducted within adult populations. Only a handful of qualitative investigations have captured the experiences of children with cancer relative to themes such as existential fear and finitude, meaning/meaninglessness, uncertainty, authenticity, and inauthenticity. This article aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the existential challenges faced by children living with cancer. An interpretive, descriptive qualitative research approach was used. Thirteen children (8-17 years) undergoing treatment for cancer participated. Children participated in individual open-ended interviews and also had the opportunity to journal their experiences in a computerized drawing tool. The 4 main themes that emerged in relation to the existential challenges experienced by children with cancer included (1) existential worry, (2) existential vacuum, (3) existential longing, and (4) existential growth. The drawing tool within the computer diary was found to be particularly beneficial in assisting children to express the existential challenges that they had previously been unable to articulate in words. Children moved between existential anxiety and existential growth within the cancer world. The expressive means of drawing pictures gave children a therapeutic space to explore and work at understanding the existential challenges experienced. This research provides evidence that the active engagement of children's imaginations through the use of a computer-drawing tool may have significant therapeutic value for children with cancer. As well, the findings support the importance of nurses "being there" for young patients with cancer in their time of despair.

Augury and the Ambassadors from the Near Edge of Tomorrow

Augury and the Ambassadors from the Near Edge of Tomorrow

The road not taken or how I learned to love the liver: A personal perspective on hepatitis history

The road not taken or how I learned to love the liver: A personal perspective on hepatitis history

Game On: The basis for hope in a time of despair

Conventional Development forecasts escalation of global food scarcity, of energy limitations, and, clearly, of climate change. Paul D. Raskin presents an alternative – a hypothesis of hope articulating the possibility of more positive futures associated with a global Great Transition.

Critical pedagogy in uncertain times: hope and possibilities

Foreword S.Aronowitz Introduction S.Macrine Dialogue with Ira Shor S.Macrne The Attack on Higher Education and the Necessity of Critical Pedagogy H.Giroux Teaching as Possibility: A Light in Dark Times M.Greene Imagining Justice in a Culture of Terror: Pedagogy, Politics, and Dissent A.Darder Critical Pedagogy and Politics of Class Struggle P.McLaren & N.E.Jaramillo Re-imaging Freire Beyond Methods D.Macedo Critical Pedagogy/Socialist Ed. in Britain D.Hill Corporatization of Education K.J.Saltman Toward a Critical Pedagogy of the Global N.De Lissovoy A Critical Pedagogy of Hope in Times of Despair R.Farahmandpur Afterword G.Fischman

Emergency suboccipital decompression for respiratory arrest during supratentorial surgery: the untold story of a surgeon's courage in times of despair

The odyssey leading to the discovery of herniation syndromes was prolonged due to a lack of early understanding of the underlying pathophysiology. In 1896, Leonard Hill documented transtentorial pressure gradients as the intervening phenomenon involved in uncal herniation. In 1904, James Collier became the first to describe cerebellar tonsillar herniation as a "false localizing sign" often associated with intracranial tumors. During the infancy of neurological surgery, management of increased intracranial pressure and an improved understanding of brain herniation syndromes were of the utmost importance in achieving a safe technique. Harvey Cushing provided seminal contributions in understanding the pathophysiology of increased intracranial pressure and resulting cardiopulmonary effects. Cushing believed that tonsillar herniation was a cause of acute cardiorespiratory compromise in patients with intracranial tumors. In this vignette, we describe the untold story of Cushing's heroic attempt to treat respiratory arrest operatively during supratentorial tumor surgery with an emergency suboccipital craniectomy to relieve the medullary dysfunction that he believed was caused by compression from tonsillar herniation. This case illustrates a surgeon's determination and courage in fighting for his patient's life in the most desperate of times.

TAMIL TIGER ’MARTYRDOM’ IN SRI LANKA: FAITH IN SUICIDE FOR NATIONHOOD?

The article focuses on the ‘suicide-martyrdom’ deployed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka as a political strategy for self determination and liberation from the ‘Sinhala hegemony’. The protagonists have given a new political-religious meaning to the historically celebrated acts of religious martyrdom, which took place in the name of faith and belief. Suicide strikers do not believe that the suicide acts they commit are lethal. They are portrayed to be valiant acts of honour and sacrifice on behalf of the family, ethnic community, and more importantly against the ‘terrorising other’ whose ‘acts of violence’ must be terminated. It is performed not as an act of violence, but a resolute sacrifice for the sake of compatriots and their freedom. The author draws some aspects from the research and writings of Peter Schalk and Michael Roberts who have addressed the same subject area on martyrdom as a form of secular resistance, and the latter, on religious aspects in the military formation of a suicide striker and in the aftermath of the mission. He argues that the reconstruction of an astute faith in suicide and its ritualisation as a well crafted political tool and as a powerful means to instil fear psychosis in the enemy for the creation of a separate state. The concept of suicide and the suicide striker within the LTTE with its primary secular political hermeneutic has now embraced a phase of expanding into a notion of patriotic heroism, in the name of statehood of Tamil Eelam bordering on religiouscultural sentiments. This altruistic suicide is linked to liberation of their compatriots from tyranny and injustice which is considered sublime and transcendental even though there is no definitive reward of a paradise as in the case of Jihadist suicide strikers. The political rhetoric behind the war slogans with religious connotations and statements is socio-political cancer, which has infected many conflict ridden localities across the globe. Sri Lanka remains one example of a majority-minority conflict zone and displays an ardent obstinacy both by the majority and the minority in the conflict, in portraying the ‘other’ as the sole enemy of the ‘self’. They have not only been emulated by the likes of Hamas in the Palestinian campaign against Israeli occupation but also by the Al-Qaeda terror network. A suicide striker is different to a solider who goes to the battle field, and is not focused on dying but counterattacking the enemy. The suicide striker kills so that others may live through his or her act of heroism, a devotional sacrifice for the cause of Tamil Eelam. The abandonment of a Black Tiger life is not suicide, but a gift of oneself which has Christian nuances. LTTE hero is a ‘secular’ hero. However, it must be noted that LTTE on their part fail to obliterate the centuries old psychosocial phenomenon of religiosity, embedded in the Tamil folk psyche with the Hindu worldview. The representational death of a Black tiger enhances and pontificates the Tamil ethnic roots and heritage as brave, courageous and surpassing those of the enemy which endows the Tamil public with a sense of heroism and national pride. He/she is a hero of the Tamil Eelam and nothing more and nothing less. Schlak relentlessly tries to separate the LTTE’s ideological secularity from being ‘religious’ but he undermines the ethnic Tamil religiosity which is very much Saivite Hindu and Catholic which determine the parameters of a new cult, within the space provided by the LTTE, where the masses have found meaning and connectedness in times of despair and loss. It is in this sense that new religious meanings have been collated around death and dying, in the name of liberation and suicide, however violent, self destructive and undesirable, within the religious world of the popular masses.

A critical pedagogy of hope in times of despair: Teaching against global capitalism and the new imperialism

The author starts his argument by looking into the globalised capitalist set up that disallows all the voices of opposition. His argument stems from the present political scenario in the United States, its continuous imperial aggression, its rhetoric of war, its neoliberal expansion that negate the crisis experienced in the educational domain. In order to provide a better understanding of this crisis in the United States, the author looks at the political and social developments happening on a global scale which serves as a mirror to look into the educational crisis in the North American context. In a situation where the social sector is witnessing a continuous neglect there is still hope as indicated by emerging voices of protest worldwide. He sums up this crisis as an ideological question that needs to be dealt not as a fragmented problem of the education discourse but calls for a holistic perspective to find a teaching pedagogy that engenders hope and humanity for future citizens.

The Ancient Origins of Oral Pathology.

Belief in a golden age has provided mankind with solace in times of despair and with élan during the expansive periods of history. Dreamers imagine the golden age in the remote past, in paradise lost, free from toil and grief. Optimists put their faith in the future and believe that mankind, Prometheus-like, will master the arts of life through power and knowledge. Thus, the golden age means different things to different men, but the very belief in its existence implies the conviction that perfect health and happiness are birthrights of men. Yet, in reality, complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living.

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction (review)

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction (review)

The Papers of Jefferson Davis (review)

BOOK REVIEWS179 power. There are a few minor errors of fact that do not detract from the value of the work, although I am very curious as to why "longshoremen " would be found among the labor force of Weatherford. The writing is generally clear if a bit pedestrian. There is nothing startlingly new in Time of Hope, Time of Despair, but it does help to increase our understanding of Reconstruction both in Texas and in the South as a whole. Michael D. Pierce Tarleton State College The Papers of Jefferson Davis. Volume 3: July 1846-December 1848. Edited by James T. Mcintosh. Volume 4: 1849-1852. Edited by Lynda Lasswell Crist. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982, 1983. Pp. xxxvi, 509, & xxxix, 472. $37.50 each.) The editors have continued the same high standards manifested since 1971, when publication of this modern set of Davis Papers began. Rising production costs have dictated a reduction in the number of projected volumes as well as some substantial changes in methodology. Fewer documents are included with preference for those that illuminate Davis's "character, opinions, philosophy, and personal relationships " (4:xvii). To help compensate for the diminution from the project's original scope, an outstanding and useful tool is being included in these and subsequent volumes: an appended calendar listing, and briefly describing the contents of, all Davis material known to exist. Jefferson Davis wanted prominent status, particularly in public life, and he perceived a way to get that through acquiring military glory. The Mexican War provided him his opportunity. "The desire to be in every battle fought during my term of service is strong," he confessed to his brother [3:115]. The conflict also proved the time when Davis developed his close personal relationship with Zachary Taylor, which lasted for the remainder of his former father-in-law's life. Taylor gave Davis and his men warm praise in his official report after Buena Vista. Showing an apparent partiality which many other soldiers resented, especially members and friends of the Indiana regiments—with whom Davis squabbled over credit for the victory (3:149 n.34). Davis praised the volunteer soldiers, but particularly those who served under him, always urging their just rewards. "Regulars of the service— men enlisted for war as profession—have won bright laurels," he said, "but I feel no hesitation in saying, what my long connection in the regular service enables me to say without invidiousness, that neither the exactest discipline nor the severest drill, without that spirit which volunteers eminently possess, will make the truly effective soldier" (3:182). 180CIVIL WAR HISTORY Other documents in these two volumes illuminate the nature of Davis 's second marriage. "I was much gratified to see that you have been engaged in useful and domestic things," he wrote to Varina Howell Davis in July, 1846. "However unimportant in themselves each may be, it is the mass which constitutes the business of life, and as it is pursued so will it generally be found that a woman is happy and contented" (3:13). In a later letter his wife addressed him sweetly as "My Darling Banny" (3:53), and in another, the same in which she reported that she had selected reading material which would "help 'Winnie' to be 'Wife,' " she penned: "My own bright love, farewell. Kiss wife, and say goodnight . Winnie is Husband's baby and baby is your devoted wife" (4:62). But the two obviously did not always get along so sweetly. We can infer a good deal from an April 1848 letter he wrote to her. "I cannot bear to be suspected or complained of, or misconstrued after explanation , by you___ you may not have understood how far your treatment of me was injurious. I will only say, that I hoped when you saw that your course if continued would render it impossible for us ever to live together, that my ill health rendering me less able to bear abuse, produced a necessity for separation. . . the dread of constant strife was so great ... it would always make me happier to be with you, if kind and peaceful" (3:302-03). With others Davis could be cold and sometimes...

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction

Jacques Maritain and the Spanish Civil War

The 1930's posed difficult moral problems for European Catholics. First came Mussolini's questionable adventure in belated colonialism in Ethiopia. Then the war in Spain suddenly, and with piercing sharpness, posed the moral problems of civil war. For the most influential Catholic thinker of his time, Jacques Maritain, the war in Spain was a challenging difficulty. Though Maritain openly refused his allegiance to Franco, and thereby became a scandal to Catholics horrified by the Spanish republic's attacks on the official Church, his reflections on Spain gave impetus to a current of thought in Catholic circles that culminated in the declaration of the Second Vatican Council on the relations between church and state. Hence, as so often happens, a time of confusion and fraternal strife was also a time of clarification, and a time of despair broadened into a time of hope.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this articleThe Structure of Thucydides’History, By Hunter R. Rawlings III.Mediaeval Greece. By Nicolas Cheetham.Ibn Khaldun and Islamic Thought‐Styles: A Social Perspective. By Fuad Baali and Ali Wardi.Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500‐900. By Suzanne Fonay Wemple.Prayer, Patronage, and Power: The Abbey of la Trinité, Vendôme, 1032‐1187. By Penelope D. Johnson.Medieval Readers and Writers, 1350‐1400. By Janet Coleman.Knights and Esquires: The Gloucestershire Gentry in the Fourteenth Century. By Nigel Saul.The English Parliament in the Middle Ages. Edited by R. G. Davies and J. H. Denton.The Whig Ascendancy: Colloquies on Hanoverian England. Edited by John Cannon.Human Cargoes: The British Slave Trade to Spanish America, 1700‐1739. By Colin A. Palmer.Beyond Port and Prejudice: Charles Lloyd of Oxford, 1784‐1829. By William J. Baker, with illustrations by Arline K.Thomson.A Wellesley Affair: Richard Marquess Wellesley and the Conduct of Anglo‐Spanish Diplomacy, 1809‐1812. By John Kenneth Severn.Alfred Russell Wallace. By Martin Fichman.John Ludlow: The Autobiography of a Christian Socialist. Edited by A. D. Murray.The Hounds of Conscience: A History of the No‐Conscription Fellowship, 1914‐1919. By Thomas C. Kennedy.Britain, Egypt and the Middle East: Imperial Policy in the Aftermath of War, 1918‐1922. By John Darwin.Britain in the Far East: A Survey from 1819 to the Present. By Peter Lowe.France and the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. By Francis McLynn.The Limits of Reform in the Enlightenment: Attitudes toward the Education of the Lower Classes in Eighteenth‐Century France. By Harvey Chisick.The Youth of Vichy France. By W. D. Halls.The French Riviera Campaign of August 1944. By Alan F. Wilt.Economy and Society in Baroque Portugal, 1668‐1703. By Carl A. Hanson.Arrogance and Anxiety: The Ambivalence of German Power, 1848‐1914. By L.L. Farrar, Jr.Germany in the Age of Total War. Edited by Volker R. Berghahn and Martin Kitchen.The Holocaust and the German Elite: Genocide and National Suicide in Germany, 1871‐1945. By Rainer C. Baum.Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, 1560‐1600. Edited by Jill Raitt.Prussian Poland in the German Empire (1871‐1900). By Richard Blanke.The Second Republic: The Disintegration of Post‐Munich Czechoslovakia(October 1938‐March 1939). [East European Monographs, no. 90.] By Theodore Prochazka, Sr.Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution. By Diane Koenker.River of Wealth, River of Sorrow: The Central Zaire Basin in the Era of the Slave and Ivory Trade, 1500‐1891. By Robert W. Harms.Shantung Rebellion: The Wang Lun Uprising of 1774. By Susan Naquin.Murdering Mothers: Infantide in England and New England. 1558‐1803. [New York University School of Law Series in Anglo‐American Legal History. vol.2.] By Peter C. Holler and N.H. Hull.Towards the Planned City: Germany, Britain, the United States and France, 1780‐1914. By Anthony Sutcliffe.The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America. By James Axtell.The Rise and Fall of Alexander Hamilton. By Robert A. Hendrickson.Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership. By LaWanda Cox.Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction. By James M. Smallwood.The End of Neutrality: The United States, Britain, and Maritime Rights, 1899–1915. By John W. Coogan.The Amaroc News: The Daily Newspaper of the American Forces in Germany, 1919‐1923. By Alfred E. Cornebise.Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography. By Edwin A. Weinstein.Communism, Anticommunism, and the CIO. [Contributions in American History, no. 91.] By Harvey A. Levenstein.Horace Greeley. By Erik S. Lunde. [Twayne's United States Authors Series, no. 413.]True Love and Perfect Union: The Feminist Reform of Sex and Society. By William Leach.Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870‐1925. By George M. Marsden.Ethnic America: A History. By Thomas Sowell.Labor and Immigration in Industrial America. By Robert Parmet.Urban Capitalists: Entrepreneurs and City Growth in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna and Lehigh Regions, 1800‐1920. [Studies in Industry and Society, vol. 1.] By Burton W. Folsom, Jr.Organizing Dixie: Alabama Workers in the Industrial Era. [Contributions in Labor History, no. 9.] By Phillip Taft. Revised and edited by Gary M. Fink.Strikes in the United States, 1881‐1974. By P. K. Edwards.A Search for Equality: The National Urban League, 1910‐1961. By Jesse Thomas Moore, Jr.Regulation in Perspective: Historical Essays. Edited by Thomas K. McCraw.Douglas MacArthur: The Philippine Years. By Carol Morris Petillo.The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864‐1906 By Michael P. Malone.Francis Paul Prucha. Indian Policy in the United States: Historical Essays. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. Pp. ix, 272. $19.95.)

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction.

Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction.

James M. Smallwood, Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction

James M. Smallwood, <i>Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction</i>