The Yeshiva College Book Project has selected Dr. Jerome Groopman's The Measure of Our Days as its featured text for the 2001-2002 school year. Subtitled "A Spiritual Explorations of Illness," the book tells the stories of nine patients of Groopman, who serves as a professor at Harvard Medical school and is one of the world's leading researchers in blood-related diseases, including some forms of cancer and AIDS. Groopman's perspective as a practitioner - that of an observant Jew - strongly influences both his experiences with his patients and the narrative he delivers to the reader.
Building upon the Brook Project's general theme of "tolerance," faculty are excited to begin discussing the issues that Groopman raises. One of the program's advisors, Rabbi Shalom Carmy, explained that "in life, we have to tolerate human beings we don't care for, whose character and behavior we may find repulsive. The people whom liberals often hold up as models of tolerance are simply people who lack moral judgment and don't really care, or who really sympathize with attitudes they pretend to disapprove of. What is unusual about Groopman's book is not only that he treats his patients like human beings, a trait we can't always take for granted in a doctor, but that he extends himself for people whose behavior he often disapproves of, and whose character he deplores."
The selection of Groopman also closes the Book Project's two-year theme of "Conscience on the Line," which had featured texts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Plato. The theme had challenged participants to approach the issue of acts of conscience from many different perspectives, both those brought forward in the text and in guest lectures by notable figures like Dr. Norman Levy. Commenting on this year's choice of Gandhi, Carmy added, "I was pleased to play a part... It says a lot for the faculty and the students that this year's Project produced a lot that was worthwhile, and that we were able to learn from Gandhi precisely by not ignoring his deficiencies." Added BP Coordinator Dr. Joanne Jacobson, "I think that Gandhi worked well for our purposes, especially in enabling us to approach the issue of 'acts of conscience' from a non-Western as well as a non-violent point of view."
Looking forward to next year, Jacobson encourages students to assist in the BP's endeavors, such as leading discussions at the Book Project's Orientation Dinner. She summed up, "I am especially pleased by the sense of community which has developed among those faculty and students who have worked together on these programs, and by our ability to engage a range of faculty and incoming students through the Composition program."