REFUGE IN HELL: The Story of the Berlin Jewish Hospital and The Jews’ Hospital-Mount Sinai Hospital of New York

Tuesday, JANUARY 19 at 7pm (EST)
A talk by Josef Machac, MD

RECORDING ON YOUTUBE

Based both on personal experience and researched material.
When soldiers of the Red Army took Berlin in April 1945, they came upon a hospital compound with 800 living patients and staff, all Jews, having survived the Nazi era right in the heart of the Third Reich. This is part of the remarkable story of the origins and two-hundred-year history of the Berlin Jewish Hospital, and an institution modelled after it – The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

The event was presented live online on ZOOM.

Q&A was moderated by Christopher Harwood, PhD, Columbia University.

Josef Machac
Josef Machac, MD, was born in Prerov, Czechoslovakia and lived in Olomouc until 1964, when his family emigrated and settled in the town of Bohemia on Long Island, NY. He received his bachelor and MD degrees in 1975 and 1978, respectively, at Brown University, and received postgraduate training at the Mount Sinai Hospital in NY. From 1986 until 1995, he headed the stress ECG and nuclear cardiology laboratory at Mount Sinai. In 1992, he became Director of Nuclear Medicine, and in 2003, Professor of Radiology and Medicine. Dr. Macha? has authored or co-authored 120 scientific papers in peer-reviewed publications, and 18 book chapters, and has trained numerous residents and fellows. He retired in July 2016. For the last 7 years, he has been volunteering part-time as a general internist and cardiologist at the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative (BVMI) clinic in Hackensack, NJ for working people who cannot afford health insurance, where he initiated an obesity treatment program, which now continues with funded support. He has been an active member of the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences (SVU) since 1980. Dr. Machac also engages in beekeeping, brewing beer, travel and reading, folk dancing, Yoga, Tai Chi and other martial arts.

Berlin

This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

Citizen Sis: From Maršov to Leopoldov via Bulgaria 🗓

Tuesday, November 5, 2019 at 7 pm
Bohemian National Hall, cinema
321 E 73 St, New York City

FILM + DISCUSSION
Screening of a 2019 documentary film about a Czech journalist and a hero of Bulgaria, Vladimír Sís (1889-1958)

Flyer

Vladimír Sís was a Czech patriot, journalist, and writer. At age 23, he sent his reports from the frontline of the Balkan War (1912-1913) as a correspondent for the Národní Listy newspaper in Prague. He became an important voice for the Czech national independence movement and the Bulgarian cause.Persecuted by the Austro-Hungarian regime, arrested by the Nazis, he was killed in the Leopoldov prison during the 1950’s communist purges in Czechoslovakia. In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the Order of T. G. Masaryk by president Václav Havel.

The film explores the European and the Czech history of the first half of the 20th century: The Balkan Wars from 1912-13, the T.G.Masaryk’s “MAFFIE” organization (1914), the World Wars, First and Second Czech Resistance – as Vladimír Sís participated directly and actively in all those events. The film was shot in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Balkans and features Bulgarian and Czech researchers and close relatives of Vladimír Sís.

Gospodin Nedelchev, PhD, is an award-winning Bulgarian film director, artist, animator, and screenwriter of more than forty animated and documentary films. As an Associate Professor, he teaches Animation Directing at the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists.

A light reception and continued discussion followed the screening and Q&A with Mr. Gospodin Nedelchev. Stand by for video on our SVU NY You Tube Channel.

PHOTOS

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, and the Bulgarian History Club in New York.