Andrew Jacob Jung Poet Rhyme

Notes About The Poem

There are many portraits hanging at Brigham & Women's hospital depicting physicians, nurses, scientists and researchers past and present. This one in particular stood out to me because the pose and the other elements incorporated are radically different from the others. So I had to know - who is this, and what explanation is there for the old captain? After researching, I learned about Dr. Gelman, a great humanitarian with a remarkable story.

The Portrait of Simon Gelman

Adorning the walls at Brigham and Women's
Head on his hand quite comfortably resting
The subject distinctive in his smiling position
Inspires the asking who is this physician

Over his shoulder an old time sea captain
And over the other what looks like the Kremlin
A scene that recalls something seemingly Russian
What is its significance in this bastion of medicine

And so the commencement of careful researching
Reveals the story of which we'll be learning 
A Harvard professor with numerous contributions
To the field of anesthesia including ischemia-reperfusion

This skillful practitioner of inducing unconsciousness
Was born in the Soviet Union in Nineteen and Thirty-Six
The whitebearded mariner is his belov'd Granddad
Who perished unaccounted for in the blockade of Leningrad

When Simon was young he was frequently hungry
Simochka said Mamma for food do not ask me
Life as a Jew in the society of Stalin 
Was hard but instructive for the mensch now ascending

At that time in Russia was no concept of charity
Because the state cared for everyone and no one was needy
But the pogroms and politics couldn't kill his generosity
And as soon as they could his wife and he left their country

Emigration to Israel where he learned to be Jewish
In the sense of the word that's proclaimed and not whispered
And he saw for the first time a community helping
And he knew gum zu l'tovah was how he'd be living

And many years later ensconced at the Brigham
The giver, the teacher, the lover of freedom
Fortunate I who discovered his portrait
And learned the legacy of the man

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