‘Father Teresa’ went to Ethiopia to teach for a year – and stayed for 34

RICK HODES, medical director of the international Jewish relief group known as The Joint, is visiting Australia. He talks to MIRIAM COSIC about the Jewish hands who help communities of all backgrounds.

When Rick Hodes was a kid, growing up in a secular Jewish household in Long Island, New York, he used to read a lot. His family didn't travel much and he craved to see the world. Then he started reading about doctors working in Africa and Asia, people like the famous Albert Schweitzer and the missionary doctor Thomas Dooley, and he thought this was what he wanted to do with his life.

At college, however, he decided spontaneously to enrol in geography. After graduation, he didn't have much in the way of job prospects, so he earned a living by painting houses and hitchhiked around America. He spent a summer hiking the entire John Muir Trail in California with a friend.

"Then I hitchhiked to Alaska, got a job and thought about my life," he tells The Jewish Independent. "I decided the best thing I could do was go to medical school."

Hodes specialised in internal medicine and was soon involved in organising treatment for spinal tuberculosis: his specialty ever since. That disease deforms the spine, progressively collapsing the vertebrae until the entire rib cage becomes incapable of supporting heart and lung function, the Johns Hopkins' website explains. Few who have the condition live into adulthood.

Hodes’ work as a doctor has grown to involve much more than his specialty. He is in Australia on a three-city tour, spruiking for the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an international Jewish medical relief organisation that helps people, regardless of nationality or religion, worldwide.

Hodes is its medical director. "I'm speaking at synagogues. I'm speaking at schools. I'm speaking to doctors," he explains. " I'm trying to raise interest, and I'm trying to raise money."