Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM Eastern, 17:00 GMT, 19:00 IDT
CE Credit: 1.0 AGD Credits Provided AGD Subject Code: 555
Type: Zoom Webinar Teaching Method: Lecture
Intended Audience: Dentists and Dental Students
Cost: Free of charge to Alpha Omega members.
About the Speaker:
Howard Israel, DDS:
Dr. Howard Israel is a Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery, Division of Dentistry and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. With a distinguished career spanning clinical practice, education, and ethics, Dr. Israel has made significant contributions to the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery as well as to interdisciplinary medical education.
In addition to his clinical and academic roles, Dr. Israel is an active member of the Holocaust Genocide and Contemporary Bioethics Steering Committee at the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities on the Anschutz Medical Campus. His work in this area reflects a deep commitment to examining the ethical responsibilities of healthcare professionals, particularly through the lens of historical events and their implications for modern medical and dental practice.
Dr. Israel’s expertise bridges surgical care, academic leadership, and bioethics, with a focus on reinforcing the principles of humanity, professional responsibility, and ethical decision-making in healthcare.
Overview:
The role of the medical profession in committing crimes against humanity during the Nazi regime has been studied extensively. Still, it is difficult to comprehend how a profession of healers morphed into executioners and researchers who abused and tortured people to promote the pseudoscience of “racial hygiene.” The history of the dental profession in Europe during the
Third Reich has received little attention, although it is quite significant. The importance of learning this history today should be a high priority in dental education to reinforce the importance of ethical decision making in the care of each individual patient.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the role of dentists and physicians in academic institutions and concentration camps in committing crimes against humanity.
2. Consider factors that led to healers in both the medical and dental professions to obtain gold from murdered victims and perform inhumane experimentation on prisoners.
3. Analyze how a political ideology that dictated public health policy could influence the healing professions.
4. Answer the question - is it possible for this to happen again?
5. Utilize the knowledge of the history of dentists during the Third Reich to reinforce the importance of ethics and humanity in dentistry and society today.