Selected Reform Responsa 133
Abraham Wallich, a seventeenth century university trained physician, who in his Sefer Dimyan Harefuot felt that the sickness must be cured not only by physical but also by spiritual means. Manuals were written for the guidance of those who counseled the sick and the bereaved. Many of them, like Sefer Hahayim or Maaneh Lashon, were very popular and went through many editions.
We also find Jewish hospitals as specific Jewish institutions beginning in Germany in the thirteenth century. Through communal pressure, they became modernized in the eighteenth century. Often they were guided by a Brotherhood as well as the general community. It was felt necessary to have Jewish hospitals as their counterparts were specifically Christian rather than secular. Both the Brotherhoods and the Jewish hospitals could also be found in the Eastern European Jewish communities. Brotherhoods were present in communities both large and small in the last two centuries, while hospitals existed only in the large Jewish centers.
We may then see that there is a long history of continuous Jewish social service through well organized groups which looked after the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of the members of the community during times of personal stress and crisis.
Walter Jacob