University Life Inside and Out
Morris Hirsch's gregarious nature always led to his having a swatting buddy throughout his academic challenge.
Morris Hirsch's always had a swotting buddy. In his second year, it was tall, gaunt Ike Eidelman, a dental student, whose aquiline nose and shock of curly hair contrasted with short, lithe Morris with long, fine head of dark hair thrown back. Ike was staid and Morris was hyper-active and manic-depressive. They were a good team.
However it didn't last. Towards the end of the year he tragically suffered a severe haematemesis (gastric bleed) which the physicians failed to arrest. They assumed that he had an peptic ulcer and waited for the haemorrhage to settle to permit an X-ray for a specific diagnosis. He died just after they finally decided to operate. He was only eighteen. The post-mortem revealed a rare congenital duodenal diverticulum (pouch) which required surgery. Morris mourned deeply with the family and remained close to them. Ike's younger brother, Ben, became the Hirsch family attorney. They were undemonstratively religious and profoundly ethical.
Morris then teamed with Isaac (Ike) Sher for the next four years until they qualified and they kept contact until his death in 1983. He was one of the five Potch (Potchefstroom, SW Transvaal) Jewish contingent that invaded the big city academia for professional careers. They lodged together in a small block of flats in Esselin Street, Hillbrow. They were no country bumpkins and knew exactly what they wanted and what it took to succeed.
The three tackling medicine were independent characters, ragging and enjoying their residential association to the full. Ike was tall and handsome, with a heap of curly hair and always sporting a fine Ronald Colman mustache, in the fashion of the day. When baffled by a subject when they worked together, he had the habit of reaching for and stroking it with his lower lip! He had a great sense of humor and fun. His flashing smile illuminated his Colgates perfect teeth. Studying the photograph of the latest love of one of the triad, set against the imposing background of Durban's Golden Mile, he observed "My o' my, Pickles" (his nickname for swarthy Julius, also referred to when not in earshot as the Black Jew) "but those buildings are beautiful. Which do you aim to marry?"
His insight into character was correct, as usual. Pickles, the poor boy from Potch married wealth soon after qualifying, but fate played an unhappy hand. His wife died within a few years from cancer and Pickles found himself wretchedly lonely in his multi-roomed mansion and the nights unbearable. When Morris met him at the time Pickles pleaded with him to visit–make it a holiday to enjoy its luxuries– the classic marble swimming pool, the sauna and gym, the tennis and squash courts, promising the run of the place. A pity, Morris thought, that he could not avail himself of it!
In desperation Pickles fell into the clutches of a young floosey who spotted the sugar daddy and wasted no time in raiding the bankroll. The divorce was also costly but Pickles sold the mansion and salvaged more than enough to escape to England and seek solace in specializing. Needless to say, he never married again and found safer ways to female favors.
Isaac Sher was deeply appreciative of Morris' mother's hospitality during their frequent swotting sessions. 40 Harley St became his second home, although his sister Matie, married to a prosperous property speculator, lived within walking distance of his digs in an opulent residence in elite older Parktown. The acre property had its own tennis court which they took advantage of when there was time to spare. Ike had a natural aptitude for the game and Morris would struggle to extend him.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
Excerpt from the unpublished memoirs of Dr. Morris Isaac Hirsch. Hirsch Archives.
Photo reference: Hirsch Archives.