Touro College Machon L’Parnasa Helps Dov Ber Hecht Break into the Medical Field
Encouragement and Attention from Touro Professors Sparked Hecht’s Medical Journey
Dov Ber Hecht maintains that without Touro College Machon L’Parnasa Institute for Professional Studies in his past, there would be no Lewis Katz Medical School at Temple University in his present. “Machon L’Parnasa is a school for religious Jews who haven’t had a robust secular education,” says Hecht, 29, a third-year medical student. “I had minimal secular education through eighth grade and no formal secular education until I attended Machon L’Parnasa — at 24 years old!”
Already behind in academics, it was crucial, Hecht explains, that he got the attention he needed to succeed. “I learned how to write clearly and received a tremendous amount of positive reinforcement and encouragement from my teachers,” he says. “The result was that after my first two semesters at Machon, I felt ready to go through a rigorous post bac program at Temple. That Touro Machon foundation gave me the fortitude to survive a year that consisted of eight science classes. I absolutely could not have gotten into medical school without that education.”
Hecht will specialize in infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. In medicine, like religion, there is a tradition in the Hecht household: “My father is a doctor and a practicing, observant Jew. Those are not mutually exclusive. They’re complementary.”
