JEECS member and former East Ender Cyril Sherer shares tales from his fascinating life in a book published this summer that looks back over his long medical career in four vastly different countries.
Cyril, who lives in Jerusalem, is no stranger to JEECS members, and has contributed some great articles to our magazine The Cable over the years.
The book, Cases and Crises, a Physician’s Saga, recalls some of the fascinating events and situations in which he found himself, with stories told through case histories of some of his most interesting patients. They vary from a housewife in New Zealand to princesses from Tsarist Russia, Ethiopia and Thailand in Jerusalem.
“I have,” he says, “encountered the abnormal and the paranormal, two “Messiahs”, and a life-threatening emergency in the Egyptian desert.”
Seventy-five per cent of his time as a doctor has been in Israel, which is, he says, a multi-culture presenting its own challenges.
The book is available through Amazon in the UK and US and can be ordered via the appropriate links shown below, which are different for the two countries. The book is available in Israel from August 25. It is also available in e-reader form.
Cyril was born in the East End in 1921. He studied at Middlesex Hospital Medical School, graduating in 1945, and served as a medical officer in the New Zealand Army of Occupation of Japan from 1946 to 1948. He spent the next 13 years in Auckland, New Zealand, in general practice, moving to Israel with his family in 1961.
Since then he has been in private practice in Jerusalem. A dominant figure in tourist medicine, he has been successfully taking care of Israelis, foreign diplomats and their families, international journalists and United Nations personnel.
Neither a memoir nor an autobiography in the accepted sense, the book is a series of stories about fascinating people and circumstances in which he has been involved, as seen through different eyes in different places.
“People,” he says, “are more interesting than bacteria.”
He vividly recounts how medical practice has changed over the years, and his personal story and the stories he shares bring to life the enduring value of a trusting physician-patient relationship, especially how his patients have benefited as he has become a more mature and wiser physician.
“I hope you will enjoy the book,” says Cyril. “If you have any comments or criticism please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – who knows there might be a second edition or even another book.”
Cases and Crises, a Physician’s Saga. Paperback: 268 pages. Publisher: Mazo Publishers. ISBN-10: 1946124168. ISBN-13: 978-1946124166
Click here to view/buy on Amazon UK
Click here to view/buy on Amazon USA