Still a Doctor in the House?

Chana Weinstock Neuberger, MD, a medical oncologist in Baltimore, learned many things in medical school. But during her first week of residency, she heard an unfamiliar term from fellow doctors that never appeared in the curriculum.

“Are you Shabbotaged this month?” she heard one asking another.

In her internal medicine residency program at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY, which arranged shifts in order to accommodate the shomer Shabbos doctors, their colleagues who took the Saturday calls instead were “Shabbotaged,” a portmanteau of “Shabbos” and “sabotage” — in other words, sabotaged by Shabbos.

The residents covering Shabbos calls were often resentful of having to give up their “golden weekend,” that elusive weekend completely free of call. This undercurrent of resentment was a constant reminder: The opportunity to practice medicine in a shomer Shabbos setting was a privilege, one Chana and her fellow frum doctors needed to constantly prove themselves worthy of by going above and beyond the call of duty.