Edith ‘Ruth’ Black née Blumenthal

Class of 1952

This biography is based on secondary material listed in the bibliography. It was collated by Rennae Taylor.

Edith ‘Ruth’ Black nee Blumenthal was born in Austria in 1925 to Siegfried and Else Blumenthal. (1) Little is known about her family background and early childhood . As a young girl she was a member of the Zionist Jewish Youth Group, which was a movement established in Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century, with a focus on one’s community, appreciation of nature with activities like hiking and camping fostered, and encouragement of emigration to the Land of Israel. (2)

Ruth left Czechoslovakia with her parents and grandparents as a young teenager and settled in England for a short time before they emigrated to New Zealand. They settled in Auckland and Ruth’s secondary education was completed at Epsom Girls Grammar School. (3) She received her New Zealand Naturalisation in 1947. (4)

Ruth attended the University of Auckland and later the University of Otago where she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 at the age of 23. (5) She also completed some units towards a science degree during this time. (6) The exact impetus for her desire to go into medicine is not known. However, in her biography, Newland says while doing units of a science degree she was ‘magnetically attracted to medicine’. (3)

Little is known about her time at Otago Medical School. However, Ruth did recall the annual fifth year lecture on contraception, as the medical students found it hard to find a seat, due to ‘interlopers from other faculties’. The lecture was ‘hilarious, largely historical and mildly informative’. (7) She graduated with her MB ChB in 1952 at the age of 28 and the 1953 Medical Registration Gazette indicates she received her conditional registration (*c) on 18 March 1953. (8)

While doing her medical studies she met Harry Black, a senior registrar at Dunedin Hospital who later became a highly regarded consultant in dermatology. They married in 1954 and made Auckland their home. Ruth did her house surgeon training at Auckland Hospital, did some locums and worked briefly for the Health Department. (7)

Family Planning Association

In 1955, she started working for the Family Planning Association (FPA) at their first clinic in Remuera, Auckland. She thought it would be a good idea to improve her contraceptive knowledge as a practicing doctor and learn to fit diaphragms. Her original plan was to do this for six months (7) but she found it was not easy to leave. She became one of New Zealand’s pioneers in the FPA (3) and spent until the mid-1990s working for them.

In her memoir she mentions that the FPA was helpful in that it provided part-time work for women doctors’. Initially she worked as a clinic doctor from 1955 to 1976 and from 1959 to 1974 was also the medical co-director of the Auckland clinics.

Ruth had a prominent role in developing Family Planning clinics and improving the delivery of their service and education to the public. The British Medical Association (BMA) NZ branch was initially opposed to doctors working with the FPA. In 1959, the BMA stated that “the natural, proper and best kind of association in that regard is the husband and wife, the family doctor, clergyman of whatever denomination or the legal advisor”. It was not until 1961 that the NZ branch of the BMA relaxed their stance, declaring that doctors who did work with the FPA were respectable members of their profession. (7)

Later she fostered the clinics’ advisory role and promoted the contraceptive pill. She learned to be innovative as Family Planning clinics had little funding. Together with Dr Alice Bush , then President of the Family Planning Association, and a few others they battled for funding and were eventually successful.

From 1963-1974 Ruth was Chairman of the NZ FPA Medical Advisory Committee and was also a council member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) of South-East Asia and Oceania in 1964 and was the first NZ delegate at their regional council meeting. From 1969-1974 she served on various educational, medical and constitutional subcommittees. This involved attending many overseas meetings and representing the IPPF at WHO and other meetings. (7)

In 1995, she was invited to give a lecture at The Auckland Medical History Society. The title was “From Disreputable to Respectable – Family Planning. (9)

Other Roles

Ruth combined her FPA with work at the University of Auckland student health service from 1959 to 1991 and from 1976 to 1990 as a visiting medical officer to Carrington Hospital (a former psychiatric hospital). (7)

Newland comments that she had the ability to provide the stimulus in getting different projects underway and once they were going to bow out. In this capacity she served on the steering committee and later the NZ Auckland committee of the Richmond Fellowship, a national mental health charity, from 1978-1988. She was also on the Child Health Research Foundation for two years and for many years a member of the board and executive of the Mental Health Foundation. (3, 7)

In 1973, she was appointed to the board of the NZ Broadcasting Corporation and later the board of TV2. During the first few telethons, she was asked by the board and director-general to suggest suitable recipients of the donations – these included St Johns Ambulance, NZ Child Health Research Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation. (7) She was also an honorary member of the Widows and Widowers Association.

In 1986, Ruth was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her public service, especially in the field of medicine. (7)

Zionism

Ruth continued her early interest with Zionism. She was involved in the local Jewish community and one of her interests was Shalom Court, the rest home and hospital based in St Johns, Auckland. She served on the Auckland Committee of the United Israel Appeal for ten years and was dedicated to preserving and maintaining “Eretz Israel” (Land of Israel).

She was secretary of the Auckland branch of the Overseas Fellowship of the Israeli Medical Association for many years. This involved hosting visiting physicians from Israel in private homes and discussing their research and medical practice. She also gave advice to medical students and colleagues about studying in Israel. (3)

Retirement

Ruth and Harry had two sons. Peter, born in 1958, did his medical training at the University of Auckland and became a general physician with an international reputation in respiratory pharmacology research. On his sudden death in 2010 at the age of 52, he was a professor at the University of Auckland and a consultant general physician at Auckland City Hospital. (3, 10) Their second son Michael holds degrees in accounting and economics. (3)

Outside of medicine, Ruth enjoyed travel, reading and music but found there was little time for them as ‘when you put your nose to the grindstone, medicine is a pretty exhausting career’. (3)

Ruth died on 25 November 2017 at Grace Joel Hospital, aged 92. She was predeceased by Harry and they are both buried in the Hebrew area of Waikumete Cemetery. (11)

Two entries from the memories and condolences section of her obituary give honour to this pioneering woman doctor:

From Dame Margaret Sparrow , Class of 1963: “Ruth was a role model for me when I joined Family Planning in 1971.”

From Jackie Edmond, Chief Executive Family Planning: “Ruth was a Family Planning doctor for many years and advocated for Family Planning doctors to be accepted by the NZ medical establishment in the 1960s. She helped make family planning available for hundreds (if not thousands) of New Zealand women.”(11)

Bibliography

1. Dr Edith Ruth Black Obituary Auckland: The New Zealand Herald; 2017 [29.08.2024]. Available from: https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/edith-black-obituary?id=43230414
2. Zionist Youth Movement: Wikipedia; [updated 22 February 202430.08.2024]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_youth_movement
3. Newland A. Short Biographies: Ruth Black CBE. In: Gluckman AEF, DL (Ed) & Davis, L.(Ed), editor. Identity and Involvement: Volume III Auckland Jewry into the 21st Century. Vol. 3. Nelson, NZ: Renaissance Publishing; 2020. p. 163-5.
4. New Zealand Naturalisations, 1843-1981. : Ancestry [16.09.2024]. Available from: https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1844/?name=edith+ruth+_blumenthal&birth=1925
5. Degrees Conferred at University Ceremony. Otago Daily Times. 1948 12.05.1948. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19480512.2.75
6. Degree Examinations. Otago Daily Times. 1947 08.11.1947. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19471108.2.50
7. Black R. A Reputable Member of the Profession In: McIlraith Je, editor. The Goods’ Train Doctors: Stories of women doctors in New Zealand 1920-1993. Dunedin: NZ Medical Women’s Association; 1993. p. 44-5.
8. Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette, Register of Medical Practitioners Wellington: RE Owen, Government Printer; 1953 [16.09.2024]. Available from: https://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1953/63.pdf
9. Woodfield G. 50th Year Celebrations of Medical History in Auckland. Auckland 2014.
10. Dedicated researcher into respiratory diseases Auckland: New Zealand Herald; 2010 [12.09.2024]. Available from: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dedicated-researcher-into-respiratory-diseases/MGVHPY6H26OF6A6ZO35WSCZ7PI/#google_vignette
11. Dr Edith Ruth Black NZ Herald. 2017. Available from: https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/edith-black-obituary?id=43230414