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14 he history of the T Hadassah Medical Organization is the subject of an upcoming exhibit developed under the auspices of the American Jewish Historical Society. The exhibit tells the stories of some of the men and women who built the Hadassah Medical Organization and how, in turn, the infrastructure of the medical system of the modern State of Israel was formed. Public health clinics, well baby care, school lunches, playgrounds, immigrant medical services, hospitals — all were developed by Hadassah, and when the local or state government was able to finance and administer them, they were gradually transferred and Hadassah moved on to its next challenge. Hadassah first became involved with healthcare in Palestine in 1913, when founder Henrietta Szold secured a donation from Nathan and Lina Straus to cover the cost of sending two public health nurses to Jerusalem for a year. The nurses visited families and schools and set up a basic public health clinic with a focus on mothers and children. By the end of World War I, Hadassah was ready to lead a complete medical unit of about 44 health professionals in Palestine. The doctors, nurses, dentists and sanitarians spread throughout the Jewish settlements there, setting up hospitals, clinics, and public health stations. In the 1920s and 1930s Hadassah was financing a nursing school, clinics and health stations, playgrounds, school lunches and well baby care, and hospitals. By 1939 it had financed and ® The Early Days of the Hadassah Medical Organization by Susan Woodland Left: The camp at which Florence Nathanson worked as a Hadassah nurse in 1950. Right: Nurses and patients in front of the government hospital for adults constructed by the Jewish Agency. Photos by Florence Kaplan Nathanson, courtesy of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. opened a medical center on Mount Scopus, adjacent to the campus of the Hebrew University. As quickly as Hadassah set up medical institutions, these institutions were as quickly transferred to the municipalities in which they stood. Upon Israeli statehood in 1948, tremendous new medical needs strained the resources of the new government. Some leaders proposed that Hadassah concentrate on the care of this flood of immigrants — poor, ill, and uneducated. But Hadassah, focused on raising money and planning for a new medical center at Ein Karem, declined to take on the major responsibility for this overwhelming task, preferring a limited role in supplying medical care in a few key transit camps. One of these was at Rosh Ha‘Ayin, where the Jewish Agency built a transit camp for Yemenite immigrants. There, Hadassah set up a children’s hospital and staffed it for two years, until the government health service was prepared to take over. The children suffered from malnutrition, acute intestinal infection and malaria, among other illnesses. Desperate for additional nursing staff beyond that which was being trained in Hadassah’s nursing school in Jerusalem, Hadassah placed ads in Jewish newspapers in the United States, looking for American nurses willing to spend at least six months working in the immigrant camp at Rosh Ha‘Ayin. Florence Kaplan (later Nathanson) saw one of these ads when a friend pointed it out on a hospital bulletin board. A Brooklyn native who had attended nursing school at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn (now known as the Interfaith Medical Center), Nathanson became one of the six American nurses hired and sent by Hadassah in 1950 to work for nine months at the camp. (Mrs. Nathanson has generously lent her photograph album, which documents her experiences in Israel in 1950, as part of the Hadassah Medical Organization exhibit.) “I didn’t know about Hadassah at all,” she recounts. “But I liked the idea of doing work in the new Jewish homeland. I was not from a Zionist family, but the work sounded appealing, and real.” For the Health of Israel — Hadassah’s Medical Work 1912–1967, opens January 18, 2005. Presented by Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America Inc. in conjunction with the American Jewish Historical Society. The exhibition has been underwritten with a generous grant from the Smart Family Foundation.
FRED CHARLES One Woman’s Story We traveled by boat, on the S.S. LaGuardia, an old decrepit ship left over from World War II, for a long time. I think it was two weeks, but it seemed much, much longer… We arrived during a snowstorm in Jerusalem. We had to stay there for a week because of the flooding. Water was pumped in from Tel Aviv and use was restricted. When the roads were navigable, we traveled to Rosh Ha‘Ayin, which was a flooded, muddy mess. Our white nurses’ shoes were useless in this mud. The Israeli nurses who we were replacing at Rosh Ha‘Ayin laughed at our uniforms which were so impractical in the mud and dirt and mess of the camp; they were wearing boots and slacks. A government hospital was caring for the Yemenite adults, but it had been determined that special care was needed for the children. We were given the responsibility to care for the children. The parents lodged in tents which were very small and narrow, with uncertain hygiene; the children were removed from their parents’ tents to lodge with the nurses in Quonset huts. Communication was difficult. The parents spoke Arabic, the Israeli nurses spoke Hebrew, and we spoke English. . . . We studied Hebrew conversation and technical Hebrew. One of the American nurses, Bea Perlmutter, learned Hebrew very quickly, and became our head nurse. She was responsible for writing up the nurses’ notes. The children were in bad shape. Some were blinded by trachoma; some suffered from tuberculosis; almost all had dysentery. One little girl, Bracha, had tubercular meningitis. There was often shooting around the periphery of the camp, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. In 1950 Mrs. Nathanson stayed on for nine months (her account of her experiences is excerpted above), but ultimately returned to Israel years later, and found it greatly changed. What impressed her the most? “Rosh Ha‘Ayin had become a real town with paved streets.” Rosh Ha‘Ayin was just temporary housing on very barren land. There were snakes and rats. Once winter was over, the flooding stopped and it became very dry and hot. The Hamsin – the dry winds – would blow the top layer of sand, which got into everything including the babies’ noses and mouths. We used wet sheets and cheesecloth to cover the beds. We were warned not to drink too much water which could cause water intoxication. Soap and water were rationed. It was difficult even for the nurses to maintain acceptable hygiene standards. The food was plain but nutritious. We had sour cream, cheese and eggs for breakfast. There was one cook. The only meat we had all week was the Friday night chicken. The Israeli nurses returned to the cities where they were needed once we were settled. Doctors came on rounds but did not live at Rosh Ha‘Ayin. We divided up the shifts among the 6 nurses, to cover the responsibilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We worked day shifts one week, and night shifts the next. On infrequent days off we went to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Beersheva where we saw the new hospital Hadassah was supporting there. I came down with malaria and went to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. I was there during the Independence Day parade. Eddie Cantor had helped raise money to finance sending these Yemenite refugees to Israel by plane. They were skeptical about leaving by plane, as they were coming from a very primitive lifestyle. But there is a line in the Talmud that says, “They would be delivered on the wings of eagles”, and taking the Talmud at face value, these true believers flew from the middle ages into the 20th century. The Lillian Goldman Reading Room O Photo at left: Florence Kaplan Nathanson, courtesy of Ms. Nathanson Susan Woodland is the Hadassah archivist. The Hadassah Archives, on deposit with AJHS since the opening of the Center for Jewish History in 2000, document the history of the medical work sponsored by the American women who have led Hadassah since its inception in New York in 1912. ver 4,000 visits are made to the exquisite and accommodating Reading Room annually — scholars, academics, writers, as well as the general public make use of the extraordinary resources available, representing nearly fifty countries in parts of the world as far reaching as South Africa, Singapore, Estonia, Argentina and Israel. Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm. Friday, by appointment only. For information on the Center’s Graduate Seminars for academic audiences, you can contact Diane Spielmann, Director at dspielmann@cjh.org. 15
Page 1 and 2: Inside… THE MAGAZINE OF THE CENTE
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Page 5 and 6: Singer (rear center) with other Yid
Page 7 and 8: Lawyers Without Rights Jews and the
Page 9 and 10: SIMONA ARU MATHILDE DAMELE SIMONA A
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Page 17 and 18: Cahnman Preservation Laboratory The
Page 19 and 20: THE BENDHEIM FOUNDATION TRACEY AND

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