SCOPUS 2017

OR SHABTAY
A PROFESSIONAL
BASKETBALL PLAYER
RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS
GAL PURIS
VOLUNTEERISM INSPIRES
A CAREER IN MILITARY
MEDICINE
EMANUEL MELAKU
AN EXTENDED HOSPITAL STAY
AS A TEENAGER LEADS TO AN
INTEREST IN PATIENT CARE
Or Shabtay dreams of working
in orthopedics in a third-world
country someday. A graduate
of a military boarding school in
Haifa, Shabtay spent 12 years playing
professional basketball. Despite this
semi-detour, the 23-year-old athlete
has known almost his entire life that
he wanted to be both a doctor and
an officer in the IDF. For Shabtay,
Tzameret is a natural fit. He was born
into a military family which includes
an aunt who served as a military
physician, and he is now in his sixth
year of the program.
“Tzameret is the best opportunity for
me to combine two things that I love and
that are very important to my family –
medicine and the army,” he says.
Shabtay is drawn to orthopedics
because “it’s the kind of the profession
that makes it very simple to help others
without requiring a lot of resources,”
he explains.
Gal Puris recently spent two
weeks in a paratrooper battalion
as part of an elective course
open to sixth-year Tzameret students
like herself. “I was the only woman
on the medical staff in a combatready
unit,” she says, noting the
uniqueness of her situation. Such
diverse experiences are part of Puris’
ethos in life—she seeks exposure to
human diversity and multiculturalism
as an essential part of a well-rounded
education. The third of five sisters, she
has also volunteered in an Ethiopian
orphanage for HIV-positive children
as well as in the psychiatric ward at
Hadassah Ein Kerem.
Puris chose a career in medicine so
that she could realize these goals and
give back to the State of Israel. “I want
to be a doctor in the IDF, a military
doctor,” she explains. “It is the best way
for me to contribute to my country.”
“When you look at our students, you know that because
of them, the quality of life for many will be improved, pain
will be eased and lives will be saved," Prof. David Gertz
At the age of 16 in his first year of
high school, Emanuel Melaku
underwent surgery to treat his
pronounced scoliosis. It was during his
extended stay in the hospital that he
decided to pursue a career in medicine.
Raised in Jerusalem by a single
mother from Ethiopia, Melaku has
opted to join Tzameret because he
believes in the value of treating
soldiers. “I will be gaining significant
experience and my service will be very
meaningful,” he notes.
He believes that military medicine,
in particular, offers a rare opportunity
to focus on the less emphasized part
of medicine, but one that Melaku
understands well from his time in the
hospital—patient communication and
bedside manner.
“An important part of medicine that
not too many people pay attention to
is the communication with patients,”
he explains. “I think having soldiers as
patients will help to improve that.”
For Melaku, who hopes to enter into
pediatrics in the future, such tools will
also serve him and his littlest patients
well.
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