Tikkun Olam

Diane Schwartz, Presidents Council for Collier/Lee Chapter

Hadassah’s history is deeply intertwined with the development of the state of Israel. Many of you know the story. Hadassah’s founder, Henrietta Szold, founded the organization in 1912 and sent two nurses overseas to bring basic health care to immigrants and people living on the ground in the Middle East.

Hadassah built the foundation of what has become the Israeli health system. It also founded schools for nursing, physicians, dentists, public health graduate programs, youth villages, and more.

Today, Hadassah’s impact is worldwide, enhancing people’s health through outstanding medical care and cuttingedge research at its two Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) hospitals in Jerusalem. Mt. Scopus came first in 1936 and the Ein Karem campus followed in 1962.

Across its two campuses, HMO has over 1,300 beds, 31 operating theaters and nine special intensive care units, treating over one million patients a year, regardless of race, religion or nationality.

Hadassah Hospital Ein Karem has a rich history and a special status of global recognition. Ein Kerem shares a large campus with the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine, with scientists collaborating from both institutions. In the 29-story inpatient Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower, the underground state-of-the-art surgical suites are sheltered deep in the Jerusalem hillside and fortified against conventional, biological and chemical warfare.

Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus is 14 miles from Ein Kerem on panoramic Mount Scopus. It serves both as a top-tier community medical center and addresses special needs of the Greater Jerusalem area. Families rely on the pediatric chronic disease center, a hospice and the Rady Mother and Child Center for women giving birth. The region’s rehabilitation center is now being expanded and improved, offering care and comprehensive cutting-edge robotics to soldiers and civilians, stroke and terror survivors, along with a new shock trauma center. The very busy adult and pediatric emergency rooms are being improved.

“Hadassah Medical Organization has been named a world leader in oncology and cardiology. HMO is also recognized for its innovative use of smart technologies in the magazine’s 2024 rankings of the world’s best specialized hospitals. This is the fourth year in a row that the Israeli hospital system has been included in the list of the world’s top hospitals for cardiology and the third year in a row it has been among the top hospitals for oncology,” according to Newsweek

Newsweek also named Hadassah as a leader in the use of “smart” technologies, such as digital imaging, artificial intelligence, robotics and telemedicine. These rankings put Hadassah in the company of such leading American medical institutions as the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, in addition to top hospitals around the world. Hadassah Hospitals have over 50 research partners around the world, such as the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute and the Weizmann Institute of Science/Israel.

Our hospitals are a global force for improved research and health care.

Among HMO supporters are volunteers from around the world in Hadassah International, who have formed local groups and proudly affiliate with Hadassah’s care and standards for innovation. Hadassah International has members representing Israel, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil.

Hadassah is Tikkun Olam; healing the world through health care.