3 minute read
Hadassah is global
By Diane Schwartz, Co-President, Hadassah Presidents Council
What do the Inspiring Women 2025 Luncheon, Hadassah International, and the Gandel Rehabilitation Center have in common?
Inspiring Women 2025 honors outstanding women in our community whose leadership skills and generous gift of resources and their time impact not only their organizations or companies, but also our community. We honor Susan Bookbinder, a community leader and philanthropist; Dr. Paula Brody, a community leader and distinguished artist; and Elizabeth Dosoretz, a business leader and advocate.
Hadassah International was established in 1983 as the global arm of Hadassah outside of the United States of America. It consists of groups of men and women around the world who raise money to support Hadassah’s outstanding Hadassah Medical Organization, which oversees the world-class, award-winning research, clinical care and education at two hospital campuses in Jerusalem, Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus.
On the Mount Scopus campus there is a new building, the Gandel Rehabilitation Center. With an initial gift from the Gandel Foundation from Australia, construction was underway when tragedy struck on Oct. 7, 2023. At that point, the construction project was far from complete. The Director General of Hadassah Medical Organization, Prof. Yoram Weiss, MD, ordered a round-the-clock building effort as soldiers and civilians began coming to Hadassah with traumatic injuries.
Dr. Karen Ezrine, who is from Naples, is the former chair of Hadassah International. She explained, “Hadassah directed workers to rig up an underground parking garage with the infrastructure necessary to operate a fully functional five-ward 130bed hospital. They asked their contractors to pull all of their available workers from other projects and put them on this effort and worked around the clock. This fiveward hospital, protected by several inches of thick steel door was completed in a few short weeks, with specialty equipment shipped in from abroad.”
When completed, the 26,000 square meter, eight-story Gandel Rehabilitation Center will care for 10,000 patients annually with four in-patient units with a total of 140 beds — a 250% increase for HMO — and an out-patient clinic that will be able to serve 250 patients a day.
The Gandel Rehabilitation Center will offer a host of the latest and most advanced specialized treatments along with physical and occupational therapy, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, respiratory and orthopedic rehabilitation. There will be a PTSD center and rehabilitation for neurological problems caused by brain, spinal cord and nervous system injuries.
The work of the Hadassah Medical Organization is a bridge to nations through medicine.
Dr. Ezrine will bring some updated information in a presentation at the Inspiring Women 2025 Luncheon. Net proceeds from the Inspiring Women 2025 Luncheon are designated to the Gandel Rehabilitation Center project. Separate gifts are accepted as well.
If you would like to receive an invitation to the Inspiring Women 2025 Luncheon or would like information about donating, contact collierleehadassah@gmail.com and put “Inspiring Women Invitation/Gandel” in the subject line.
