Visiting the Hadassah sites in Israel

Throughout the four month sabbatical here, I've been visiting different Hadassah sites. The Israel Visits Office of Hadassah has been extremely supportive and helpful! Thank you Marilyn and Mirjam!

First visit was with Stacy Margolin to Ein Kerem on May 8th.

We started in the Heritage Center and our personal tour guide, Ariella, gave us a tour of many departments and facilities. Our first stop was the Hadassah offices where we met with Barbara Sofer (who I had seen at Shira Chadasha synagogue) and BG (Barbara Goldstein). It was wonderful to chat with them. Walking throughout the campus, we saw the emergency room, trauma center, the healing garden area, the Bloomberg Mother and Child Center, so many fundraising plaques throughout, the Keepers video display where we found Stacy's name, and of course the Chagall windows in one of the synagogues on campus. There are lots of pictures in the Heritage Center and along the walls and corridors of the campus so we felt surrounded by the history of Hadassah. And the stories behind the Chagall windows are truly hard to believe. When the Hadassah women approached Marc Chagall, he interrupted them in the middle of their speech to say "What took you so long? I have been waiting for the opportunity to give back to my people." After the windows were damaged in one of the wars, Chagall remade them for free. There is also other art throughout the chapel including a very interesting bimah cover made by an Israeli artist.

Second visit was to Meir Shfeya, hosted by Lauren Stern Kedem who taught there for many years and now serves as an ambassador between the Village and Hadassah visitors.

Lauren

Lauren graciously spent the whole day with me, showing me the entire campus. I saw the agricultural area, the entrance to the winery, the cows and many other animals, as well as classrooms, offices, the teacher's lounge which was completely donated to the school by Jim Smith, the living areas for students, and got to eat lunch in the cafeteria. I enjoyed a very interesting movie about the history of the Meir Shfeya Village. There is also a new leadership center; I peeked into the windows to see the meeting rooms and gathering spaces. It's beautiful! It was inspiring to see the campus and learn so much about the success stories of students in the Youth Village.

Teacher's Lounge

Teacher's Lounge Plaque

Leadership Center

Front Porch of the Leadership Center

Third visit was back to Ein Kerem to see some Education related sites specifically. My first stop was the Heritage Center to meet Ariella, and I saw the video that Stacy and I had not seen the time before. My first stop after that, I visited the Linda Joy Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Center for Women, the school inside the Mother and Child Center, the Nursing School, and the Medical School. Ariella was my tour guide once again!

Dr. Zwas, me, and Betsy

It was a great honor to meet with the director of the Pollin center and cardiologist, Dr. Donna Zfat-Zwas. She is very impressive. I really loved hearing all about everything they are doing for individual patients, as well as how they are educating the entire community. Dr. Zwas insists on examining actual data in a very research based manner. I also spent some time with Betsy Mehlman who is the director of resource development and fundraising for the Pollin Center. She is very enthusiastic and provided me with so much information. 

Me and Asaysha

Next, I went to visit the school inside the Bloomberg Mother and Child Center. Asaysha showed me some of the amazing materials that they have developed to help young patients understand what is happening to them, and often prepare them for procedures though graphics, models, puppets, and of course, books. I got to look at many materials and Asaysha answered all of my questions. We got to observe some patients participating in an art activity around a table with their caregivers. It was lovely to see. 

On this campus, there are many schools. With Ariella, I got to walk through the Medical School, seeing the library and some classrooms, and the Henrietta Szold Hadassah - Hebrew University School of Nursing, seeing some mini museum displays and state of the art classrooms. The School of Nursing was founded in 1918 and moved to Ein Kerem in 1961. Notably, students can earn a Bachelor's of Science of Nursing (BSN) and/or a Master's in clinical nursing.  The school is known for its collaborative research projects that take place through the Muriel Berman Center of Nursing Research that opened in 2006. There are at least two other schools that I did not see: The School of Public Health and the Dental School. There were many historical displays that I got to see and learn from. Also, it turned out that I got off one bus stop too early with the students and had to walk through the Medical School in order to get to the main building. That was a bit of an adventure. I ate my lunch in the garden on the campus with students, patients, and employees of the hospital of all kinds walking by. Just lovely!

    

Next came Mt. Scopus, again with Ariella as my guide, where I saw the museum featuring Henrietta Szold's desk and office, the hospice center, a youth center, a cancer center, the labor and delivery center, and another heart health center. In the labor and delivery area, we spent a little while talking with an olah from Toledo who has been working there for many years. There was an outdoor healing garden with some painted rocks that the patients had created. There were also patients and their families having a picnic with music out in this garden. So life-affirming!

The Seal which was the 
only thing that survived
from the original hospital

Henrietta's Office

Healing Garden

Finally, I enjoyed a visit to Hadassah Neurim as arranged by Shiri who is the Communications and Public Relations Director. It was quite a long journey to get there, taking a bus to the train station, taking the train to Netanya, and then taking a taxi to the campus. Because it was one of the protest movement's days of disruption, there was quite a bit more traffic throughout the day and the taxi driver and I had to be extra patient. And I had to pay the taxi driver a bit more than normal. Once I arrived at the Youth Village, I received the royal treatment! I had the honor of meeting with the CEO of the entire school, Ami Magen, the Operations Manager, Liat Aharon, and Shiri who had worked with me to arrange the visit. They put a lot of effort into my visit which was very intricate and complicated and took me to many different areas of the Village in a golf cart. I saw the agricultural and animal rehabilitation program where I spoke with teachers and participants, the dog rehabilitation program where I met a volunteer program leaders, the media and film areas where I heard about the high tech work the students are completing, the robotics and makers facilities where I heard the well known in Hadassah stories of the robotics teams that have competed internationally, classrooms including ones with plants on shelves on the walls, living spaces for students some of which were recently remodeled and others that need remodeling soon, and the surfing program which is spectacular. There were many great stories at all of the stops along the way, and I learned so much about all the special things that happen at Hadassah Neurim.

Me and Liat

Dog Rehab Volunteer

Robotics

Robotics Chill Zone

Dog Rehab Volunteer

Animal Celebrity

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Wood cuts

Wood cuts

I am so proud to be a part of the amazing organization called Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America. We do good work, and we make a difference.