Issue Archive
Inside Hadassah: On Hotels, Healing and a Hotline
Jerusalem beckons to Hadassah’s national board members for our midwinter meetings this month. We will visit our institutions there, including, of course, the Hadassah Medical Center. We’ll toast medical breakthroughs and celebrate the recent opening of the new Ein Kerem hotel, which welcomes patients’ families as well as recovering patients. And here at home, we highlight our Hadassah Information Center, which links our members and hundreds of others with the many facets of Hadassah. Don’t forget to forge your links to Hadassah, here and in Israel. Lehitra’ot. —Ruth G. Cole
Good Morning, Hadassah!
Last November, USA Today and ABC television’s Good Morning America named the Old City of Jerusalem one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. And to speak on national television about the ancient and holy city, they called on none other than Hadassah’s own Barbara Sofer, director of public relations and communications at the Hadassah offices in Israel.
“There’s no subject I like to talk about more, on camera or off,” says Sofer. “I met [ABC’s] Brian O’Keefe and the cameraman at the Anna Ticho House across from the Hadassah offices. I described the magic of Jerusalem and [told] one of the remarkable stories of our remarkable center of healing.
“When you go into the Old City, something magical happens,” Sofer told the millions of Good Morning America viewers.
A Visionary and an Inspiration
A new Israeli film, Rama Lindheim–Hadassah Visionary, tells the exceptional life story of Irma “Rama” Lindheim, who served as the 3rd national president of Hadassah from 1926 to 1928. Produced and directed by Yael Katzir, the film premiered at the Haifa International Film Festival in October 2006 and has had a series of special screenings at various cinemas across Israel. It has also been shown on Israeli television and at numerous kibbutzim and conferences around the world.
Lindheim’s story spans nearly a century. Her life shows how the monumental events unfolding at the time affected one woman, and how she in turn took an active role in those events. She held leadership positions in numerous Zionist organizations, both in the United States and Israel.
“I believe in putting women back on the map,” said Katzir, explaining her motivation for making the film. “Rama Lindheim is a fascinating woman, a role model and a mirror of a whole era. Her Zionism, her dedication to the cause and her contribution in every domain that she had touched made me follow her life story and do my best to share what I learned in an artistic form.”
The film includes archival footage shot by Lindheim and her husband, Norvin, both in the United States and in Israel in the 1930’s. It also includes rare footage of Hadassah and Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’emek, where Lindheim lived for 40 years after her husband’s death.
To purchase the English version of the DVD, e-mailkatmar@gmail.com.
A Hotel for Healing
Shimon (who asked that his last name not be used) and his family were understandably distraught when his son was wounded in an accident several months ago. During his treatment at Hadassah Hospital, the family booked a room in the new hotel on the Ein Kerem campus, to be nearby on the weekend.
“It was a time when stress was high in the family,” Shimon said. “The hotel provided us just what we needed. It is very comfortable [and offers] a support system for people in the hospital.”
The hotel had recently opened when Shimon’s family checked in. An attractive building, set into the hillside with a stunning view of the nearby farms and forests, it has 96 well-appointed rooms designated for various purposes. Some are for families like Shimon’s, visiting relatives of hospital patients. Others will provide comfortable quarters for patients recovering from heart and vascular procedures who want to stay close to the hospital but do not require inpatient services. Part of the hotel is reserved for new mothers—complete with nursing chairs, changing stations and even two nurses available to help out.
“We were able to be with our son on Shabbat, which we would otherwise not have been able to do,” Shimon said. “We were able to bring him to the hotel, to get him out of the hospital environment briefly. That was very nice.” Shimon noted that the hotel is especially accommodating to religiously observant guests.
Designed for Success
Hadassah College Jerusalem aims to give its students both an excellent education as well as highly marketable skills. To this end, three new programs were introduced this year.
Two of these new curricula are bachelor’s degrees in cutting-edge fields: Students studying photographic communications will learn about business-advertising photography and news-documentary photography and will examine the ever-increasing pace at which images and information pass through society; students in the inclusive industrial design program will be prepared to design a wide variety of products for populations with various special needs.
The third program is an associate degree in interactive communications in the School of Practical Engineering, which will qualify students to work with information
technology, administer Web sites and design video games.
Each year, the college receives hundreds of applications for a limited number of spots for all its programs. HCJ fills a unique role in Israel’s academic landscape and continues to grow and expand to meet the needs of the population.
Turning the Tide on Strokes
A joint team of researchers from the Hadassah Medical Organization and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a peptide that could revolutionize the treatment of people who have suffered ischemic strokes.
Until now, only about 3 percent of stroke patients can be treated with thrombolytic agent tPA, the medication that dissolves stroke-causing blood clots. The peptide—which has been tested successfully on animals and should go on to clinical trials in the next year or two—stops the hemorrhaging that is often the disastrous side effect of the drug. The Hadassah team was led by Dr. Abd Al-Roof Higazi (left) of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Hadassah–Hebrew University Medical Center at Ein Kerem. Dr. Higazi is the founder and chief scientific officer of Thrombotec Ltd., a start-up company of Hadasit, HMO’s technology transfer company. He grew up in the Galilee village of Tamra and lives with his family in Neve Shalom, a mixed Jewish-Arab village halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Hadassah 411: How Can We Help You?
At the Hadassah Information Center, no two days are quite the same. In fact, no two calls are quite the same, either. a People contact the center from around the world with all sorts of requests and questions. Norma Lenore, a national board member who has chaired the center for the past year and a half, cites examples of people asking about finding a Seder in Italy, or about points of Jewish interest in Barcelona.
Several months back, a woman phoned from Minneapolis asking for suggestions for Jewish theater she could see during her visit to New York. Coincidentally, Lenore knew of some shows and was happy to make a few recommendations.
Recently, a woman phoned looking for a Jewish adoption agency. “[She] could have gone on the Web to find the information like I did,” says Lenore. “She probably could have found it herself, but instead she called Hadassah. Hadassah seems to be the address of the Jewish community.”
The HIC gets calls 24 hours a day—about 90 percent of the “calls” that come in are actually voicemail messages from the toll-free number (888-303-3640) or e-mails that come through Hadassah’s Web site (www.hadassah.org). Detailed logs are kept. The center averages about 200 calls a month, with the majority of them coming from Florida.
The HIC is not intended to be merely a switchboard. “If we can answer the questions ourselves, we do,” explains Lenore. If not, a volunteer directs callers to the appropriate place, be it within Hadassah or to an outside organization. “The people in this department really care,” she adds, referring to her colleagues on Hadassah’s national board, Elaine Binder and Elaine Glenn, both of whom spend one or two days a week manning the phones.
“We interface with all departments in Hadassah,” Lenore says. In fact, call logs from almost any given month show messages relayed to virtually every department in the organization, from Planned Giving to Young Judaea. Even Hadassah leadership sometimes calls to find out where to look for specific information, since the volunteers at HIC are always in the know about what’s going on.
The toll-free number was set up by the late Miriam Dreisman, a former national vice president of Hadassah, about 10 years ago. She saw a need for a free and easy way for people to reach
Jerusalem beckons to Hadassah’s national board members for our midwinter meetings this month. We will visit our institutions there, including, of course, the Hadassah Medical Center. We’ll toast medical breakthroughs and celebrate the recent opening of the new Ein Kerem hotel, which welcomes patients’ families as well as recovering patients. And here at home, we highlight our Hadassah Information Center, which links our members and hundreds of others with the many facets of Hadassah. Don’t forget to forge your links to Hadassah, here and in Israel. Lehitra’ot. —Ruth G. Cole
Good Morning, Hadassah!
Last November, USA Today and ABC television’s Good Morning America named the Old City of Jerusalem one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. And to speak on national television about the ancient and holy city, they called on none other than Hadassah’s own Barbara Sofer, director of public relations and communications at the Hadassah offices in Israel.
“There’s no subject I like to talk about more, on camera or off,” says Sofer. “I met [ABC’s] Brian O’Keefe and the cameraman at the Anna Ticho House across from the Hadassah offices. I described the magic of Jerusalem and [told] one of the remarkable stories of our remarkable center of healing.
“When you go into the Old City, something magical happens,” Sofer told the millions of Good Morning America viewers.
A Visionary and an Inspiration
A new Israeli film, Rama Lindheim–Hadassah Visionary, tells the exceptional life story of Irma “Rama” Lindheim, who served as the 3rd national president of Hadassah from 1926 to 1928. Produced and directed by Yael Katzir, the film premiered at the Haifa International Film Festival in October 2006 and has had a series of special screenings at various cinemas across Israel. It has also been shown on Israeli television and at numerous kibbutzim and conferences around the world.
Lindheim’s story spans nearly a century. Her life shows how the monumental events unfolding at the time affected one woman, and how she in turn took an active role in those events. She held leadership positions in numerous Zionist organizations, both in the United States and Israel.
“I believe in putting women back on the map,” said Katzir, explaining her motivation for making the film. “Rama Lindheim is a fascinating woman, a role model and a mirror of a whole era. Her Zionism, her dedication to the cause and her contribution in every domain that she had touched made me follow her life story and do my best to share what I learned in an artistic form.”
The film includes archival footage shot by Lindheim and her husband, Norvin, both in the United States and in Israel in the 1930’s. It also includes rare footage of Hadassah and Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’emek, where Lindheim lived for 40 years after her husband’s death.
To purchase the English version of the DVD, e-mailkatmar@gmail.com.
A Hotel for Healing
Shimon (who asked that his last name not be used) and his family were understandably distraught when his son was wounded in an accident several months ago. During his treatment at Hadassah Hospital, the family booked a room in the new hotel on the Ein Kerem campus, to be nearby on the weekend.
“It was a time when stress was high in the family,” Shimon said. “The hotel provided us just what we needed. It is very comfortable [and offers] a support system for people in the hospital.”
The hotel had recently opened when Shimon’s family checked in. An attractive building, set into the hillside with a stunning view of the nearby farms and forests, it has 96 well-appointed rooms designated for various purposes. Some are for families like Shimon’s, visiting relatives of hospital patients. Others will provide comfortable quarters for patients recovering from heart and vascular procedures who want to stay close to the hospital but do not require inpatient services. Part of the hotel is reserved for new mothers—complete with nursing chairs, changing stations and even two nurses available to help out.
“We were able to be with our son on Shabbat, which we would otherwise not have been able to do,” Shimon said. “We were able to bring him to the hotel, to get him out of the hospital environment briefly. That was very nice.” Shimon noted that the hotel is especially accommodating to religiously observant guests.
Designed for Success
Hadassah College Jerusalem aims to give its students both an excellent education as well as highly marketable skills. To this end, three new programs were introduced this year.
Two of these new curricula are bachelor’s degrees in cutting-edge fields: Students studying photographic communications will learn about business-advertising photography and news-documentary photography and will examine the ever-increasing pace at which images and information pass through society; students in the inclusive industrial design program will be prepared to design a wide variety of products for populations with various special needs.
The third program is an associate degree in interactive communications in the School of Practical Engineering, which will qualify students to work with information
technology, administer Web sites and design video games.
Each year, the college receives hundreds of applications for a limited number of spots for all its programs. HCJ fills a unique role in Israel’s academic landscape and continues to grow and expand to meet the needs of the population.
Turning the Tide on Strokes
A joint team of researchers from the Hadassah Medical Organization and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a peptide that could revolutionize the treatment of people who have suffered ischemic strokes.
Until now, only about 3 percent of stroke patients can be treated with thrombolytic agent tPA, the medication that dissolves stroke-causing blood clots. The peptide—which has been tested successfully on animals and should go on to clinical trials in the next year or two—stops the hemorrhaging that is often the disastrous side effect of the drug. The Hadassah team was led by Dr. Abd Al-Roof Higazi (left) of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Hadassah–Hebrew University Medical Center at Ein Kerem. Dr. Higazi is the founder and chief scientific officer of Thrombotec Ltd., a start-up company of Hadasit, HMO’s technology transfer company. He grew up in the Galilee village of Tamra and lives with his family in Neve Shalom, a mixed Jewish-Arab village halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Hadassah 411: How Can We Help You?
At the Hadassah Information Center, no two days are quite the same. In fact, no two calls are quite the same, either. a People contact the center from around the world with all sorts of requests and questions. Norma Lenore, a national board member who has chaired the center for the past year and a half, cites examples of people asking about finding a Seder in Italy, or about points of Jewish interest in Barcelona.
Several months back, a woman phoned from Minneapolis asking for suggestions for Jewish theater she could see during her visit to New York. Coincidentally, Lenore knew of some shows and was happy to make a few recommendations.
Recently, a woman phoned looking for a Jewish adoption agency. “[She] could have gone on the Web to find the information like I did,” says Lenore. “She probably could have found it herself, but instead she called Hadassah. Hadassah seems to be the address of the Jewish community.”
The HIC gets calls 24 hours a day—about 90 percent of the “calls” that come in are actually voicemail messages from the toll-free number (888-303-3640) or e-mails that come through Hadassah’s Web site (www.hadassah.org). Detailed logs are kept. The center averages about 200 calls a month, with the majority of them coming from Florida.
The HIC is not intended to be merely a switchboard. “If we can answer the questions ourselves, we do,” explains Lenore. If not, a volunteer directs callers to the appropriate place, be it within Hadassah or to an outside organization. “The people in this department really care,” she adds, referring to her colleagues on Hadassah’s national board, Elaine Binder and Elaine Glenn, both of whom spend one or two days a week manning the phones.
“We interface with all departments in Hadassah,” Lenore says. In fact, call logs from almost any given month show messages relayed to virtually every department in the organization, from Planned Giving to Young Judaea. Even Hadassah leadership sometimes calls to find out where to look for specific information, since the volunteers at HIC are always in the know about what’s going on.
The toll-free number was set up by the late Miriam Dreisman, a former national vice president of Hadassah, about 10 years ago. She saw a need for a free and easy way for people to reach Hadassah—people who were not sure which department to call or with whom they needed to speak.
The HIC sets out to provide the human touch that many members seek. “When I became a member in 1953, Hadassah was a ‘mom and pop’ organization,” recalls Lenore. “[The HIC is] about the personal contact we were losing as the operation got bigger and the membership got bigger.
“People often give us personal information, and they trust us with it,” she adds. “I’ve had calls from people who say they are single and lonely, and I’ve sent them to JDate. They call to inform us that their mother has passed away and they want to talk about it.”
Lenore recalls a monument company that telephoned to find out whether it would be possible to get the Hadassah logo to put on the headstone of a woman who had been an active member during her lifetime. And then there was the woman who asked if she could make her mother a lifetime member, posthumously.
“This is a wonderful job,” says Lenore, who insists there’s no better place to see how people turn instinctively to Hadassah for guidance. “People consider Hadassah like family.”
—people who were not sure which department to call or with whom they needed to speak.
The HIC sets out to provide the human touch that many members seek. “When I became a member in 1953, Hadassah was a ‘mom and pop’ organization,” recalls Lenore. “[The HIC is] about the personal contact we were losing as the operation got bigger and the membership got bigger.
“People often give us personal information, and they trust us with it,” she adds. “I’ve had calls from people who say they are single and lonely, and I’ve sent them to JDate. They call to inform us that their mother has passed away and they want to talk about it.”
Lenore recalls a monument company that telephoned to find out whether it would be possible to get the Hadassah logo to put on the headstone of a woman who had been an active member during her lifetime. And then there was the woman who asked if she could make her mother a lifetime member, posthumously.
“This is a wonderful job,” says Lenore, who insists there’s no better place to see how people turn instinctively to Hadassah for guidance. “People consider Hadassah like family.”
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