The formal opening of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School took place today in the municipal garden in front of the buildings which temporarily house the school until it can be moved to Mt. Scopus.
The buildings are in the former British security zone of the Mandate days. The zone, popularly known as Bevingrad, is 50 yards from the Old City wall from which Arab Legionnaires watched the ceremony today. Evidences of recent armed conflict between Arabs and Jews were the former tank traps, now harmless, and strands of barbed wire. Rubble and loose stones and other reminders of battles have been removed.
The thousand invited guests included Premier David Ben Gurion, Cabinet Ministers, member of the Knesset, Army officers, members of the foreign diplomatic and consular corps and a United Nations delegation, officials of the Jewish Agency, Hebrew University staff members and leaders of the Hadassah National Board.
Freshly-planted grass and trees lined the long marble promenade, where unexploded bombs had recently been dug up. The academic procession wound solemnly down this promenade as the Voice of Jerusalem Orchestra played. The first group of marchers consisted of 45 students of whom all but a few were in military uniforms. All have been accepted for the Medical School. In the second group were medical professors, physicians of Hadassah Hospital and University professors.
ASSEMBLAGE GREETS ISRAELI PREMIER AND U.S. AMBASSADOR
The entire assemblage remained standing to greet Premier Ben Gurion, U.S. Ambassador James G. McDonald and Sir Leon Simon, head of the British Friends of the Hebrew University. Sir Leon opened the program, saying that for many hundreds of years the Jews had showed extraordinary medical talents. “We are entitled to hope that this school in our eternal capital will tremendously contribute to the progress of medicine for the benefit of Israel and of all humanity,” he declared.
Dr. Simha Assaph, rector of the University, voiced the appreciation of University officials for a $100,000 gift to the medical school from Frieda Schiff Warburg, widow of Felix M. Warburg. The gift will serve as a fund to assist outstanding physicians and young scientists in pursuing studies in the best scientific and medical institutions in the United States and other countries.
Ambassador McDonald said the opening of the school in Jerusalem was a “promise for Israel and its neighbors of more than physical healing. It foreshadows and brings nearer the day when the Jew and the Arab will freely work together for the advancement of all peoples in this area,” he asserted.
Mrs. Rose Halprin of New York, national president of Hadassah, said: “We open the school in emergency quarters. Some might ask why this excitement regarding a small school, but there is deep within us a certainty that some day it will be the bearer of great traditions of medical teaching, of research and healing.” Other speakers included Dr. Israel Wechsler, president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University; Berl Locker, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive in Jerusalem and Dr. A. Dostrovsky, dean of the faculty of Hebrew University.
President Weizmann in a message, said the school was another “vehicle in the struggle to make the ideals of social progress and democracy realities, not only in Israel but throughout the Middle East. It is another aspect of America’s program to make the benefits of scientific advances available to other governments and other peoples. It is another instance of American generosity, and a manifestation of American Jewry’s profound awareness of the meaning of Jewish history and tradition and their sensitivity to the cultural and physical needs of Israel today.”
Fifteen United States universities, as well as the Universities of Brussels, Florence, Capetown, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and others, and prominent scientists from all over the world, sent greetings. The ceremony concluded with the singing of Hatikvah.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
