A plan for the organisation of a great medical centre in Palestine, embracing the hospital and school of medicine in connection with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was put forward by Dr. J. L. Magnes, the Chancellor of the Hebrew University, at a dinner given in his honour here by the American Jewish Physicians’ Committee, which was formed in 1921 in order “to build a medical college and hospital in connection with the Hebrew University in Palestine”. 200 Jewish doctors belonging to the Committee were present at the dinner.
Dr. Magnes asked for a sum of 100,000 dollars as an endowment fund for the purpose, to be used for a period of five years. The American Jewish Physicians’ Committee, he announced, has during the ten years of its existence contributed 350,000 dollars for the work of the medical and hygiene departments of the Hebrew University.
Funds for the first unit of the Medical Department of the Hebrew University, an Opthalmic Institute for research and for clinical purposes, were announced in 1929 by Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, the President of the American Jewish Physicians’ Committee and Chairman of the Hebrew University Hospital Committee, as the gift of Mr. Isidore D. Morrison, a prominent American Zionist. The building and equipment cost was estimated at about 100,000 dollars, in addition to which Mr. Morrison pledged himself to contribute 10,000 dollars annually towards the maintenance cost.
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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.
