The first 63 graduates from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School today received their diplomas as physicians at a ceremony addressed by Premier David Ben Gurion and attended by notables from all parts of Israel.
Nearly 100 messages of greetings were received from universities abroad, mainly from American universities. The school was opened in 1949 under tremendous post-war difficulties. Before the end of 1952,24 more graduates, now serving as internes, will receive their diplomas. The 1953 graduating class will have 93 students.
Premier Ben Gurion hailed the graduations as an “extraordinarily important event in Jewish history.” He recalled that Jews were skilled physicians in the early times of the Bible and urged the new physicians to engage in medical research as well as in practice. Other speakers included the rector of the Hebrew University Dr. Schwabe, Israel Minister of Education Benzion Dinaburg, the Health Minister Dr. Joseph Burg. Dr. Werner Senator and Mrs. Etta Rosensohn, Hadassah president.
(In New York, Dr. George S. Wise, president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, hailed the event as a “significant development in the progress of public health in Israel.” He declared that the graduates will serve as the nucleus of a corps of Israel-trained physicians whose special training in health problems peculiar to the area will be of direct benefit to the entire Middle East.)
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