Hadassah Conference Votes to Expand Medical Program in Israel

Expansion of Hadassah’s comprehensive medical program in Israel to meet future contingencies was voted here today by leaders of the organization from all sections of the United States attending the annual mid-winter conference of Hadassah. The decision was taken following an address by Mrs. Abraham Tulin of New York, chairman of the Hadassah Medical Organization, underscoring the urgency of Israel’s medical needs in the light of the tense Middle East situation.

The action taken includes: 1. Increased support of the only medical school in Israel, which Hadassah maintains together with the Hebrew University; 2. Enlargement of the Hadassah Hospital in Beersheba; 3. Acceleration of existing plans for the construction of a $2,500,000 Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem; 4. Intensification of Hadassah’s medical fellowship program through which young Israeli physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists, scientists, chemists and nurses are brought to the United States for one and two-year studies in their respective fields.

At the same time, Mrs. Tulin announced that Hadassah, which in addition to the seven hospitals maintains a network of health stations, mother-and-child centers, a child guidance clinic and a pilot community health project, would henceforth shift the emphasis of its medical program from the curative aspects to the teaching phase. One of the immediate effects in the new policy will be the intensification of the Hadassah medical fellowship program which since its inception in 1946 has brought 100-Israeli physicians and technicians to the United States for specialized study.

Mrs. De. Leonard Cohen, of Westport, Conn; chairman of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Committee, announced the opening of a new fund-raising effort for $5,000,000 to complete the projected medical center, now in the process of construction, which will include a 440-bed university-connected hospital, a medical school, a nurses training school and an out-patient clinic capable of treating 1,200 patients daily. Mrs. Cohen reported that Hadassah has already raised $7,000,000 for the medical center and that construction of several of the units has already begun.

Mrs. Samuel W. Halprin, Zionist Affairs chairman of Hadassah, who returned last Saturday from a special flying trip to Israel, told the assembled Hadassah leaders that United States delays in selling defensive arms to Israel “is giving the Egyptian armed forces additional time for training with the newly-acquired Communist weapons.” On behalf of Hadassah’s 300,000 members, she called upon the State Department to take immediate favorable action on Israel’s request for arms. She said that Israel’s pressing need was for planes capable of fighting Communist arms pouring into Alexandria. She called upon the United States also to offer a security pact to Israel and any other nation in the region that desires such a pact.