Isidore D. Morrison Donates Ophthalmic Institute to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, First Unit of Me

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will be equipped with an Opthalmic Institute for research as well as clinical purposes, constituting the first unit of the University’s medical department, through the generosity of Isidore D. Morrison, well known New York lawyer and American Zionist leader of long standing, it was announced yesterday by Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, President of the American Jewish Physicians Committee and Chairman of the University Hospital Committee, which are cooperating with the Board of Governors of the University in upbuilding and enlarging the University in Jerusalem.

A fund sufficient for the erection of a building to house the Institute and for its equipment will be placed by Mr. Morrison at the disposal of the University authorities and the University Hospital Committee in New York. It was estimated that the building and equipment cost will amount to about $100,000. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison have, in addition, pledged themselves to contribute annually the amount of $10,000 toward the maintenance cost of the Institute. The balance of the maintenance cost is to be provided, it was stipulated, out of sums of the general budget of the University. Mr. Morrison added that he has made testamentary provision for the extension and enlargement of the Institute as well as for its complete maintenance as part of the University.

The Institute is to be erected on a site owned by the University Hospital Committee and will be modelled after the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The plan for the construction of the building will be supervised by Dr. S. S. Goldwater, head of Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Isidore Goldstein, eye surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital and lecturer at Columbia on operations of the eye, will sail for Palestine next month to complete the plans for the Institute.

To a representative of the “Jewish Daily Bulletin,” Mr. Morrison explained that he was prompted to provide the fund for the establishment of the Ophthalmic Institute because he realized that in the Near East where the population is the greatest sufferer from eye diseases, there are no outstanding institutions where these diseases may be properly investigated and their spread prevented. It was his desire to provide a nucleus for the medical department of the Hebrew University through the establishment of this Institute.

Mr. Morrison, who has been active in (Continued on Page 4)

the American Zionist movement for several decades, established an endowment fund of $100,000 in 1925, the income of which is applied annually in contributions toward the Palestine Foundation Fund, the Hebrew University and the Jewish National Fund.

Isidore D. Morrison was born in Poland in 1871. He came to the United States in 1886. Combining his mercantile pursuits with studies in the evening, Mr. Morrison graduated in 1896 from the Law School of New York University and was admitted to the bar in the same year. In 1890, four years after his arrival in this country, he was a frequent contributor to the “Albany Argus,” writing on political conditions in Russia at that time. In 1905, Mr. Morrison established, together with Jacob R. Schiff’ the law firm of Morrison and Schiff, which became one of the leading real estate law firms in New York City.

In the Zionist movement Mr. Morrison has been one of the early pioneers In 1898 he was chosen honorary secretary of the Federation of American Zionists, succeeeding Dr. Stephen S. Wise, under the presidency of Prof Richard Gottheil, a post held until 1903.

During and following the World War, Mr. Morrison took a very active part in the Zionist movement in the United States, having served in leading honorary positions in the movement. He has been a member of the Administrative Committee of the Zionist Organization of America, chairman of the Finance Committee of the United Palestine Appeal in 1928 and national vicechairman of the United Palestine Appeal, which position he now holds.