Now-editorial Notes

Hadassah and the American Friends of the Hebrew University announce that the first medical center and graduate school of medicine in Palestine, to be known as the Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital, will be established on Mount Scopus, near the Hebrew University.

According to Mrs. Edward Jacobs, chairman of the building committee, the new institution will consist of a hospital, complete clinical and research laboratories and a medical school. The academic work will be directed by the Hebrew University. A number of noted specialists in various branches of medicine, German Jewish refugees, will be invited as members of the faculty.

This is one of the most urgent needs in the rapidly growing Jewish Palestine. While the Hadassah is doing exemplary, heroic work in Palestine, the present facilities in the existing hospitals are entirely inadequate. The modern health centers established by Nathan and Lina Straus in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are extremely useful institutions, but most of the present hospitals in Palestine are old, almost dilapidated.

The Hebrew University will gain in significance and importance with the establishment of a medical school under its auspices.

Thirteen years ago, Professor Albert Einstein, during his first visit to the United States, advocated the creation of the Hebrew University and gave the reasons why he was so keenly interested in the project.

“The purpose of my visit to America at this time is to enlist both the moral and material support of the Jews of America for the building of a Hebrew University in Palestine,” he said. “Such a university would assist enormously in the up-building of Palestine, for it would become a spiritual center of Jewish education and culture for the Jews in the Holy Land. Later this university would also attract Jewish students of other lands, who would come to study in Palestine. But, above all, I consider it most important that there shall exist this common Jewish cultural enterprise, which is of the utmost significance for all Jews.

“Through my contact with Jewish students in various parts of Europe I have arrived at the decision that such an institution of learning in Palestine is essential. I have met the Jewish students of Austria, Hungary and of Russia, who are clamoring to complete their education in European universities. I have seen the difficulties and hardships which these young men and women are experiencing. I have observed the discriminations which have become intensified since the war. Poverty, the economic collapse in Central European countries, has fanned the flames of national hatreds, and the Jewish students have suffered in Germany. in Poland and especially in Hungary. A large number of Jewish students are barred from the universities on religious grounds. Many of the students have come to me for aid. I have seen their helplessness, their hardships and their needs. And in this way I came to the realization that a Hebrew University in Palestine is an absolute necessity for the Jewish people.”

Professor Einstein then predicted that “the Hebrew University in Palestine would become a new ‘Holy Place’ to our people.”

At that time Professor Einstein also interested a group of Jewish physicians in the United States for the purpose of raising funds for the establishment of a medical school as part of the university.

The Physicians’ Committee has worked on this project since that time, and now, with the aid of the best organized branch of the American Zionist movement, the Hadassah, the plan is coming to life.

The sad plight of the Jewish students in Europe thirteen years ago that inspired Professor Einstein to devote his energies to the creation of the Hebrew University, has now become tragic as a result of the intensified Jew-hatred and the rise of Nazism, and the acute economic distress of the Jewish people in Poland.

While, of course, the medical school of the Hebrew University will solve the problem of but few of the multitude of students, it will serve the people of Palestine in a practical manner and enhance the value of the University to Palestinian Jewry. By promoting medical science in Palestine and raising the health standards of the people, the Medical School is sure to prove also a factor for more friendly relations among the different elements of the population.