Hadassah Medical Organization’s Passover message:
Dear Hadassah International Family from around the Globe,
No matter where we might live around the world, the heart of our Passover celebrations is telling our story. Hadassah also begins with a story, the one Henrietta Szold told over and over of the sick men, women and children whom she and her mother saw on their visit to pre-State Israel in 1909. She described children with flies in their eyes, malnutrition and contagion. Then she enthralled her listeners with a vision of a country that would come into existence with modern medicine that could be a light among nations. This would be the mission of Hadassah, USA. They started by sending two nurses in 1913. The Hadassah story continues with the creation of the Hadassah Medical Organization with its two teaching hospitals in Jerusalem, and later with the creation of an international arm, Hadassah International, 40 years ago in 1983.
At Hadassah, we continue to be visionaries and to make history. In Newsweek, we were voted one of 2023’s best smart hospitals and one of the best in cardiology and oncology. We were instrumental in ensuring that Jerusalem will be the location of a new factory for the development and production of mRNA vaccines. This project is a collaboration of Hadassah, the Jerusalem Municipality, Hebrew University, the Israeli government, and the German company BioNTech, which developed the coronavirus vaccine with Pfizer. We’re at the threshold of cutting-edge improvements in medicine. We are moving ahead with laboratory mini-organs called organoids to test patient-specific medications. We’re applying Big Data to choose tumor-blasting solutions. Patients are already beating the blood cancer multiple myeloma with a Hadassah-developed adaption of CAR-T immunology therapy. For the first time ever, Israeli researchers from Hadassah Hospital have created human male and female cells with the same genetic code, from the same person – a unique model that could lead to new discoveries of sex differences and gender medicine. These are only a few examples of the groundbreaking activities taking place at Hadassah. Working with Hadassah International, Hadassah’s outreach around the world continues. Last year, 100 Hadassah medical staff members treated the refugees leaving Ukraine. This year, our staff was in Turkey to save lives in the earthquake. All the while we continue to establish collaborative relationships with governments, communities and medical facilities that improve medical care in countries around the globe.
You have enabled all of this by your visionary and fiscal support. You have empowered us to bravely set forth to tackle the toughest medical problems and to reach out to those who need our help.
This, dear friends is your story to tell.
From Jerusalem, we humbly and gratefully thank you.
We end the Seder with “Next Year in Jerusalem.” Please come and see the Hadassah Hospitals with your own eyes so that you can tell our newest stories.
From our family Seder tables to yours, we wish you and yours a joyous Passover!
Hag Pesach Sameach! Happy Easter! Ramadan Mubarak!
Mrs. Dalia Itzik – Chairperson of the Board & Prof. Yoram Weiss – Director General
Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem