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Left to right: Nancy Falchuk, International President of
Hadassah and past Hadassah International President;
Bernice S. Tannenbaum, Founder of Hadassah International
and past National President of Hadassah USA; and
Barbara Sabin, Hadassah International Conference Chair |
“I can’t visualize the hospital without Hadassah International,” Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Director General of the Hadassah Medical Center, told the over 200 men and women from 20 countries who came to Jerusalem in March to participate in Hadassah International’s Conference 2008 entitled “Partners in Healing.” Delegates came from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
As the four-day Conference unfolded, program after program illuminated the impact of Hadassah International’s partnership with the Hadassah Medical Center, the excellence pursued by our health professionals, and the power of our mission to improve the world. Journey with us through the tours of our hospitals and the sessions, which left all who experienced them inspired and fortified with new knowledge to share with colleagues and potential supporters back home.
THE NEW FACE OF ISRAEL
Business Forum, Wednesday Morning, March 19
Left to right: Hadassah International's Director of Development for Europe Beatrice Birnbaum and Hadassah International Director Melissa Kaplan welcomed the panelists--Jeremie Kletzkine, Stuart Bernstein (behind Kletzkine), Julien Meissonnier, Didier Toubia, and Dr. Irene Zeitoun to the first-ever Business Forum at a Hadassah International Conference, held at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
 Kobi Avramov, Head of Research at TASE, noted that “The capital markets are a global village” and Israel is actively involved in the international economic scene.
 Speaking about “The Israeli Silicon Valley: Looking to the Future,” Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arbel Medical, a medical device company, discussed the challenges that all start-up companies face, and those that are unique to Israel. In Israel, he explained, there are many innovations, particularly coming from the Army, but there aren't enough business-oriented marketers for this new technology, and few active Israeli venture capitalists.
 Jeremie Kletzkine, IT Manager for Roshumbo, an online games design company, and Co-Founder of Israel Valley.com, noted that a major challenge is building and keeping an “A team” at the company. |
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 Stuart Bernstein, Vice President of Marketing and Development for Hadasit, who addressed the topic, “Strengthening Financial Ties: Israel and the World Markets,” explained that Hadasit, Hadassah’s technology transfer company, is commercializing Hadassah’s intellectual property in a multitude of medical fields including stem cell research, cardiology, orthopedics, dentistry, gastroenterology, and autoimmune diseases. “The greatest challenge,” he said, “is making the financial leap of faith,” moving beyond the initial funding to create a company. Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd. (HBL), he noted, “represents that leap of faith.”
 Dr. Irene Zeitoun, Director of Research and Development for Ester Neurosciences Ltd., involved in the Israeli life sciences industry, noted that both local and foreign investors see the potential and opportunities with Israeli biotechnology. She predicted that multinational companies will buy Israeli technology and set up subsidiaries in Israel to develop it.
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 Julien Meissonnier, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Evogene Ltd. and General Manager of R.O.I. Consulting, took participants through the start-up venture process and noted that a key factor is recognizing the need to collaborate. |
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Click here to view more photos from the business forum.
IT TAKES A DREAM
Hadassah International 25th Anniversary Dinner, Wednesday Evening, March 19
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Flag bearers marched into the ballroom
with flags representing each country where
there is a Hadassah International presence |
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Anne Lahiani (left), Hadassah International
Conference Co-Chair, and musical entertainer, Dganit |
Trisha Margulies (left), Hadassah International President,
and Jayne Chait |
“Everybody is so enthusiastic and has this energy working for Hadassah,
which is contagious!”
--Jayne Chait, Past President
Hadassah Wellington, New Zealand
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“I look at the list of all that Hadassah International has contributed to our hospitals and
I can’t see the hospitals without this list.”
--Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Director General
Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem
“For more than a quarter of a century you have opened the doors to societies around the world for the Hadassah Medical Center and its extraordinary work….
You have built bridges to nations through medicine regardless of the political environments. You have shown Israel at its best. It is hard to overstate the contributions of Hadassah International.”
--Nancy Falchuk
International President of Hadassah
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Bernice Tannenbaum with Mr. Abe from Japan |
“We had a dream and a message. The message is that a medical institution is a work of peace, directed towards enhancing the welfare of all peoples. …You have built Hadassah International step by step with fire, passion, and perseverance. …It has been an amazing journey and a privilege to build Hadassah International with you.”
“The potential and the possibilities are mindboggling, demanding courage and daring and wise decision making on the part of those who are now or will soon lead our great international organization. Hadassah International has become Hadassah’s bridge to the world and it can be its road to tomorrow.”
“Every day let us remind ourselves that there are always new worlds to conquer, new barricades to jump over. The next decades are on the horizon and let us be ready for them and may it be in a world of shalom (peace).”
--Bernice S. Tannenbaum
Founder, Hadassah International
“I pledge, as Chair of Keren Hayesod, to continue to love Hadassah and to help Hadassah.”
--Israeli Ambassador H.E. Avi Pazner
“Hadassah International’s voice as a nongovernmental organization on the international scene has been counted!”
--Israeli Ambassador H.E. Yaakov Levy
“I thank you for all the efforts to bring Hadassah France to life.”
--Israeli Ambassador H.E. Jacques Revah
“I remember when we were working to get $250,000 for a kidney smashing machine and now it is $250 million we are trying to raise. When I think of all the distances that have been covered, I say, Kol Hakavod! (All Honors to you!)”
--Israeli Ambassador H.E. Yossi Amihoud
In true Hadassah International tradition, the delegates closed the evening with dance!
Click here to view more photos from the 25th Anniversary Dinner.
TOMORROW'S MEDICINE TODAY
Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus, Thursday, March 20
“We and Hadassah International have a unique partnership. Together, we choose the projects you will support. Through your initiatives we at the Hadassah Medical Center are both on the giving and receiving side. For example, like in Panama, where our physicians went to Panama to help set up the country’s first trauma unit.”
“We are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we don’t take sides. The minute our doctors and nurses put the white coat on, they all become part of our team.”
--Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Director General
Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem
“We can’t be satisfied with just excellent medicine and cutting-edge research. We need to provide a healing environment for our patients. The new Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower is the dream of yesterday, the hope of today, and the reality of tomorrow.”
--Dr. Yair Birnbaum, Associate Director General
Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem
“With its high-level clinical care and sophisticated research, Hadassah is the best place for translational research—from the laboratory bench to the bedside.”
“In four to five years, personalized medicine, where individuals receive different treatment based on their genetic difference, will be routine therapy.”
“As the great Jewish sage Moses Maimonides said, ‘The physician should not treat the disease, but the patient who is suffering from it.’”
--Prof. Yaakov Naparstek
Head, Department of Internal Medicine
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Prof. Eitan Kerem shows conference participants the
newly dedicated Eli Douer & Family Center for Pediatric
Genetic and Chronic Diseases at Hadassah-Mount Scopus |
"In this department we treat the whole family, not just the child who is ill. Parents and siblings often have problems dealing with the day-to-day challenges of a child in the family who is always ill and often requires painful treatments."
--Prof. Eitan Kerem, Head
Pediatrics Department, Hadassah-Mount Scopus
“Being an island of excellence in the Middle East,
we have a responsibility to provide our expertise;
to be a bridge to peace.”
--Prof. David Linton, Head
Intensive Care Unit, Hadassah-Ein Kerem
Conference delegates toured Hadassah's two hills of healing and saw the impact of their contributions.
From top right, clockwise: Young Hadassah International with their plaque thanking them for funds raised for the Orthopedic Surgery Department's Advanced Trauma Treatment; Hadassah International delegates with a medical clown in the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Mother and Child Center; visiting a premature newborn in the Neonatology Department; in the Judy and Sidney Swartz Center for Emergency Medicine (CEM); with a mannequin used for training in the CEM.
TRIBUTE TO THE HADASSAH INTERNATIONAL UNITS
Fannie and Maxwell Abbell Synagogue (home of the Chagall Windows), Thursday Afternoon, March 20
From top right, clockwise:
Terry Schwartzfeld of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO
Yonit Schechtman, Chair of Young Hadassah Italy
Ethel Fainstein, Director of Latin America
Gady Gronich, Director of Germany
Susi Shaked, President of Hadassah Austria
Lorena Skarbnik of Young Hadassah Argentina with Norma Lenore, Hadassah International Certificates Chair
Hadassah France delegation
Hadassah United Kingdom delegation
FESTIVE PURIM CELEBRATION
Thursday Evening, March 20
Hosted by Prof. Avi Rivkind, Head of Surgery and the Trauma Unit at Hadassah Medical Center
From left to right: Prof. Avi Rivkind;
Jael Liscia with her brother, Gadiel, of Young Hadassah Italy;
Yonit Schechtman, Chair of Young Hadassah Italy; Nehama Grenimann of Young Hadassah Israel; Anna Gronich of Young Hadassah Germany
HONORING VOLUNTEERS OF DISTINCTION
Friday Morning, March 20
Volunteer of Distinction Bobby Sager, Founder of the Sager Family Traveling Foundation, which provides economic opportunities in the developing world and projects to promote peace among populations in conflict:
“Making the world a better place affords the opportunity to live the fullest possible life for me and my family.”
“We can’t outsource fixing the world to political leaders. …As individuals, we can only plant the seeds. And we never know how many initiatives will emerge from that one seed.”
Volunteer of Distinction Michel Leeb, Actor and long-time Hadassah Supporter:
“We are all responsible for the future of our children. Thank you for helping me to know people better and love them better.”
GENERATION TO GENERATION: AN EVOLVING VISION OF ISRAEL
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Shula Cohen-Kishik (right)
with her daughter-in-law,
Edna Levanon, Hadassah
International Consultant |
Shula Cohen-Kishik, code name “the Pearl,” Volunteer Secret Agent for the Israeli Intelligence Agency, Mossad:
“I am proud of having helped to build the State of Israel.”
Noa Rothman with Alex Gold,
Co-Chair of Young Hadassah
United Kingdom |
Noa Rothman, Granddaughter of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who has been continuing her grandfather’s legacy of pursuing peace:
“The younger generation is confident to lead the State of Israel to the next stage of normalization, trying to build a strong civil society on a people-to-people level.”
NANCY FALCHUK NURSING SCHOLARSHIP AWARD CEREMONY
“We have met many heroes during our conference and honored many distinguished people. But the real heroes are the nurses who work in our hospitals every day.”
--International Hadassah President Nancy Falchuk
Click here to view more photos of the Friday sessions.
60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Gala Banquet, Saturday Evening, March 22
“We wanted to be a light unto the nations…to create a country based on excellence, on justice, and sustainable. This is the same purpose as Hadassah International.”
“Hadassah is a symbol of the spirit of morality, the spirit of sustainability, of excellence, and of justice.”
“Our responsibility is to treat patients, to do research, and to educate. But the main responsibility is to plan for the future, to think about the future, to be ready for the future. …We can dream, but at some point we have to turn these dreams into action.”
“Excellence is the name of the game. …It is now the time to build the next 50 years of excellence. …In order to be in the frontline of the world in medicine, we need your support.”
--Professor Avishay Braverman, Member of Knesset
Former President of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev
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Lt. Col. Sharon Biton (left), patient of
Prof. Jose Cohen, Hadassah Neuroradiologist,
with Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef,
Hadassah Medical Center Director General |
“It is my first time to stand in front of an audience of so many givers and I am the only taker here.
…As far as I am concerned, this room is filled with angels.
…In order for a miracle to happen, you need an angel and
I found mine in Hadassah.” (Click here for the full story.)
--Lt. Col. Sharon Biton
Israel Defense Forces
Hadassah International units pledged 16 million dollars to help build the Medical Center’s new Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower, which will replace the current inpatient facility in 2012. In addition, individual donors pledged over $50,000 dollars more!
