Last summer, when Carol Ann Schwartz of Cincinnati was elected national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, she was set to lead the organization through its planned expansion of Hadassah Hospital’s services and facilities in Israel. The future looked rosy.
By the time Schwartz assumed office on Jan. 1, 2024, that rosy future had turned to disaster and emergency response. Since Oct. 7, Schwartz has visited Israel at least four times, observing and supporting Hadassah’s role in providing medical services to the the Israeli soldiers wounded in battle against Hamas.
Schwartz was in Denver the first weekend in May for Hadassah’s Desert-Mountain regional board meeting. Desert-Mountain region encompasses Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, West Texas, Utah, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. During her Denver visit, she described to the Intermountain Jewish News the scope of Hadassah’s involvement in providing for the medical needs of Israelis during the war with Hamas.
IJN: What is Hadassah’s role since Oct. 7?
Schwartz: Immediately on day one, everyone who works for Hadassah Hospital, who wasn’t otherwise occupied, showed up.
The head of pediatric cardiology who lives in Kibbutz Nir Oz was dealing with his own issues and defense right there at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one-quarter of whose 400 residents were either killed, injured or abducted by Hamas. He wasn’t coming to Hadassah Hospital, but the ones who weren’t in the direct line of fire all showed up, asking, “What are our marching orders? What can we do?”
What we learned was that there were a tremendous number of children involved — hurt, injured, traumatized.
Hadassah Hospital had to assess: What do we need? What’s about to run out? What if this turns into an all out war with every Arab country joining in? As it was, we were lucky because every Arab country did not want to join in.
We were in the process of building the Gandel Rehabilitation Center on Hadassah’s Mount Scopus campus. We needed to accelerate this process, as phase one was not supposed to be finished until third quarter of this year.
One of the lower levels was going to be, if necessary, an underground operating room, emergency room and patient rooms. I had been there before the war broke out, and nothing was finished down there. It was just a white box.
By Jan. 15, 2024, the War Wounded Dept. of the rehab center was operational. It’s amazing how much got done in this short period of time. Not only did phase one of the rehabilitation center open, but all of the services were being offered.
We had doctors going to nearby hotels and kibbutzim to offer services, especially mental health services.
We have a pediatric urologist who took a portable dialysis machine so he could treat some of his patients outside of the hospital. He said, “I never would have thought I’d be doing this, but I am because they need it.”
Psychiatry services were moved from Hadassah’s Mount Scopus campus to its Ein Kerem campus. They moved psychiatry intake to the ER, so that when people came in, they immediately talked to the right person.
Patients were already showing signs of PTSD — maybe they were at the Nova Festival or had a loved one at Kibbutz Nir Oz. They were traumatized by the stories they had heard and photos they had seen. They needed to talk to a professional.
Is Hadassah treating wounded soldiers?
Absolutely. We see them going from surgery at the Ein Kerem campus, and asking to go for rehab at the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center on Mount Scopus.
I was there in January, February and March. Each time, we brought groups of Hadassah members to talk with the patients. One of the solider we met with had survived Gaza, but he lost three of his mates who were in his unit. He said, “I want to tell you their names and about them.”
The visiting group, prior to coming to the hospital, had gone to Herzl Cemetery on Mount Scopus, where there is a plaque with the names of all the deceased soldiers. One of the gentlemen had taken a photo of some of the names, and they happened to be the guys from this patient’s unit. The man who took the picture said, “I wanted to remember these names so that these young people are not forgotten by us who are visiting from the US.”
He showed the photo to the young soldier in the hospital, who responded, “You really are going to remember my friends.”
How was the hospital affected by staff members who perhaps were called into the reserves on and after Oct. 7?
We had a lot of staff members called into the reserves. In fact, in one unit alone, there were 10 surgeons called in.
We had to pull people from other campuses so that the coverage was even. We also had surgeons and anesthesiologists from the US who could speak Hebrew, so there wouldn’t be any language barrier between the physicians, nurses and patients.
When Oct. 7 happened, it was “all hands on deck.” One of the ER nurses showed up right away, even knowing her daughter had gone to the Nova Music Festival, and she had no idea what condition her daughter was in, but she showed up to work and said, “At least now I’m busy and I’m going to make a difference and help save lives.”
A young woman at the Nova Music Festival escaped with her life, hiding under a tank, but with dead young people all around her. It was a 10-hour process to completely escape that area. She had made a tourniquet herself on her leg and was brought by helicopter to Hadassah with shrapnel all over her. She needed numerous surgeries.
It was her mother who was working in the ER, trying to keep her mind busy and save lives.
How many members does Hadassah have?
We have 300,000 members and associates across the US, and we have supporters around the world. Hadassah is international — in England, France, Asia, Central America, Brazil, to name a few.
We conducted the End the Silence campaign, asking people to sign a petition to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to end the silence around Hamas’ use of rape as a weapon of war on Oct. 7 and demand justice and accountability.
We took it global. This was the first time Hadassah had done something like this. I said we need to show the power of Hadassah, and we had 140,000 signatures from 118 countries.
We also delivered a petition in January to the International Red Cross demanding that they do their job to check on the hostages. They are a humanitarian organization; this is their responsibility, and they are shirking their responsibility.
All they are doing is showing up for a photo op when the hostages are freed. That doesn’t count. They need to actually check and confirm that these hostages are being fed, that they’ve gotten medical attention, that they’re being taken care of.
We are showing that we Hadassah is not just this old women’s organization. Yes, the organization has been around for a long time, but we are as strong as ever, if not stronger.
© IJN 2024