Melania and Sara meet children, physicians, nurses at Jerusalem hospital
The women were greeted by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America national president Ellen Hershkin.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: MAY 23, 2017 10:22
Sharing wishes for recovery and good health, US first lady Melania Trump and the prime minister’s wife Sara Netanyahu met a group of children who are hospitalized at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, smiling and giving them gifts.The photo opportunity, which began in the garden outside the Mother and Child Center of the hospital more than two hours late, included Jewish and Arab children and hospital staffers. One child rushed to the roped-in assemblage of journalists to ask one to take a photo of him with the famous women.The women were greeted by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America national president Ellen Hershkin.For some 10 minutes inside the center, the women met with Hadassah Medical Organization director-general Prof.Ze’ev Rotstein, senior gynecologist Prof. Neri Laufer, pediatrics head Prof. Shimon Reif, senior transplant surgeon Dr.Abed Khalaileh, neonatal unit director Prof. Smadar Eventov, Prof. Dorith Shaham, director of the CT and thoracic imaging division, imaging department head nurse Said-Ahmed Akram, nursing director Amalia Schneider, and senior hematologist Dr. Alexander Goral.Shaham stressed that the Hadassah staff – Jews, Arabs, Christians and others – come from different backgrounds and have different views, “but the important thing is whether one is professional and a good person or not.” Shaham, who has studied and worked at Hadassah for three decades, said that the hospital stresses the importance of humanity and compassion for the patient.Rotstein noted that the medical center was founded over a decade ago by Henrietta Szold and other American Jewish women who made up the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America.The women were greeted by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America national president Ellen Hershkin.