Chaim Yassky

Chaim Yassky (1896-1948) was a physician and medical administrator in Jerusalem.

Yassy was born in southern Russia where he became a Zionist. Before World War I he took part in the successful Jewish self-defence against pogromists in the city of Odessa (Gilbert, 1998, p. 170). Following his medical studies Yassky specialized in ophthalmology. In the early 1920's he settled in Palestine where he was assigned by the Hadassah Medical Organization to deal with the problem of trachoma in Judea. In 1931 Yassky became director of the organization and in that capacity he initiated the building of the Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital on Mount Scopus.

Yassky died in the Hadassah medical convoy massacre during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, approximately one month before Israel's declaration of independence.