Hadassah Medical Center

Hadassah Medical Center (מרכז רפואי הדסה) includes two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and outpatient clinics at Bikur Holim Hospital and the Malha Technology Centre, as well as in Tel Aviv. The Center was founded and is partially funded by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. It also operates a private medical consulting firm as well as a Biotechnology development business.

In 2005, the Center was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize due to its equality in treatment, its ethnic and religious diversity, and its efforts to build bridges to peace.

A hospital of the same name also exists in Safed. Hadassah's first hospital, also referred to as "Hadassah Hospital", was founded in Hebron, but ceased to function after the 1929 Hebron Massacre. The building is now known as Beit Hadassah, and is populated by Israeli settlers there.

Mount Scopus campus
The cornerstone for the Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus was laid in 1934. After five years of construction, the complex, designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn, opened its doors in 1939.

In March of 1947, the leader of the Arab Forces in Jerusalem, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, threatened to blow up the hospital. He did not carry this threat through, but attacks were carried out on traffic to and from the complex. On the 13th of April, 1948, an armoured convoy of doctors, nurses, medical students, and other staff made its way to the hospital. The group was ambushed, and 77 of its members were killed in what has become known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre. After that harsh blow to its functional capability and morale, the hospital wound down operations until it was eventually closed. In the 1949 armistice with Jordan, Mount Scopus became a demilitarized enclave, and the facility was ultimately reopened in Ein Kerem, in Israeli controlled Jerusalem.

As a result of the 1967 Six-Day War Jerusalem was reunited, and after a period of extensive renovation, Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus was reopened in 1975. With over 300 beds and 30 departments and clinics, the hospital is the best equipped serving the northern and eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem, a fact attested to by the large percentage of patients coming from the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.

Ein Kerem campus
31.765°N, 35.14917°W For 13 years, medical care was provided out of temporary sites throughout the city after access was lost to the Mount Scopus campus. In 1961, construction of a large and modern medical complex was completed adjacent to Ein Karem, a garden suburb in south-western Jerusalem. The Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America again assisted with funding, and the somewhat out-of-the-way location was chosen in part because an appropriate site was difficult to obtain in the city-center, and Hadassah owned a large plot in Ein Kerem. Today the hospital accommodates 700 beds. It contains 130 departments and clinics in 22 different buildings. The hospital complex also includes the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, and pharmacology, as well as many modern research laboratories. It is currently the largest and most modern hospital in Jerusalem, and provides many specialized services in complement to those offered on Mount Scopus.

The campus synagogue is famous for its stained glass windows depicting the twelve tribes of Israel, created and donated in 1960 by Marc Chagall.

Hadassah's director is Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef. Prominent physicians include Dr. Avraham Rivkind, founder and director of the hospital's trauma center, Dr. Ahmed Eid, head of the liver and kidney transplant unit, and Knesset Member Dr. Arie Eldad, head of the department of plastic surgery and burns unit and American Burns Treatment Association Evans Award recipient.

In March 2007 Jewish American billionaire William Davidson donated $75 million dollars to the hospital.