On April 13, 1948, a month before Israel's independence, a convoy of vehicles brought patients, staff and soldiers from the center of Jerusalem to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. A bomb halted buses and ambulances as they approached a turn in the road leading to the hospital. Five vehicles were able to escape. The others were ambushed from two sides of the road despite the clear medical markings on the vehicles. Seventy-eight men and women, including hospital director general and ophthalmologist Haim Yassky, were murdered. They were shot or burned to death. This was among the worst terror attacks in Israel's history –– until October 7, 2023.
"Amidst the painful events in the year before statehood, one tragedy has stood out like a continually bleeding wound," said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, at this year's memorial ceremony for the convoy victims. "That is the fall of the Hadassah convoy."
The annual memorial ceremony in the Hadassah Mount Scopus Memorial Garden is always a sober reminder of the steep price paid by Hadassah's dedicated staff and supporters to establish modern medical care for the people of Israel. The ceremony was particularly emotional this year, taking place just a few hours after Israel successfully repelled Iran’s attack of 300 projectiles.
"Hadassah has always been a full partner in the success of Zionism," said Hadassah Medical Organization Director General Prof. Yoram Weiss. He spoke of the 600 war-wounded soldiers and civilians treated at Hadassah since the beginning of the ongoing war with Hamas, and the Hadassah Medical Organization’s outreach to survivors and evacuated Israelis. Hadassah Mount Scopus Director Dr. Tamar Elram urged attendees to have a "modest pride" in their ability to serve and persevere.
Jerusalemite Shuki Levanon, who was only two when his father was murdered accompanying the convoy as a member of the Haganah, represented the victims’ children. Now gray-haired himself, he brings his children and grandchild to perpetuate the memory of his father. Levanon said tearfully that the burning of families in the kibbutzim on October 7 evoked in him the memory of the torching of the buses carrying men and women to Hadassah Mount Scopus 76 years ago.
Together with a torch lighting, the placing of wreaths and traditional memorial prayers chanted by Cantor Simon Cohen, the IDF intelligence branch singing group performed emotive Israeli songs in memory of the victims.
For the song “Jerusalem of Gold,” the singers were accompanied by a special violinist: Givati infantry soldier Hayim Azizi, 22, who was wounded in Gaza. Azizi, who has shrapnel throughout his body from a terrorist bomb, is one of the many soldiers and police officers who are currently being treated at the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Mount Scopus. Despite Azizi's serious injury, he stood on two feet and played Naomi Shemer's love song to Jerusalem with its fitting refrain:
Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.
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