At Rosh Hashanah, Reflecting on 5784

At Rosh Hashanah, we’re taking this opportunity to reflect on the many ways our Hadassah community came together in sweet times and in challenging times, and how Hadassah has shone bright over the last Jewish year on multiple fronts, including medical research and achievements at Hadassah’s hospitals, women’s health and rights, antisemitism, war response, building community and empowering women, and so much more.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of Hadassah’s 5784 accomplishments.

Together We Will Heal: Responding to War

• Since October 7, 2023, Hadassah has kept our community across the country united around our ongoing efforts to heal Israel, from treating wounded civilians and soldiers to long-term care — both medical and psychological. Through several Zoom briefings, Hadassah leaders, doctors and grateful patients have shared updates about Hadassah’s lifesaving efforts. In the most recent, Yonti Bahat, who was gravely injured while fighting in Gaza, spoke about what it was like to be treated with Hadassah’s medical innovations. In the first, just one week after Hamas attacked Israel, Prof. Yoram Weiss, director general of the Hadassah Medical Organization, told of how the medical teams were addressing complicated injuries to the chest, stomach, hands, limbs and heads of more than 100 war-wounded patients.
• Sending the message that Hadassah stands with Israel, Hadassah members and leaders from around the country were among the nearly 300,000 marching at the largest pro-Israel rally in US history on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
• To bear witness to testimony about Hamas’ acts of gender-based violence and demand action, Hadassah co-sponsored a special session hosted by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations. Hadassah continued to put public pressure on the UN and UN Women, including leading a letter, signed by 53 organizations, calling on UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other leaders to condemn Hamas by name for the systematic weaponization of sexual violence as a weapon of war and call this crime what it is: a crime against humanity. Hadassah also launched End The Silence, a global campaign to raise awareness of Hamas’ gender-based violence on October 7 and beyond and demand that the UN conduct an independent, unbiased investigation of Hamas’ use of rape and gender-based violence as weapons of war, resulting in 150,000 advocates from 118 countries and 119 organizations writing to UN Secretary-General Guterres, demanding justice for Israeli women and girls.
  

New Sites of Lifesaving Activity

• The Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus welcomed its first patients, 12 people wounded in the war, on January 15 as part of the facility’s phased opening. They were treated in the War-Wounded Department with state-of-the-art equipment. Construction of the Gandel Center was accelerated to meet the great demand for rehabilitation since October 7. Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem also welcomed the first patients into its reimagined Round Building, including the Alberto and Vicky Saba Internal Medicine Complex, on May 2. The newly designed building significantly enhances the hospital's capacity, providing a modern space for some of Israel’s most cutting-edge medical care and top experts, especially in the fields of internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, maternity, oncology, dermatology and more.

Leading the Way in Medical Care, Treatments and Research

• The Hadassah Medical Organization has discovered genetic mutations common in Arab women — not on the BRCA gene — but on a gene called TP53, allowing for testing for breast cancer markers to help save Arab women’s lives.
• Orthopedic surgeons at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem successfully reconstructed soldier Shilo Segev’s shattered knee using a 3D printer after the 21-year-old was shot multiple times by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Doctors used a bone from his pelvis to replace his shattered thigh bone, using the 3D technology as a guide.
• Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem neurologist Dr. Petrou Panayiota presented a study at the 2024 Forum of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis showing evidence of significant beneficial effects of repeated stem cell injections in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis. Improvements were not only in neurological function but also in cognition and quality of life, and there were no adverse effects on the 23 participants in the study. Additionally, Prof. Dimitrios Karussis, head of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Multiple Sclerosis Center, has been working on the next phase of clinical trials using stem cells to suppress the progression of multiple sclerosis, as reported in a May 2024 article in Rare Disease Advisor. In 2020, Prof. Karussis saw a pronounced beneficial effect of stem cells in a double-blind phase 2 study of 48 patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
• Researchers at the Hadassah Medical Organization have achieved a major breakthrough in personalized cancer care utilizing artificial intelligence. MESiCA, a new neural embedding model developed at the Hadassah Cancer Research Institute, uses machine learning, a kind of artificial intelligence, as well as natural language processing, to detect dominant mutational signatures in targeted gene panels using only a few mutations, making it ideal for everyday clinical use.
• Hadassah researchers found that newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV), a leading cause of childhood neurologic deficits with lifelong implications, can be carried out reliably with pooled saliva tests for universal screening. Their study emphasizes the significance of early detection through this method.
• New research at Hadassah hospitals shows a direct link between lack of sleep and suicidal thoughts in youth. This research will encourage practitioners to elevate sleep as a risk factor in suicide, the second leading cause of death in children and adolescents, according to Dr. Amit Shalev, head of the Herman Dana Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Hadassah Medical Organization, who spoke about his research on the Tel Aviv-based news network ILTV.
• Dr. Alex Gileles-Hillel, a physician-scientist at the Hadassah Medical Organization, conducted a new study highlighting how gender bias in Israeli and American ERs impacts treatment. The doctor spoke with Nature about the study, which found that women were 10 percent less likely than men to have a recorded pain score that helps to inform physicians about the severity of pain, waited an average of 30 minutes longer than men to see a physician and were less likely than men to receive pain medication. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Advancing Women’s Health

• Hadassah signed onto amicus briefs for two monumental Supreme Court cases that threaten reproductive freedom across the country: FDA vs. Alliance, which challenged the FDA’s approval of and expanded access to mifepristone, a medication that induces abortion and treats ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages and other medical conditions; and US vs. Idaho, which highlighted the negative health impacts of abortion bans, especially for disadvantaged and minority women.
• Hadassah’s acting co-CEO Sheryl Zeligson represented Hadassah at the White House to celebrate Women’s History Month and President Biden’sexecutive order focusing on one of Hadassah’s longtime advocacy priorities: women’s health research — specifically to fill the tremendous gaps in knowledge regarding women’s biology, health and disease.

Supporting a Strong Alliance With Israel, Amplifying Zionist Voices and Fighting Antisemitism

• The US formally admitted Israel into its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), allowing Israeli travelers to visit the US for business or pleasure for up to 90 days without a visa. Hadassah had urged the Biden Administration and elected officials to support Israel’s admission into the program, while then-Hadassah National President Rhoda Smolow and then-CEO Naomi Adler wrote letters to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security outlining how Israel’s acceptance would serve the economies of both.
• In partnership with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Hadassah hosted an impactful congressional briefing, American Women Supporting Israel: Building Bridges and Making an Impact, featuring four exceptional women working to build support for Zionism who believe that America needs policies that support a strong alliance with Israel.
• Hadassah hosted its first-ever Zionism symposium during a time when championing Zionism was needed more than ever. Hundreds of people tuned in to Inspire Zionism: Tech, Trailblazers and Tattoos to hear young Zionist thinkers speak passionately about identity, public perception of Israel, antisemitism and disinformation on social media, and empowerment. Hadassah also released its second annual list of “18 American Zionist Women You Should Know,” comprising Jews and non-Jews, American immigrants and Americans who have made aliyah, and, like Israel and Zionism today, representing a wide range of viewpoints, identities and activities. The list featured TV star Debra Messing.
• Legislation adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism has advanced in several states over the last year, thanks to the tireless advocacy of Hadassah members. Hadassah continues to mobilize on the local, state and federal levels to implement tools that educate and combat antisemitism in all 50 states. Moreover, in response to the 140 percent increase in antisemitism in the US in 2023, Hadassah created the Every Antisemitism: Women’s Stories survey, asking women across the country to share their personal experiences with antisemitism. Findings will be shared with Congress, the Jewish community, the media and more.

Thriving at Youth Aliyah Villages

• Hadassah Neurim Youth Aliyah Village’s robotics team, XO 7039# FIRST, won first place in the 2023 regional robotics competition and also received the Creativity Award. The team was on its way to becoming one of the 10 best teams in Israel for the sixth year.
• In the aftermath of October 7, Hadassah’s Meir Shfeyah and Hadassah Neurim Youth Aliyah villages had been trying to adjust to a new reality. When many workers were called up for reserve military duty, Meir Shfeyah students stepped up and chipped in to help clear a field for planting, and Hadassah Neurim took in 160 evacuees from Kfar Silver, a youth village located in the south of Israel.
  

Accolades for Hadassah

• Hadassah’s hospitals were named by Newsweek as global leaders in cardiology and oncology in its list of the “World’s Best Specialized Hospitals 2025.”
• The Hadassah Medical Organization’s Cardio-Oncology Center was declared Israel’s first Center of Excellence by the International Cardio-Oncology Society, a notable accomplishment as the field of cardio-oncology is still developing in Israel.
• Hadassah received a four-star rating on Charity Navigator. According to the Charity Navigator website, “If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.”

Read Hadassah’s 2023 Impact Report, Lifechanging: A Year of Hope & Healing, a look back at how Hadassah changed lives, offered hope and helped a nation and a people heal.