Hadassah International

Supporting Healing ♦ Teaching ♦ Research

Austria’s Susi Shaked Brings Delegation to Witness Medical Center's Works

27-Mar-2007

Generating interest in the new Tower Campaign, Susi Shaked, President of Hadassah Austria, took a delegation on a visit to the Hadassah Medical Center in March. While at Hadassah Hospital-Ein Kerem, the participants, coming from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, heard a detailed explanation of the architectural plans for the new tower as they viewed the impressive model. One of the participants, Magister der Architektur (Mag. Arch.) Elisabeth Schubrig, is an architect and builder who is building a hospital for vascular disease and recovery in Austria. She noted that she came away with several ideas to explore for her own hospital project. Another member of the delegation was Prof. Hartmut Köehler, Professor of Humanities at Trier University, Trier, Germany, who recently gave a presentation at a Hadassah Austria event.

The group also toured the new floors of the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Mother and Child Center. A meeting was arranged with Hadassah’s Prof. Eran Leitersdorf, Chairman of the Inpatient Department of Medicine B, where they discussed the possibility of clinical and academic exchanges between Hadassah and Austria.

The delegates spent time over lunch with Dr. Yoram Weiss, Assistant Director of Hadassah’s Intensive Care Unit, and Dr. Rahwi (Ruhi) Hashem, an Arab anesthesiologist who trained at Hadassah, thanks to a fellowship from the Kahane Foundation. The foundation provides fellowship funds enabling young gifted Palestinian physicians to study at Hadassah. In 2005, the two physicians had come to Vienna to present “Hadassah as an Island of Peace and Sanity” to the prestigious Bruno Kreisky Forum of International Dialogue. During that time, Hadassah Austria sponsored a dinner to raise money to fund a one-year scholarship for a Palestinian doctor at Hadassah. Dr. Weiss emphasized that, working for a common aim, as in an intensive care unit, physicians forget borders and form life-lasting friendships.

Later in the week, joined by Dr. Yossi Shaked, Susi’s husband, the delegation toured Hadassah Hospital-Mount Scopus and had the opportunity to see the new Neonatal Department and the Rehabilitaton Unit.