Sixty Years, Sixty Voices » Health http://www.60voices.org Israeli and Palestinian Women Building a Sustainable Peace Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:13:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Barbara: Wednesday http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/03/barbara-wednesday/ http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/03/barbara-wednesday/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:10:23 +0000 BarbaraSofer http://www.60voices.org/?p=504 I was back at Hadassah Hospital last night for some family. The ophthalmologist I needed to see for something was unexpectedly busy. He had to rush to the emergency room where the neurosurgeon was working on the teen who had a cinder block thrown at his head. A Jewish teen, by the way. The conflict in Hebron goes on over whether or not the purchase of a house there by a Jew from the US was legal or not. Like everything in Hebron, this immediately incites violence. And the irony? The word Hebron, al halil in Arabic, comes from the word for “friend” named for Abraham, “the great friend” who is buried in Hebron. Both Hebron Jews and Arabs are hot-headed.

This morning I went to a conference on Chronic Diseases for Children at Hadassah’s Mount Scopus hospital. Several hundred medical professionals from different fields and from all different ethnic backgrounds were there. There was a particularly interesting lecture about the dilemmas of child adoption.

Today in Jerusalem, our new mayor Nir Barkat takes office. He’s a person of good character, intelligence and vision and I wish him the best in helping to solve the complex problems of our very special city.

]]> http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/03/barbara-wednesday/feed/ 0 Barbara: Tuesday http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/02/barbara-tuesday/ http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/02/barbara-tuesday/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:22:27 +0000 KarenFox http://www.60voices.org/?p=489 Today I spent part of the day brainstorming with a mixed team of Israelis and Palestinians staff members about the best way to improve the experiences of Palestinian parents, (mostly mothers) who visit Hadassah Hospital. We have thousands of patients from Gaza and the West Bank, and many arrive without pocket money, let alone the kind of family support that local patients—Jewish and Arab—get from their extended families. We are coming up with a pilot program which we hope will be sponsored. The number of Palestinians treated at Hadassah’s hospitals increases every year.

I was also involved in a meeting about a fundraising dinner for a new center to make the diagnosis process easier and more effective for women with possible breast cancer. So many women miss early detection because they are afraid of the testing. Breast cancer is a scourge for Jewish and Palestinian women, of course.

I also dropped in at the Hadassah Hospital emergency room to say a quick hello to my daughter, a new nurse. Lots of sick kids—no time for coffee. Too bad. There’s an Aroma café, my favorite brand, on the Hadassah campus. I got up at my usual 6:00 AM to finish my Jerusalem Post column. The last one, on Peacexpeace was picked up by usatoday.com! The archive of my columns is on my website www.barbarasofer.com

]]> http://www.60voices.org/2008/12/02/barbara-tuesday/feed/ 0