ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN DOCTORS LEAD SAN FRANCISCO BENEFIT TO EXPAND TEACHING AND RESEARCH HOSPITAL IN ISRAEL
San Franciscans host a benefit for Israel's Soroka Medical Center, an oasis of hope and healing in a region that is sorely lacking in both.
(PRWEB) February 8, 2002
ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN DOCTORS LEAD SAN FRANCISCO BENEFIT TO EXPAND TEACHING AND RESEARCH HOSPITAL IN ISRAEL
–Soroka Medical Center is Oasis of Hope and Healing for All Religions, Races and Ethnicities–
SAN FRANCISCO (February 6, 2002)–The Golden Gate Yacht Club seems an unlikely place to raise funds for a desert hospital, but that is exactly what will occur on Wednesday, February 27, 2002. The Soroka Medical Center of the Negev, the largest hospital serving the uniquely diverse population of Israel’s southern desert and the second largest hospital in Israel, will be hosting a cross-cultural educational and musical evening to benefit the expansion of its facilities. Scheduled guest speakers include Israeli Dr. Eytan Hyam, director general of the Soroka Medical Center, and Palestinian Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, the hospital’s first medical resident from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
Located in the biblical town of Beersheba (Beer Sheva), the Soroka Medical Center serves a modern city with a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual population. The hospital is a primary and tertiary care facility for over 1,500,000 Jews, Moslems and Christians, including the large numbers of Arab Bedouins and recent Russian and Ethiopian immigrants that live in the Negev, Israel’s largest region. Soroka also serves patients referred by Palestinian medical facilities in Gaza and Egyptian medical facilities in the Sinai. The entire hospital, and its fully integrated Jewish/Arab medical staff, offers hope and healing for patients of every faith, ethnicity and income level. The 12,000 babies delivered every year at Soroka symbolize the spirit of co-existence–births are equally divided between Arabs and Jews.
"Beersheba has been a desert crossroads and oasis since the time of AbrahamÂ’s sojourn in the city. In Beersheba today, Soroka honors his legacy as the father of two peoples through its gleaming example of healing and cooperation," explained Isabel Maxwell, co-chair of the Soroka Medical Center fundraiser. "There are few medical institutions in the world that must cope with a more varied patient population, and there are few who do it with the grace and effectiveness of the Soroka Medical Center of the Negev."
A Teaching and Research Institution Serving Special Needs
Soroka is a teaching and research hospital with the largest emergency facility and trauma center in Israel, and the largest pediatric infectious diseases unit in the entire Middle East. The hospital has gained worldwide recognition for studies on new vaccines, invasive infections and resistant organisms. The hospital also excels at meeting the unique medical needs of its many patient communities, like the Bedouins and new immigrants from Ethiopia and Russia. The Bedouins, who were isolated from the larger Arab world for centuries, and who make up 25% of SorokaÂ’s patient load, suffer disproportionately from genetic conditions that are uncommon in the general population. SorokaÂ’s Genetic Research Institute, one of many special facilities, focuses on the treatment of birth defects especially prevalent in the Bedouin community.
Due to the unprecedented growth in patient admissions, Soroka Medical Center is embarking on a major expansion of its currently overcrowded facilities. The American Friends of Soroka Medical Center is supported by Eric Benhamou, chairman of Silicon ValleyÂ’s 3Com and Palm, and Isabel Maxwell, president emeritus of Commtouch and consultant to Apax Partners. Benhamou and Maxwell, serving as co-chairs of the benefit, have organized a cross-cultural night that will feature live Bedouin music (performed by Yair Delal, Heleil Al Awiwi and Joe Santi Owen), a full Middle Eastern dinner, as well as the presentations by Drs. Abuelaish and Hyam. San FranciscoÂ’s Golden Gate Yacht Club will be transformed into a Bedouin encampment for the evening, and attendees will go home with a CD of Bedouin Music and a Hamsa, a classic Levantine amulet that symbolizes good luck and good health.
About American Friends of Soroka Medical Center of the Negev
The organization is dedicated to raising awareness about the work of Soroka Medical Center of the Negev and to providing financial support for its activities. American Friends also serves to expand SorokaÂ’s outreach through educational programs and conferences on womenÂ’s health issues, medical breakthroughs and other relevant topics. American Friends supports SorokaÂ’s excellence in medical research. To learn more about the Soroka Medical Center or to register for the benefit event, please visit http://www. soroka. org (http://www. soroka. org).
