Friends of Sheba Medical Center (FSMC) and its dedicated team have done it again. In their elegant sold-out gala that took place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills California, they have raised awareness and over six million dollars for Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan, Israel, now referred to as The City of Health, in order to boost the Center’s ongoing efforts to make Israeli society, the Middle East region and with it the world a better place to live.
It is difficult to write about a dynamic, never slumbers medical center, which Israelis may not realize but the world does, elevates high above the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel), the scorn of so many have for Israel as well as the disregard for Israeli innovation and care to make the world healthier.
Sheba Medical Center that this year has been ranked by Newsweek Magazine amongst the world’s top 10 best hospitals is Israel’s city of health for the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the local population and in a way, the world, constantly gifting the world with medical discoveries and advancements that save many people’s life. It is a medical center that heals our world, heals humanity, so it has a better future.
Acknowledging Sheba’s 70 years of caring, innovations, research and cutting edge technology tradition and thinking out of the box that medicine can be an important element in achieving peace and healthcare can bring prosperity, Steven Mnuchin, United States Secretary of the Treasury invited Professor Yitshak Kreiss, Director General Sheba Medical Center, Tel Ha’shomer, to partake in the first part of the Middle East Peace Plan that took place in Bahrain earlier this year.
To acknowledge the importance of some of the people who have realized the importance of Sheba as a city of health, who have been helping to raise awareness about this amazing humanitarian medical center by volunteering their time and giving much support to Sheba’s cause, Friends of Sheba with Parham Zar, FSMC Board President and Molly Soboroff, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chapter presented to Ruth and Michel Steinberger, the Mordechai Shani Lifetime Achievement Award; to Jamie D. McCourt, the United States Ambassador to the French Republic and Principality of Monaco and USA Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe, the Chaim Sheba Humanitarian Award. McCourt delivered a passionate pro-Israel-pro-Zionism speech alluding to the rise of Antisemitism and anti-Zionist in the world: “Jewish and Zionism are inexplicably tied together,” the Ambassador said. “After World War Two, we have become complacent. This chapter [WWII] will not repeat itself. We must remind others and remember who we [Jews] are and what we bring to the world. We the descendants of the [Holocaust] Survivors are creators, innovators and contributors, are a center of soul and relentless dedication and passion with doctors willing to take any and all challenges.” And to Mimi and Evan Paley, the Laurel of Leadership Award.
Growing up in Israel, I still remember the doctor carrying what is now considered a vintage doctor’s bag, who, upon my mother’s call, came to treat me at our home when I was sick. In just 72 years, Israel is proud to own a center of medical achievements, a center that makes us all healthier.
Dr. Talia Golan, the director of Sheba’s pancreatic cancer program, emotionally described how at Sheba Medical Center they help improve the life of every Israeli citizen, but it does not end there. The Center goes global to improve the life of people who are living in the world’s most remote places.
Israel is a Jewish state. Somehow all aspects of life in Israel intertwine into the Jewish faith.
Shimon the Righteous was one of the remnants of the Great Knesset during the 5th century BCE; He would say: There are three things the world stands for – the Torah, the work, and the wages of kindness, meaning charity (Chapter 1, Subch. 2). That means, the Jewish soul behind the name Sheba Medical Center that is repairing the world, deed by deed.
The story of Sheba Medical Center is tightly connected to the story and history of the modern state of Israel. Sheba and its medical and research teams are an integral part of the Zionism vision. They are the living proof of Israel’s success.
It was Dr. Chaim Sheba’s dream to one day see that Israel has the most modern medical center, one that would include the finest facilities, equipment, and patient care, the one to rival the high standards set in great medical center the world over, a center that the entire Middle East can rely on.
Dr. Chaim Sheba’s dream has materialized.
For the past 70 years, Sheba Medical Center has grown to be the forefront of the health service in the Jewish State, faithful to the Jewish ideals of humanism and generosity that caters to the needs of all of Israelis in all fields of medical and science.
And let this phenomenon grow from strength to strength with Sheba 2.0 Next Generation for a cause. Sheba is truly the City of Health.
