Page 163 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

Islands of Benevolence

Hospitals of the Modern Era

Hospitals are mentioned in Jerusalem as far back as the Byzantine period. Later, in the
Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, hospitals were run by orders of knights. At the beginning
of the 19th century, the number of travelers and pilgrims visiting the city increased;
they of ten required medical care, and later attested to the poverty of Jerusalem’s
inhabitants and the horrific lack of medical services. Following in their trail were
religious organizations and representatives of European powers who sought to aid the
city’s population for reasons of religion, charity, or political considerations. They recruited
philanthropists to finance their work, brought the first doctors to the city, and founded
modern hospitals.
These institutions, which were established by religious and political groups in a city
of infinite dissension, were islands of cooperation, transcending religious and ethnic
divisions to establish islands of good will and human compassion.

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