Page 284 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

Although the establishment of the hospitals in Jerusalem, especially their geo-historical aspects
and influence on its urban landscape, has been studied in depth, this exhibition explores what
happened inside the hospitals, where religions, communities, and populations met.

The children’s hospitals were innovative in attempting to provide, for the first time, a response
to the special needs of children. One of the earliest of these was the Marienstift Children’s
Hospital, founded by Dr Max Sandreczky. He pioneered the establishment of special pediatric
departments and institutions, and insisted on ignoring religious and sectarian considerations
and treating all children in need, even at the cost of forfeiting support from interested political
or religious parties. In Hanevi’im Street, where Dr Sandreczky’s hospital stood, the non-profit
organization Shevet Achim now helps bring children suffering from heart problems from Arab
and impoverished countries for treatment in Israel.

Members of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a charitable Christian community, assumed
a special role in society, the community, and medicine in the city. They established the
Spafford Baby Home, which was also used as a children’s hospital. Alongside it was a
workshop designed to provide employment for women whose children were hospitalized
there, and to train them as seamstresses and lace-makers. The hospital also provided
outpatient services, home visits, and a well-baby clinic for the Arab population, and
continues to operate to this day (see pp. 164-166).

The St John Order in Jerusalem pioneered treatment for patients with trachoma, an eye
disease that dealt a crippling blow to residents of Jerusalem and its environs. The Sephardi
chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Meir Raphael Panigel, granted the doctors from the Order of St
John his approval, to enable the city’s Jewish population to benefit from their treatment
without fear of missionary activities. He wrote, “We know of all the charity that you are kind
enough to give to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in opening an eye clinic for them, and the
celebrated physician you have employed to cure the poor of Jerusalem of their affliction [...]
it is intended only out of charitable love, without appealing to matters of religion of faith.”

Yet despite his warm recommendation, the Lema’an Zion Jewish organization decided to
send the Swiss-Jewish eye doctor Moshe Erlenger to Jerusalem. He established an eye
clinic in the city that was intended to be a substitute for that of St John. However, a firm
professional partnership was soon formed between the eye doctors in their attempts to
eradicate trachoma. Dr Erlenger, who was a devout Jew, performed surgery on patients of
all faiths, even on the Sabbath and Jewish festival days, faithful to his belief and the Jewish
concept that saving a person’s eyesight is tantamount to saving a life.

The clinics, under the examining eyes of the ophthalmic physicians, received the inhabitants
of Jerusalem and the surrounding area – Jews, Muslims, and Christians, people of all
communities and ethnic groups.

Jerusalem: A Medical Diagnosis ■ 19e