“People thought we were crazy. But we did it,” Prof. Yoram Weiss, director general of the Hadassah Medical Organization, told eJewishPhilanthropy during a tour of the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.
Construction of the center was rapidly accelerated in the wake of October 7 and the first patients began receiving care in January, with plans to double capacity in the coming weeks.
“We went into acceleration mode,” Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz told eJP. “Originally, the first phase was going to be finished in the second or third quarter of 2024. When the war broke out, it became: No, the first phase has to be finished now. It has to be finished yesterday. How are we doing this?”
Since October 7, Hadassah has raised more than $16 million, with $5.5 million going specifically to expedite the work on the Gandel Center.
Currently, the center has 30 in-patients, with plans to expand to 74 by the middle of the month. Around the same time, the center plans to open its state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pools, Weiss told eJP.
While much of the facility is either built or on-track to be built, additional fundraising is still required to complete the facility.
Read the full story in eJewishPhilanthropy.
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