Hadassah Hospital

   The largest medical facility in Israel, this internationally prominent facility is affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Founded by the Women's Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah's first hospital was opened in 1939 on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Throughout World War II, it was used by the Allied authorities, and by the war's end, it had become the medical focal point not only for Palestine but for the entire region. On 13 April 1948, a convoy traveling to Mount Scopus from Jerusalem was ambushed by Arab guerrillas, leaving some 75 hospital personnel dead. Shortly afterward, civilians were evacuated, and the hospital was left under guard of the Hagana and later the Israel Defense Forces. When Mount Scopus was demilitarized (as part of the 1949 Israel-Jordan armistice agreement), its main access road was placed under the supervision of the United Nations. An Israeli police unit was stationed in the abandoned hospital and the adjoining Hebrew University facilities. Upon the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War (1967), steps were immediately taken to reopen the Hadassah Hospital. Functions of the hospital are now split between Mount Scopus and the 300-acre facility at Ein Kerem.