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J Nira Bartal Establishment of a Nursing School in Jerusalem by the American Zionist Medical Unit, 1918 Continuation or Revolution? A lthough studies of the development of health services in Eretz Israel during the Mandate period are part of the general investigation of this period, they are in themselves a distinct field for research.1 Only few studies have focused on the story of nursing in the development of health services ;2 the history of nursing in Israel has not drawn great interest even as part of the discussion on the development of professions, women’s organizations, or the incorporation of women in the labor market during the Yishuv period, and not even as part of the historiography of the American Zionist women’s project, “Hadassah.”3 Those dealing with the history of nursing in Eretz Israel should base themselves on the foundations laid by contemporary American scholars, such as B. Melosh, S. Reverby, and P. A. and B. J. Kalisch, on the one hand, and the first Israelis who dealt with this topic, L. Zwanger and R. AdamsStockler , on the other.4 Zwanger’s study, published over thirty years ago, did not focus solely on the Hadassah School but dealt with the field of nursing education in Eretz Israel in general, and the time period she covered was quite broad: 1918 to 1965. Adams-Stockler discussed one aspect of activity, namely the field of public health nursing in the country, but she does address to a certain extent the training of nurses for field work in this specialty. These researchers did not have available all of the rich material that has been found in recent years in the archives of the Hadassah Medical Organization and the Hadassah Nursing School.5 This article is dedicated to Ms. Judith Steiner-Freud, former director of the Nursing School and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Hadassah and the Hebrew University, for her contribution to the advancement of nursing in Israel in general and the study of the history of nursing in Eretz Israel in particular. All rights are retained by the author. When reconstructing the history of nursing in Eretz Israel during the Mandate period, one must also include aspects deriving from the introduction of Western ideas, such as those relating to the place of women in the Yishuv, or the internalization of professional ideology.6 This article focuses on the beginning of nurses’ training in the country, which was the main component of the struggle to attain professional recognition , in the American spirit, as reflected in the history of the School for Registered Nurses in Jerusalem, established by the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah. Specifically covered here are the early years of the school, from its founding in 1918 until the end of the term of office of Anna Kaplan, director of the school from 1920 to 1927.7 Professional Training of Women at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century In Eretz Israel at the start of the twentieth century, there were women, with a profession or occupation, whose training had been acquired in the country or elsewhere in three main ways: university studies, usually in Europe (physicians, for instance); training in high school, sometime with an additional period of studies (for example, kindergarten teachers), or by means of traditions handed down from one generation to another, as apprentices (like the local midwives).8 We have to differentiate between the training of women who had graduated high school or had a similar education, as was the case with the Hadassah Nursing School, and occupational training intended for young women studying in high schools. Girls with elementary school education were accepted to the Lewinsky Teachers Seminary (founded in 1913) or to the women’s agricultural farm at Kinneret.9 Within the context of the characteristics of women’s education in Eretz Israel, the director of the Hadassah Nursing School from 1934 to 1948, Shulamit Cantor, described the Hadassah project of founding a nursing school: As the first professional school for women in Palestine, it aroused sensational interest. Professional education for women was an unheard of thing in that part of the world. For generations Eastern women had lived a sheltered and cloistered life; their area of movement was the home and the courtyard; they did not enter the trades or professions; they took no part whatever in the social, political, and economic life of the community. This condition had been ac194 Education, Health, and Politics...

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