Argentinian-Israeli Doctor Honored For Treating Syrian War Victims
An Israeli medical staff tends to a Syrian young boy, who was wounded in the ongoing violence in Syria, as he lies on a hospital bed during his treatment at Ziv hospital in Safed. Image by Getty Images
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — An Argentinean-born and trained Israeli doctor was honored at the Buenos Aires city parliament as an “outstanding personality in the human rights field” for assisting victims of the Syrian civil war who come to Israel for treatment.
Dr. Alejandro Roisentul, who has lived in Israel for the last 28 years, received the kudos on Tuesday, for his part in bringing the Syrian patients to Ziv Medical Center in Safed, Israel.
“Syrian injured people, even children, who came to the border of Israel by foot, in very bad condition. The IDF brought them to our hospital and we the Israeli doctors, helped them, cured them. They looked at us as the enemy but after being taken care of in Israel they changed their views. I hope that these small steps also can help toward peace,” Roisentul told Argentinean media.
Roisentul, born in Buenos Aires in 1964, graduated as a dentist from the University of Buenos Aires in 1986 and three years later made aliyah and joined the Israel Defense Forces as a dentist. Currently he is head of the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of Ziv Medical Center, a hospital located in Safed, in northern Israel, about 40 miles from the Syrian border.
On Tuesday, the Buenos Aires city parliament honored him in a ceremony led by parliamentarians, the country’s human rights secretary and the Israeli ambassador.
The official website of the Buenos Aires parliament describes him as “an Israeli that heals and saves lives of Syrians who do not know their neighbors or have a distorted view (of them).”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
