Israeli Hospital Gets Grant To Help Syrian Refugee Kids
(JTA) — An Israeli philanthropist has made a six-figure grant to a hospital in northern Israel to fund treatment for Syrian children who have suffered hearing loss as a result of their country’s civil war.
Morris Kahn’s pilot grant to Ziv Medical Center in Safed is part of the Genesis Prize Foundation’s global initiative to aid refugee causes and encourage other Jewish foundations and philanthropists to do the same. The refugee focus was chosen by British sculptor Anish Kapoor, who was awarded the 2017 Genesis Prize, which honors leading cultural figures who have showed a dedication to the Jewish community and Jewish values.
According to Genesis, Ziv Medical Center has extensive experience treating wounded Syrian civilians. The hospital reports that one out of every three Syrian children from combat areas examined by Ziv’s hospital staff suffers from hearing loss. The children are provided testing, treatment, surgery and rehabilitation.
“We have treated more than 1,000 Syrians of all ages who needed our help over the past four years,” Salman Zarka, director of Ziv Hospital, said in a news release from Genesis. “It’s really important for me as a physician, as an Israeli, and as a human being.”
Kahn is a South African-born businessman and philanthropist who moved to Israel in 1956. He is the founder of the Coral World Underwater Observatory in Eilat and of Zalul, a nonprofit focused on cleanup and preservation of the seas and rivers in Israel.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
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.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30