Speak Hebrew!
Who remembers the slogan from decades ago, whose role was to elevate the Hebrew language and encourage its use in everyday life? "Hebrew, speak Hebrew!"
Against this background, let us go back in time to October 20, 1932 and read an excerpt from a report about what was happening at the Hadassah Hospital in Haifa. The report was written by D. Cohen in the newspaper "Davar", and this is its language: "The language of the personnel at Hadassah (the hospital in Haifa) is Russian... The doctors, especially the women, and especially the nurses are careful to speak Russian among themselves. It is sad to hear the good and traditional girls, when they dress up, dress up in a foreign language out of false training. Apparently this language gives them a special intelligence. The hymn about the emotional connection with the Russian language is 90 percent false. Most of the Hadassah nurses grew up in Israel and did not have time to get to know the Russian language in Russia. It only prevents them from getting closer to the Hebrew language, to the Hebrew book, and by doing so they are here in the form of cultural 'descendants' (in quotation marks)."
Smoking on Shabbat is prohibited!!!
The following matter resembles the vertices of a triangle: a hospital, human health, and the sanctity of the Sabbath. And here is a letter: "To Dr. Yaakov Zeida, director of the community hospital, Haifa."
"Honored Sir, we hereby provide you with a copy of the letter from our religious council. We request and strongly demand that an order be given to those in charge to strictly observe all legal requirements, that smoking on Shabbat, whether by patients or by personnel, be immediately stopped within the hospital walls on Shabbat. We also propose that signs be hung in all rooms and in the hallway stating that smoking on Shabbat is prohibited.
"Of course, this is not appropriate, and the main thing is that the personnel supervise it with excellent, constant and vigorous supervision. We think it is completely unnecessary to prolong the discussion on this issue, because it is impossible for such acts to be committed even in a private hospital, and especially in our hospital. With great respect, the chairman and secretary on behalf of the Hebrew Community Committee in Haifa."
The letter is from the 40s and is in the Haifa City Archives.
Medications – at "Our" Pharmacy
Still in the health field. Below is a sharply worded letter, which the Haifa Pharmacy Owners Association sent to the management of the Hadassah Hospital in the city. Date: September 4, 1940. Subject: The sale of medicines in a pharmacy affiliated with the hospital.
And this is the language of the letter: "The Pharmacy Owners Association is honored to present to the Hadassah management its vigorous protest against the arrangement prevailing in the clinic of this institution. As is known, there is a contract between the Hadassah management and the Pharmacy Owners Association for the purpose of supplying medicines to the strata of society that consume and are treated at Hadassah. According to the contract, the association provides all Hadassah patients with medicines at a 25 percent discount. Despite the difficulties that pharmacists encounter in their work due to the huge increase in the price of medical supplies... - we continue to fulfill our commitment.
"However, unfortunately, the clinic (at Hadassah Hospital) is often violating its commitment. We are prepared to prove every day that the Hadassah clinic recommends to patients... a certain pharmacy, which is a Hadassah pharmacy, and only there can the medicine be obtained with a discount. Apart from this, there are cases where the doctor writes the address of the aforementioned pharmacy on the prescription, apart from a personal recommendation."
The Haifa Pharmacy Owners Association claims that it is impossible for an institution (like the hospital), which is supported by donations, taxes, and public funds, to promote a private business owned by a Hadassah official. According to the association's chairman and secretary, the owner of the pharmacy recommended by the hospital is none other than the secretary of Hadassah, and apparently an influential person who is exploiting his influence for his own personal gain. The chairman and secretary also write that they complained about this situation to the Hadassah organization's management two years ago, and the organization's management promised to take action. However, this was a false alarm. Bottom line: The Haifa Pharmacy Owners Association has once again asked the hospital management to bring order to the situation and not force it to resort to measures that will cause discomfort to the entire institution, as the chief pharmacists say. A copy of the letter is in the Haifa city archives.
Eggs, gentlemen, eggs!
Here are two short pieces of news that appeared in the newspaper "Davar" at the end of October 1942: "Mustafa Abu-Shikra was fined three pounds for selling 10 eggs for 200 mil." That's all the first news. From the second news, we can conclude that the British "Red Cross" was saved from economic collapse. Quote: "Ahmed Salmi (from a nearby village) asked to give a bribe of one pound to a British policeman, so that he would allow his friends to smuggle eggs without a license. For this he was fined five pounds, or imprisoned for a month. The bribe money was confiscated for the benefit of the British "Red Cross."
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אני רק שאלה : מה לנו כי נלין, איזו שפה נשמעת היום בבתי החולים ובבתי המרקחת ? נכון, רוסית וערבית.