The Gandel Rehabilitation Center, now a fixture of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Mount Scopus campus, is the most advanced facility of its kind in Israel. And though the center was carefully and painstakingly planned, it is nevertheless a reminder that sometimes we have to reach into our figurative pocket or purse and pull out a backup plan.

The center was originally scheduled to open in late 2024, but the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, changed everything. With war thrust upon Israel, construction went into overdrive. And, in January 2024, the center began a phased opening to meet the tremendous need of the war’s victims.

It was a case of function before formality: We simply had to open early. The easy part was postponing an official inauguration, which in the normal course of events would have happened around the time the first patients arrived. Now that hostilities have subsided, our hostages are free and we are able to breathe a little easier, we were finally able to hold a formal ceremony.

And so on October 27, 2025, we celebrated the Gandel Rehabilitation Center’s opening. Though delayed, the ceremony was anything but anticlimactic. In 21 months of pre-dedication performance, more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians had already received advanced treatment from our superbly trained staff. The benefit of hindsight was especially kind: As we officially dedicated the facility, we could look back on the young men and women who had been carried in but walked out.

Hosting the event, I was privileged to stand with the Hadassah and HMO leadership, including HMO Director General Dr. Yoram Weiss, Board Chair Dalia Itzik and Hadassah CEO Ellen Finkelstein. Among the honored guests were Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Graham Goldsmith, deputy chairman of Australia’s Gandel Foundation, the center’s principal donor.

Echoing Israel’s national anthem, President Herzog described the Gandel Rehabilitation Center as a place “granting an essential gift to every human being it helps: Hope—hope for the healing of the soul and the strengthening of the body, hope for independence, hope to dream again.”

The dedication ceremony was not only a moment of celebration but a reflection of Hadassah’s commitment to Israel and the Jewish people. The Gandel Rehabilitation Center, like the totality of HMO, like Hadassah’s projects writ large, like the way Hadassah members and supporters strengthen one another, is something we take on freely. It is part of our promise to heal, protect, educate and nurture, and to share what we learn in the process with people and institutions around the world.

It is a privilege to see our work up close. I am in awe when I see and speak with a soldier who has undergone multiple surgeries and then moved on to rehabilitation, see their progress through everything we created, the state-of-the-art technology, the care, the atmosphere all of you had a hand in providing.

I have the same reaction when I meet a young woman who came to one of our Youth Aliyah villages at the lowest point of her life, faring poorly in school, and who is now a confident adult, an army veteran and on the path to become a practicing attorney.

As we approach Hanukkah, I am also moved by the symbolism wrapped in the miracle of light. With a hanukkiyah, the shamash gives its light to the other candles. In the same vein, whenever Hadassah touches a life, it is like sharing our own flame.

One of the goals of Zionism was that the Jewish nation would be like any other. In certain instances that is now the case: Israel has its own government, laws, customs and flag. But on the world stage Israel is often isolated and held to different—often impossible—standards. And one way we deal with this is through high achievement.

In this season marking our long journey and sharp memory, may we all feel joy in the light we create and share.