Israel is a small nation with an expansive history, which explains why a short walk anywhere in the country often leads to landmarks of both the recent and ancient past.

Take our two hills of healing, known collectively as the Hadassah Medical Organization. Though beacons of modern medicine, they are also intertwined with thousands of years of memory. In 1939, we inaugurated our campus on Mount Scopus, the point from which Jewish travelers approaching Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals first caught sight of the Temple Mount. Mount Scopus was a strategic point for Greek and Roman conquerors. And between Israel’s 1948 War of Independence and the Six-Day War in 1967, it was a tiny Israeli enclave surrounded by Jordanian-held territory, compelling us to build a new hospital.

The construction took years as we operated out of satellite buildings, but we ultimately opened our Ein Kerem campus in 1961. Hadassah’s leaders had some hesitancy about the location, far from central Jerusalem, but then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion urged us to build there, arguing that the city would eventually catch up with us—and it did. Ein Kerem has its own biblical connection. Stones used to build the Second Temple were quarried there.

For decades, the anchor of Hadassah Ein Kerem was our iconic Round Building, around which the hospital campus grew, becoming a medical light unto the world. Israel’s growth and needs eventually outpaced the Round Building, so we built the adjacent Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower, dedicated in 2012. But in a nation known for innovation, we opted to fully renovate and modernize the Round Building as well. It began a phased reopening in 2024.

Many of you are no doubt familiar with Hadassah’s history and its profile on Israel’s landscape, but I am highlighting it now because of a special opportunity. Our schedule of Israel tours has been severely impacted in recent years, first by the Covid pandemic and then by the war that began on October 7, 2023. But from October 26 to 29, hundreds of Hadassah members, Associates and supporters from around the world will be joining “The Dream Is Real: Hadassah in Israel”—Hadassah’s 2026 National Conference. Participants will attend the official rededication of the Round Building and take part in a larger four-day conference and tour schedule that includes Hadassah institutions—including both of our Jerusalem hospital campuses and one of our Youth Aliyah villages—and many other events and attractions. There will also be optional extensions for those who wish to take maximum advantage of the journey.

One of the extensions includes Netivot, home of the newest satellite in the Hadassah constellation. The Hadassah-Helmsley Medical Center, opened earlier this year, provides comprehensive services to 150,000 residents of the Western Negev, including the Gaza envelope communities that bore the brunt of the October 7 attacks.

On that day, Dr. Eyal Mizrahi, now director of Hadassah-Netivot, rushed to an army base near Gaza to help treat the wounded. “As we bent over patient after patient from the massacre,” he said, “I couldn’t have imagined that less than three years later we would be leading a center with advanced medicine and sophisticated imaging machines for the citizens of this outlying part of Israel, where my own family lives.”

The October tour has something for everyone. Beyond our own institutions that are inseparable from the nation’s history, it has facets that are cultural and culinary, mystical and geopolitical, restful and fast-paced.

This is your opportunity to experience firsthand the impact of Hadassah and the reality of Israel. See with your own eyes how the Zionist dream comes to life—how Israel innovates, heals, educates, builds and thrives, even through spirited debate and shared purpose. Stand atop mountains and take in breathtaking vistas that generations before us could only dream of seeing. This journey offers not only a deeper understanding of Israel, but also a profound connection to its people, its achievements, and its enduring promise.