I returned recently from a brief trip to Israel with some of our transformational donors. We had planned the trip for several weeks, working with our medical team, development staff and events professionals to make it meaningful. And wow, how meaningful it was.

We started our tour with an early morning visit to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. The smaller of our two campuses in Jerusalem, it represents the history of Hadassah at its core. With a heavy focus on maternal and child care, the hospital serves many of the Arab neighborhoods surrounding it. The department chair who gave us the tour shared the story of a woman whose life was saved during childbirth just days before. It’s hard to believe, but I knew the story already. The woman who gave birth is the daughter of a friend from New York who had called me in thanks after the delivery.

At Hadassah Mount Scopus, we saw the construction progress of the new IVF center that will expand services exponentially for the thousands of families who seek treatment each year.

And we walked through the pediatrics department, looking into the rooms and seeing the patient families—Arabs, Jews and Christians—sharing small spaces and leaning on each other as they cared and prayed for their children.

When visiting Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, we began with a tour of the child psychiatry unit, which has been fortified to become a sheltered space during missile attacks. A “locked ward” takes on new meaning when the steel doors are not meant to keep you inside but to keep you safe from war. The unit is bright and joyful, and we met patients as they ate lunch, attended classes and hung out with friends. 

Next, we moved on to the newly built pediatric surgery suite, where colorful wall murals help keep our smallest patients from feeling scared. The thoughtfulness continues with the design and construction of the operating rooms, which incorporate technology, efficiency and medical hygiene.

I’ve toured the hospitals many times. I had seen pictures of these new facilities in progress, but seeing them through the eyes of the generous donors who helped make them possible was special.

As doctors and administrators thanked them throughout the day, the donors kept deflecting appreciation, instead thanking the Hadassah teams over and over for the work they are doing each day.

I was overwhelmed by their attitude, and it humbled me. It also helped me to reframe our work as I speak to other donors. Of course we are grateful. Of course, we give recognition and thanks. But we also provide an incredible opportunity to make a difference in the lives of more than a million people each year who walk through our doors. I’m so very proud.

It’s in this spirit that I offer you all sweet blessings in the coming year. May each one of you, our Hadassah members, have the strength, inclination and ability to do this life-changing work, and may it bring you personal blessings of gratitude and fulfillment.

Shanah Tovah!

Ellen Finkelstein is CEO and executive director of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America.