Dr. Miriam Adelson spoke on Sunday at an Adelson School of Medicine's ceremony at Ariel University, urging the young doctors to put politics aside as they live up to Jewish values to preserve life and health.
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The event, which marks the end of the first phase of the studies and the beginning of the clinical experience, was attended by the dean of the school, Shai Ashkenazi, with about 70 students getting their white robes.
Adelson, who is a physician herself, spoke in her commencement address about the role students take, which is almost akin to being God. "For five decades, more or less, I have been a doctor, but it still moves me to see how many more people join our ranks," she said. "After all, we are like a special club that deals with the secrets of the human body, we hold the powers to preserve and protect life," she continued, recalling that her late husband, the businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, would have been "so proud to see all of you, the first class of graduates from a medical school bearing his name."
Adelson, who is also the Israel Hayom publisher, recalled how it was Sheldon and herself who agreed to fund the creation of the medical school about a decade earlier when they heard that Israel was facing a shortage of medical professionals.
Video: Dr. Adelson speaks at the Ariel University of Samaria event // Credit: Gil Cramer
Adelson continued, coming out against the threats made by some doctors in Israel that they could end up leaving Israel if the contested judicial reform passes.
"It is no secret that I, too, have reservations over the scope and pace of the current judicial reform, but I would never even contemplate, for example, shutting down the center for addiction treatment that I founded with Sheldon in Tel Aviv 30 years ago," she said. "My friends, my colleagues in the medical profession, our role is no less crucial than that of IDF soldiers. They protect the country with their body, and we protect the body of every citizen. Doctors are what people see when they get born and when they part this world." She then went on to say that politics should have no role in pursuing a career in medicine.
"Medicine is a blood and life pact, it is a commitment. Just like it would be inconceivable to get rid of a patient because he has become a burden or too challenging, we must stick by our country and community, regardless of what unfolds," she said.
Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov praised the young students and told them that they face a unique challenge in that Israel's population grows by 2 % every year, or about a million people every five years. "We hope that in Ariel we double the number of students that study every year so that we have 2,000 annually."
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