:41RMWT 77 1,7 r•, •! • THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 30 Friday, March 2, 1984 • Jerusalem's Legendary `Schwester Selma' Wi*11• 111 R MAME? VERYTHIMG! By SIMON GRIVER World Zionist Press Service IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IM DIAMONDS, Nobody Sells Diamonds For Less And We Prove It! E OUR . V The Diamond People For Over 50 years PVINP CO 30555 SOUTHFIELD RD CONGRESS BLDG r )ONE BLOCK SOUTH OF 13 MILE ROAD) PHONE 645-9200 - \ (Editor's note: Selma Mayer, known to thousands of persons as "Schwester Selma" — Sister Selma — during her 60 years as head nurse at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, marked her 100th birth- day on Feb. 2 and died in her sleep two days later in her hospital apart- ment.) JERUSALEM — Reach- ing the age of 100 is re- markable in the most favor- able of circumstances. But Selma Mayer enjoyed The Cultural Commission of Congregation Shaarey Zedek cordially invites you to attend a PATRONS CHAMPAGNE PREVIEW — FINE ARTS EXHIBITION AND SALE (Jewish artists — selected galleries) Tuesday evening, 8 P.M., March 13, 1984 Morris Adler Hall Donation $12.50 per person ----Door Prizes Opening Night Only Hope Palmer, art professor at Wayne State University, to speak at 9 P.M. on "From The Heart; The Importance of Self in Modern Art" Exhibition and Sale continue March 14 (1-10 p.m.) March 15 (1-5 p.m.) ADMISSION FREE For patron ticket information contact: Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Cherrin Dr. and Mrs. Paul Gold Dr. and Mrs. Richard Brown 855 9616 644 2220 855 6177 Mrs. Linda Zalla, Fine Arts Chairperson - - - PARTICIPATING GALLERIES Cantor-Lemberg Gallery 22 I. Irving Feldman James Hunt Barker Park West Rubiner Schweyer-Galdo Sheldon Ross Franklin Siden Sixth Street Susanne Hilberry Town. Center Troy longevity despite a life of selfless, unstinting toil in the most adverse condi- tions, devoting round-the- clock dedication to the patients that her nursing vocation committed her to heal. Though surrounded by death, disease, war and de- struction, Selma Mayer, known popularly as Schwes- ter Selma, survived because of a unique physical and moral determination. For 68 years she was associated with Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. During those years she witnessed revolutionary changes. Shaare Zedek Hospital itself, founded by Jews from Germany, has grown from a tiny clinic lacking the most fundamen- tal facilities into a sophisti- cated modern medical es- tablishment. At the same time, since arriving in Jerusalem in 1916 she saw the city evolve from a sleepy desert outpost under Tur kish rule into the thriving capital of the new Jewish state. Selma Mayer also watched medicine trans- formed from an optimis- tic science often groping in the dark into a disci- pline frequently capable of performing the most wondrous of cures. How- ever, her prescription for her patients consistently remained an old fashioned one. For Selma Mayer grasped that a cup of tea, and a kind, encouraging chat with an anxious patient, can fre- quently provide the sick with the sort of motiva- tion to get well that mod- ern drugs cannot pro- vide. This philosophy has greatly influenced Shaare Zedek which has sought to combine modern clinical methods with traditional care and attention. Selma Mayer's humane outlook also earned her a place in Time magazine's cover story in 1975 entitled "Liv- ing Saints." She was heralded as a "messenger of love and hope" along with Sister Teresa, the Calcutta nun who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work among Indian peasants. Time magazine pointed out that Jews talk not of saints but of tzadiks, righ- teous people. It speculated that Selma Mayer might be one of the 36 tzadikim that according to Jewish lore SELMA MAYER exist in every generation and upon whom depends the merit of the world's exist- ence. Certainly she found an appropriate home in a hospital whose name in English means "Gates of the Righteous." Mayer's original home was the German town of Hanau, where she was born in 1884. She came from a poor family and was one of five children. Life was made especially difficult after her mother's death when Selma Mayer was only five years old. "Because I lost my mother when I was young," she said, "I be- came determined to give to others what I had mis- sed — motherly love and affection and concern for human beings." Reading about the endeavors of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, Mayer de- cided to emulate her life. She joinded the Solomon Heine Hospital in Hamburg (named after the uncle of the famous Jewish German poet Heinrich Heine) and qualified as a nurse when she was 22. During World War I, Dr. Moshe Wallach who had founded Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem came to Hamburg to recruit desperately-needed doctors and nurses. Nurse Mayer felt compelled to go, though her relatives and friends told her she was insane. When she arrived in Jerusalem in 1916, a terri- ble typhoid epidemic raged. Schwester Selma worked day and night with the other volunteers to do what she could. Equipment and expertise were lacking but enthusiasm and energy were in abundance. Slowly a Western way of life was introduced into Palestine a's Jerusalem fell into THE JEWISH EXTENSION SERVICE proudly presents a new service to Detroit's Jewish Community HOT LINE TO JUDAISM Call any Sunday or Monday evening 8:00-10:00 P.M. 968-1679 Ask and discuss anything related to Jewish tradition, heritage, philosophy and law. sponsored by Machon L'Torah Torah Center of Metro Detroit British hands. But Selma Mayer continued to pine for her native Germany, though by adopting two orphans in Jerusalem a return to Europe became unthinkable. After the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933 she pined no longer. Mayer knew that as a Jew her home was in Jerusalem. Now unequivocally com- mitted to the Zionist cause, Selma Mayer as head nurse of Shaare Zedek contributed a lion's share to the progress of the hospital. Through the tragedies of Israel's wars she treated the wounded, and as hundreds of thousands of destitute refu- gees streamed into the country, she healed their diseases. "In the 1950s, polio was our greatest enemy," she re- collected. "We had not serum for preventive in- noculations, and iron lungs for treating those who were crippled were awkward to handle. But under the cir- cumstances we battled through satisfactorily." Many have sought out Selma Mayer to commend her for her incredible devo- tion. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek awarded her the Jerusalem Medal, while the relative of a Holocaust victim gave her a diamond ring, requesting that it be passed from generation to generation to an individual devoted to helping man- kind. To mark her centenary, 1984, has been declared "Schwester Selma Year" and a nursing education fund has been estab- lished in her name by Shaare Zedek. It is hoped that young nurses will be inspired by the motto of Selma Mayer, taken from the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. The motto still hangs on the wall of her room in Shaare Zedek: I slept and dreamt That life was joy I awoke and saw That life was duty I acted and behold, Duty was joy. Correction The book review of "Conservative Judaism: A Contemporary History" (Feb. 24 issue, Page 4) should have stated that the movement had its foundation in the Haskala movement in the latter part of the 16th Century.