Doctor Handles Media

Sharon's illness puts hospital chief in the spotlight.

Avigail Schwartz
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

carefully, choosing words without
hesitation but precisely, much like
the press reports he has been
delivering since he was suddenly
New York
placed in the spotlight following
r. Shlomo Mor-Yosef's trip
to New York was supposed Sharon's second stroke.
Mor-Yosef has been the hospi-
to happen six week ago,
tal's director for five years, and
but then disaster struck: Israeli
worked in medical administration
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suf-
for 15. He practiced as an obstetri-
fered his second stroke and went
cian and gynecologist in Israel. He
into a coma.
studied medicine at Hadassah,
"I took it upon myself to be
then earned a master's at Harvard
spokesman of the hospital"
because "I thought it's very delicate in Public Administration., His
English is lightly accented, but
and a huge responsibility, and
fluid and graceful.
thought it should be handled by a
He switched from treating
doctor and not by a professional in
patients to administration by
PR or the press department': Mor-
request
Yosef, director gener-
from the
al of Hadassah
Hadassah
University Medical
Hospital,
Center in Jerusalem,
he says.
said late last week.
"It came
And handle it deli-
as a sur-
cately he did.
prise, but I
Everything was
tried it for
cleared first with the
three years
family, and a strategy
and found
was decided upon
it very
from the beginning.
interesting
"It's a problem, an
and my
ethical problem, how Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosersa
input is
much you can dis-
more sub-
close, how much you
stantial, more meaningful:'
can say about a patient who is also
Though his role has expanded
the prime minister," Mor-Yosef
to become so public over the past
says.
weeks, he downplays it, shifting
"But we agreed after the first
focus to the hospital.
hospitalization what we'd say. We
"Hadassah got huge exposure,
consulted with the sons and took
the decision to give only data with- the hospital got huge exposure; we
had journalists, reporters, TV
out any evaluation and leave the
evaluation to the journalists, to the crews, radio crews for a week, day
and night in the hospital, and they
doctors from other hospitals."
broadcast from there."
Mor-Yosef cuts a tall, trim fig-
He also dryly remarks that "we
ure. His thatch of gray hair is well-
are not a hospital for one person.
groomed, but his expression is
We have 1,100 beds and we treat 1
tired. And for good reason: when
Mor-Yosef arrived in New York last million patients" annually, citing
an occupancy rate this winter of
week from Israel, he had been in
106 percent.
meetings with New York staff
Humor aside, Mor-Yosef
members, donors and fund-raisers
acknowledges that Sharon's illness
from Hadassah, the Women's
affects Israelis both inside and
Zionist Organization of America,
outside the hospital.
as well as reporters. The next day,
"Of course, it is emotional to
he was slated to fly to Florida for
every one of us" at the hospital, he
further meetings.
says, and he understands that it is
Despite his hectic schedule, he
also the case with the public. "I
remains pleasant and unruffled
don't know any Israeli, anyone
during the interview. He speaks

D

around the world who doesn't pray
for his recovery,' he says.

Irving Goes To Jail

Sentence for Holocaust denier
spurs "freedom" debate.

Ruth Ellen Gruber
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Hospital To Grow

In the United States, Mor-Yosef is
speaking to donors about the hos-
pital's various plans. He presses no
particular one, saying that "usually
the donors choose their projects!'
In the works right now is a
three-floor addition to the hospi-
tal's mother-child unit; a hotel for
patients' religious relatives who
cannot walk to the hospital on
Shabbat and holidays; and a
research and technology incubator.
Mor-Yosef's favorite project is a
new building on the campus, in
planning since 2003. He hopes to
begin construction in 2007, and
have it completed in 2012, in time
for the hospital's 100th anniver-
sary.
His old-school gentleman
demeanor does not crack when
the possibility of ending Sharon's
life is broached, but he is quietly
and calmly adamant.
"First of all, he's not under any
life-support machines. In order to
stop his life you have to kill him.
Not to disconnect him from a
machine. And no one is expecting
us to kill him — as a patient, not
as the prime minister. Secondly, it's
a family issue. We are not in this
stage at all. We think we have to
fight for his life and recovery, and
the family thinks it.
"And, of course, I'm aware of '
people who think that maybe it's
better for him to die than to live
but it's not our attitude. It's like
`why are you doing so much to
him?' But what we are doing is
standard treatment" for this kind
of patient, he says.
A prognosis is difficult, he says.
"The main problem with brain
recovery is that we don't know
exactly the mystery of the brain,
and no one can say if, when and to
which level he'll be with us. It's
something that is beyond the
medical profession's abilities to
focus the future in this specific
case. But we all know that there is
a chance that he will recover, and
this is what we fight for." ❑

Romek

H

olocausrscholar Deborah .Lipstadt once was sued by David
Irving, but that doesn't mean she supports the jail sentence
given to the Holocaust denier this week.
"I'm in principle against laws that promote censorship. I'm in prin-
ciple against laws on Holocaust denial. I'm in principle against laws
that prevent the publishing of cartoons in Denmark': said Lipstadt, a
professor of Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in
Atlanta, on Tuesday, a day after an Austrian court sentenced Irving to
three years in prison for statements he made in 1989, saying there
were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Lipstadt said, however, that she understands the need for laws on ,
Holocaust denial in countries such as Germany and Austria, given
their records during World War II. Austria is one of 11 countries that
have laws making Holocaust denial a criminal-offense.
The sentence added fuel to freedom-of-speech debates sparked by
recent violent protests against Danish cartoons of the Islamic prophet
Mohammed.
Irving, 67, was arrested in November
when he entered Austria to give a lecture
at a far-right student fraternity.
Irving's. lawyer, Elmar Kresbach,
lodged an immediate appeal after the
sentence was announced on Monday. He
told reporters the sentence had been
meant as a political warning and that
"the message was too strong."
Irving, who faced up to.10 years in jail,
had pleaded guilty to the charges. He told
the court in fluent German he had
David Irving
changed some of his views and now
believed the gas chambers had existed
and that "millions of Jews died."
Judge Peter Liebetreu was not convinced.
Lipstadt was not alone among Jewish observers in expressing con-
cern over the latest chapter in irving's well-publicized effort to deny
the Holocaust.
"The sentence against Irving confirms that he and his views are
discredited, but as a general rule I don't think this is the way this
should be dealt with': said Antony Lerman, former director of the
London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research. "Freedom of
expression is important': he said. "Once you start legislating about
history, it could lead to a rocky road."
Other Jewish groups, however, praised the verdict.
"The sentence confirms David Irving as a bigot and an anti-Semite
and also serves a direct challenge to the Iranian regime's embrace of
Holocaust denial': Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center said in a statement.
Amos Luzzatto, president of the Union of Italian Jewish
Communities, welcomed the verdict for both the message it sent to
local extremists and to the international community in the wake of
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declarations that the
Holocaust is a myth. Even more than the conviction, it was funda-
mental to remove Irving's audience," he said.
Irving looked shocked when the verdict was announced. "Of
course, it's a question of freedom of speech': he said. "The law is an
ass." ❑

February 23 • 2006

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