Women's Impact on the Development of Israel's Healthcare System: The Contributions of Nurse Ida Wissotzky

Abstract: Ida Wissotzky is among the nurses who made important but often overlooked contributions to the development of Israel's healthcare sector in the pre-state and early state years. Apart from her leadership roles in the young country's emergent hospital system, her career including working with Jewish refugees in British internment camps in Cyprus after the Holocaust, caring for wounded soldiers during and after the 1948 war, and supervising the care of new immigrants in Israel's absorption camps. This article describes some of the most important junctures in Israel's nursing history, from the last decade of the British Mandate in Palestine through the early decades of the State of Israel, as they were experienced by one determined and compassionate woman who aspired to combine pioneering nursing work with involvement in the political and ideological struggles of the nation-building years. It thereby contributes to a better understanding of women's impact on the development of nursing in Israel.