The Joles Jewish Hospital: A Short-lived Dutch Small City Hospital With an Unusual Resurrection

Authors

Jack Y. Vanderhoek, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., USA.
Dick van de Kamp, Retired, President, Christian Union for Wood and Construction Workers, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-29-2023

Journal

Rambam Maimonides medical journal

Volume

14

Issue

1

DOI

10.5041/RMMJ.10492

Abstract

The Joles Jewish Hospital in Haarlem (a small city in the Netherlands) was established in 1930 to provide a Jewish milieu for local patients. Mozes Joles, a wealthy Jewish businessman, bequeathed his fortune to the Haarlem Jewish community to accomplish this objective, and its spiritual leader, Rabbi Simon Philip de Vries, was the driving force in successfully achieving this goal. The Joles Hospital was forcibly closed by the Nazis in 1943, and the postwar leadership of the Haarlem Jewish community decided not to reopen it. Instead, they used the Joles inheritance to build old age homes in both Haifa, Israel, and Haarlem, thus ensuring a Jewish environment for elderly care in both locales. The realization of one man's charitable act bettered the lives of both ill and elderly individuals.

APA Citation

Vanderhoek, Jack Y. and van de Kamp, Dick, "The Joles Jewish Hospital: A Short-lived Dutch Small City Hospital With an Unusual Resurrection" (2023). GW Authored Works. Paper 2225.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/gwhpubs/2225

Department

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine