WARDS APART:

Israeli Hospitals Admit Enabling Segregation Based on 'Cultural Norms' -- Deny Racism (Nathan GuttmanApril 14, 2016, Forward)

Israeli hospital officials and their American fundraising arms have forcefully rejected claims in the Israeli press that their medical facilities practice ethnic and religious segregation in their maternity wards.

But hospital administrators did describe efforts the hospitals make to accommodate requests from patients who want to room with other patients with whom they share "cultural norms."

[Jonathan Halevy, director general of Shaare Zedek,] explained, "We are regularly presented with patient requests -- most often in our maternity departments -- to be roomed with other patients who speak their same language and with similar cultural norms." The requests, he said, come from all sides, including ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews, and have to do with different perspectives of family visitations and privacy. Whenever possible, the hospital tries to accommodate these requests.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 14, 2016 3:23 AM

Tweet   @brothersjudd