Hillel Yaffe
Encyclopedia
Hillel Yaffe was a Russian Jewish physician and Zionist leader who immigrated to Palestine
during the First Aliyah
. He was instrumental in curing malaria among the Jewish population of Palestine in the early 20th Century, and helped improve the medical infrastructure of the Yishuv
during the same period. The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
in Hadera
is named after him.
. His father was a merchant and a man of means, who provided his son with a traditional Jewish education. When he grew up, Yaffe was sent to learn in a secondary school in order to expand his horizons. These studies encouraged him to study medicine and brought him close to the Zionist movement
. When he finished secondary school, he traveled to Geneva
, where he began to study medicine. Afterward he specialized in eye
care in Paris
. He began to publish laboratory work in his field of expertise, and his research was respected in the scientific community. Yaffe's decision to specialize in medicine, especially in eye care, derived from his dream to become a doctor in the Land of Israel
. In 1891, he traveled to Turkey
, the seat of the Ottoman Empire
, where he received a license to practice medicine. From there, he sailed to Jaffa
.
, who were suffering from malaria
. He visited the moshava
of Hadera at least twice a week and succeeded to heal some of the men, but the mortality rate remained high. Slowly it became apparent that a fundamental, broad program would be necessary to remove the scourge of malaria from the Jewish settlement, since individual treatment was insufficient. In 1895, two years after he became the doctor of Zikhron Ya'akov, Yaffe received a nomination to become the representative of Hovevei Zion
in Israel. This nomination opened a new chapter in Yaffe's life.
Yaffe became a noted authority on malaria, its prevention and its cure. He published many articles and even lectured in Paris in an international conference on malaria in 1900. He worked to improve public health and studied other illnesses which had spread throughout the region, with an emphasis on prevention and minimizing contagious spreading of diseases. In 1902, an epidemic of cholera
spread through Israel. Yaffe was appointed by the Turkish government to combat the epidemic. He decided that people were forbidden to leave their communities, and that it was forbidden to enter or leave the house of a sick person, in order to stop the illness from spreading. The epidemic was stopped.
In 1903 Yaffe participated in a delegation of the Zionist movement to investigate the El-Arish region, a prospective location for a Jewish state
suggested by Theodor Herzl
at the Zionist Congress. In the same year, representatives of Zikhron Ya'akov gathered and established the General Union and Teachers' Union of the Yishuv
. Yaffe stood as their head and worked to establish the resources of the communities so that they would not need to rely on external financial support. He also worked to convince the groups who worked in education to use the Hebrew language
.
In 1905, Yaffe abandoned Hovevei Zion and began to work in the Jaffa hospital. During his work he became sick with pneumonia
and traveled to Europe to heal. In 1907 he returned to Israel and began to run the hospital in Zikhron Ya'akov. Yaffe's extensive knowledge of the importance of public health and the practical realities of Israel led him to build a widespread system of prevention. He trained crews of medics who could help settlers, and these crews spread throughout the land and improved the level of prevention and treatment in the population.
In 1919, he moved from Zikhron Ya'akov to Haifa
, where he worked as a doctor and published articles on medicine. His articles were published in newspapers outside the country, and he was invited to international medical conferences. Yaffe continued to work until his death in 1936. He was buried, according to his wishes, in Zikhron Ya'akov.
trees, on the principle that the large tree would draw a lot of water from the ground. Also, manual efforts were undertaken to dry the swamps. The residents of Hadera and foreign workers from Africa (who arrived after Yaffe requested help from Baron Rothschild
) began the physically demanding labor of drying the swamps using a wide network of canals, connecting the swamps to the Hadera Stream. Another approach taken by Yaffe was research. Yaffe left for Europe and learned novel theories about malaria. Among these studies was one that suggested that mosquito
es from the genus Anopheles
, which were prevalent in swamps, were carriers of the disease. He began to plead with farmers to hang canopies around the beds, nets around the windows, and to clean every pool of standing water. Likewise, Yaffe convinced Baron Rothschild to send men to kill the mosquitoes. Afterward the incidence of malaria decreased, and efforts to dry the swamps continued with greater force. Forestation of large areas near Hadera with eucalyptus trees was part of Yaffe's effort to change the environment in order to respond comprehensively to the disease.
, and after World War I he earned a doctorate in chemistry. Sarah studied agriculture in England and married Joseph Bentwich
, who earned the Israel Prize
for education in 1962. Ya'akov, who learned medicine and specialized in tropical diseases, lived in Jerusalem as of 2007. His nephew, Yigael Gluckstein
who wrote under the name Tony Cliff, was a Palestinian Jew
ish Trotskyist and the founder of the British Socialist Workers Party
.
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
during the First Aliyah
First Aliyah
The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated to Ottoman Syria during the...
. He was instrumental in curing malaria among the Jewish population of Palestine in the early 20th Century, and helped improve the medical infrastructure of the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
during the same period. The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is a major hospital on the western edge of Hadera, Israel. It serves a population of about 380,000 residents in an area ranging from Zikhron Ya'akov in the north to Netanya in the south, from the Mediterranean coast in the west to Umm el-Fahm and the Green Line in...
in Hadera
Hadera
Hadera is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along of the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain...
is named after him.
Biography
Hillel Yaffe was born in 1864 in a small village in the UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. His father was a merchant and a man of means, who provided his son with a traditional Jewish education. When he grew up, Yaffe was sent to learn in a secondary school in order to expand his horizons. These studies encouraged him to study medicine and brought him close to the Zionist movement
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
. When he finished secondary school, he traveled to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, where he began to study medicine. Afterward he specialized in eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
care in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He began to publish laboratory work in his field of expertise, and his research was respected in the scientific community. Yaffe's decision to specialize in medicine, especially in eye care, derived from his dream to become a doctor in the Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
. In 1891, he traveled to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, the seat of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, where he received a license to practice medicine. From there, he sailed to Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
.
Medical career
After traveling around the country, Yaffe settled in Tiberias. He worked as a doctor there for two years (1891–1893) and then moved to Zikhron Ya'akov. He was noted especially for his dedicated work for the people of HaderaHadera
Hadera is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along of the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain...
, who were suffering from malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
. He visited the moshava
Moshava
A moshava , plural: Moshavot is a form of rural settlement in Israel.In a moshava, as opposed to communal settlements like the kibbutz and the moshav, all the land and property are privately-owned. The first moshavot, described as "colonies" in professional literature, were established by...
of Hadera at least twice a week and succeeded to heal some of the men, but the mortality rate remained high. Slowly it became apparent that a fundamental, broad program would be necessary to remove the scourge of malaria from the Jewish settlement, since individual treatment was insufficient. In 1895, two years after he became the doctor of Zikhron Ya'akov, Yaffe received a nomination to become the representative of Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism....
in Israel. This nomination opened a new chapter in Yaffe's life.
Zionist leadership
Yaffe's decision to combine medicine with political activism derived from his realization that in order to fulfill his mission for the Jewish settlement in Israel, it was necessary to form new institutions. Yaffe understood that in order to succeed in eradicating malaria, he needed to combine practical treatment of patients with research, community activism, and politics. When Yaffe accepted this job, he moved to Jaffa, which was a central city, and managed to raise money to drain the infested swamp near Hadera. He traveled to Europe to raise money for various purposes such as saving the first Hebrew school, which was on the verge of financial collapse.Yaffe became a noted authority on malaria, its prevention and its cure. He published many articles and even lectured in Paris in an international conference on malaria in 1900. He worked to improve public health and studied other illnesses which had spread throughout the region, with an emphasis on prevention and minimizing contagious spreading of diseases. In 1902, an epidemic of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
spread through Israel. Yaffe was appointed by the Turkish government to combat the epidemic. He decided that people were forbidden to leave their communities, and that it was forbidden to enter or leave the house of a sick person, in order to stop the illness from spreading. The epidemic was stopped.
In 1903 Yaffe participated in a delegation of the Zionist movement to investigate the El-Arish region, a prospective location for a Jewish state
Jewish state
A homeland for the Jewish people was an idea that rose to the fore in the 19th century in the wake of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Jewish emancipation in Europe paved the way for two ideological solutions to the Jewish Question: cultural assimilation, as envisaged by Moses...
suggested by Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...
at the Zionist Congress. In the same year, representatives of Zikhron Ya'akov gathered and established the General Union and Teachers' Union of the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
. Yaffe stood as their head and worked to establish the resources of the communities so that they would not need to rely on external financial support. He also worked to convince the groups who worked in education to use the Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
In 1905, Yaffe abandoned Hovevei Zion and began to work in the Jaffa hospital. During his work he became sick with pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and traveled to Europe to heal. In 1907 he returned to Israel and began to run the hospital in Zikhron Ya'akov. Yaffe's extensive knowledge of the importance of public health and the practical realities of Israel led him to build a widespread system of prevention. He trained crews of medics who could help settlers, and these crews spread throughout the land and improved the level of prevention and treatment in the population.
In 1919, he moved from Zikhron Ya'akov to Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, where he worked as a doctor and published articles on medicine. His articles were published in newspapers outside the country, and he was invited to international medical conferences. Yaffe continued to work until his death in 1936. He was buried, according to his wishes, in Zikhron Ya'akov.
Fight against malaria
Yaffe's first efforts to eradicate malaria focused on drying the swamps. He used many methods, including wide use of eucalyptusEucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
trees, on the principle that the large tree would draw a lot of water from the ground. Also, manual efforts were undertaken to dry the swamps. The residents of Hadera and foreign workers from Africa (who arrived after Yaffe requested help from Baron Rothschild
Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild was a British banker and politician from the international Rothschild financial dynasty.-Life and family:...
) began the physically demanding labor of drying the swamps using a wide network of canals, connecting the swamps to the Hadera Stream. Another approach taken by Yaffe was research. Yaffe left for Europe and learned novel theories about malaria. Among these studies was one that suggested that mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es from the genus Anopheles
Anopheles
Anopheles is a genus of mosquito. There are approximately 460 recognized species: while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria in humans in endemic areas...
, which were prevalent in swamps, were carriers of the disease. He began to plead with farmers to hang canopies around the beds, nets around the windows, and to clean every pool of standing water. Likewise, Yaffe convinced Baron Rothschild to send men to kill the mosquitoes. Afterward the incidence of malaria decreased, and efforts to dry the swamps continued with greater force. Forestation of large areas near Hadera with eucalyptus trees was part of Yaffe's effort to change the environment in order to respond comprehensively to the disease.
Personal life
Yaffe married Rivka Glickstein in 1898. She was the sister of Esther Glickstein, who would later marry Haim Margaliot-Kalvarisky. Before they met, Rivka had studied with Yaffe's sister in France. The couple had three children: Yirmeyahu, Sarah and Ya'akov. Yirmeyahu served as a captain in the Jewish BrigadeJewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
, and after World War I he earned a doctorate in chemistry. Sarah studied agriculture in England and married Joseph Bentwich
Joseph Bentwich
-Biography:Bentwich was born in 1902 in London, United Kingdom. His father was Herbert Bentwich, a lawyer and a leading British Zionist and his mother was Suzannah Bentwich . From 1920 to 1923, Bentwich studied at the University of Cambridge and, from 1923 to 1924, at an educational institute of...
, who earned the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for education in 1962. Ya'akov, who learned medicine and specialized in tropical diseases, lived in Jerusalem as of 2007. His nephew, Yigael Gluckstein
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
who wrote under the name Tony Cliff, was a Palestinian Jew
Palestinian Jew
A Palestinian Jew is a Jewish inhabitant of Palestine at various points in the region's history . Jews in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel are more commonly referred to as "Yishuv"...
ish Trotskyist and the founder of the British Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
.
Further reading
- Ya'ari, Avraham (1947), Memories of the Land of Israel, Volume 2, Chapter 68: "A Doctor in the Land, Hillel Yaffe"
External Links
- The personal papers of Hillel Yaffe are kept at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem