2026 rosh hashana

ROSH HASHANA GREETINGS FROM OUR CO-CHAIR

By Vivienne Simenoff

Dear friends,

for having our own fully staffed hospital with 61 departments and outpatient clinics. Much larger cities such as Modiin and Beit Shemesh do not have their own hospital. There have been 88,000 visitors seen in the ER in 2025 . After the year we have had, we all know that we need sheltered facilities. By the time this article is published we expect to have broken ground on building a new sheltered emergency hospital and we are fundraising to help towards that. I saw firsthand the necessity of having a sheltered hospital when Charlie had surgery on a morning when Iranian missiles were being fired at Israel in June of 2025 . Patients from all over the hospital had been moved about. Charlie came out of difficult, lengthy surgery and I watched in amazement as the staff built an intensive care unit around him in as safe a place as they were able to find. Over 800 babies are born each month including many grandchildren and great grandchildren of people in Netanya. Doctors in our community work there as do nurses, Physios and others as well as many people who volunteer their time there. That is why when Ken Schwartz, then Chairman, asked me to become Co-Chair of Laniado Supporters with him I volunteered. Ken and I , our Executive Board, our Board of management together with Eli Knoller , our Director of Development , Sue Levy our Administrator and Malky her assistant , and all the volunteers who assist them in the office, are working so hard to raise funds to help the hospital to help its patients. What have we done during that time: • December event in conjunction with the Tarbut Committee of YINN – an evening with a clown trained to raise the spirits of patients in hospital. • Purim greeting cards, both online and hardcopy • Annual Quiz and supper with our Quizmaster, Alan Gold

You may have known my beloved husband Charlie, but many of you only knew him as the smiling face in a wheelchair or in his electric buggy. What you would not have seen, or thankfully could not see, was the multifaceted, highly complex medical conditions that existed under his colourful

Charlie ז"ל

clothing. Since his passing in October last year, I have increased my involvement with the Laniado Supporters. It is my small way of trying to repay the hospital. Over 30 years ago, when I was a tourist here, Laniado hospital saved my life, and more recently it gave my beloved husband, Charlie ז"ל nearly 5 additional, bonus years to his life. Charlie was treated in nearly every ward in the hospital (apart from maternity and Obs & Gynecology of course!) and I saw first-hand what the hospital can do. Was it always perfect over our very frequent emergencies, and his long admissions over those nearly 5 years? What I saw showed me some areas in desperate need of additional investment, where money can certainly help; and it also showed me what expertise and compassion can achieve. As a daily, if not twice daily visitor, I also saw the benefit of having a hospital so close to home. Charlie was discharged from hospital by his Kupa to complex nursing care facilities in South Netanya, in Raanana and in Kfar Saba. None of them could deal with his myriad of conditions and I was at least able to recover a little of my strength when, as happened on each occasion, he sadly became very ill and was readmitted close to home in Laniado . Laniado may have started off its life in 1975 as a tiny hospital. Today it is a medical campus providing the highest level of care to 500,000 people in the Sharon region of Israel. I know that I am very grateful