I spent my elective in autumn of 2008 at Hadassah, Ein Karem, Jerusalem for 6 weeks in the departments of Internal Medicine and Neurology. Both departments had a heavy and varied case load, and included HDU bays with intubated patients. I attended and contributed to lengthy and discursive ward rounds, and attended departmental meetings and journal clubs. I vastly improved my medical Hebrew and I compiled a dictionary of over 800 words intended for the JMA(UK) electives’ website. In Israel, medical students are taken seriously and are expected to be well read and so I learnt a lot of medicine as well as deepening my understanding of Israeli medical care.

Non-medical highlights of my elective included the mandate-period Rockefeller Antiquities Museum, a debate on the state of Israeli democracy launching a book by Shulamit Aloni, and an “Alternative Tourism Group” trip to Bethlehem, Dheisheh and Hebron.

Bernard Freudenthal
Final Year Medical Student – University College London