Levanah Goldberg has a special relationship with Shaare Zedek

Now aged 90, she lives with her daughter Sara, who is the deputy head nurse of the Emergency Department at Shaare Zedek, in Nofei Prat near Jerusalem. At the tender age of 3 Levanah ran away from Syria with her family. They were unable to take any of their possessions with them as they journeyed to Israel settling just a stone’s throw from the old Shaare Zedek building on Jaffa Street.

At the age of 15 Levanah wanted to help her family who were extremely poor, so she went out to work to bring home an income to support her parents. She started working at Shaare Zedek, in the dining room serving the nurses and medical staff and she also spent time working in the Pharmacy, dispensing medicines.

When Levanah reached the age of 18, she started studying to become a qualified nurse with the incredible help of Professor Wallach, the Director of the hospital at the time. He arranged for Levanah to receive a financial loan from the hospital to help with her studies, which she repaid every month from her salary once she was earning enough.

Levanah remembers Professor Wallach being incredibly dedicated to his patients, he cared for many in the contagious disease department and saw many cases of patients with diphtheria. He did not have his own children, but looked after all the children that arrived at Shaare Zedek like they were his own, he cared from the heart.

Levanah worked at Shaare Zedek her whole life before retiring, often taking night shifts, or working on Shabbat because this paid a higher salary. As a single mother, her husband passed away very young, Levanah had to raise her seven children single handedly.

The role of a nurse is incredibly tough, especially when you have young children, but Levanah put her heart and soul into her work. She cared deeply for her patients and for Shaare Zedek and during her time at the hospital she encountered some remarkable patients.

During her time at the hospital Schwester Selma was the head nurse and Levanah remembers her “as a little lady, who was very nice and kind, if she saw anything dropped on the floor, she would pick it up and wouldn’t ask anyone else to do it.”

Schwester Selma’s sense of pride and dedication rubbed off on Levanah who truly is a remarkable woman. Working night shifts was not easy, but Levanah not only wanted to provide for her children, but to be present in their lives too and so working at night meant she could see her children during the day and to spend valuable time with them.

Levanah worked in Gynaecology, ENT, Paediatrics, in pretty much every department the hospital had. In those days it wasn’t very big and so she took the approach that wherever there was work she would be there, she got stuck in and just got on with things. One of the most difficult departments to work in during a night shift was Ophthalmology. “It was worrying because patients were bandaged and couldn’t see, so there was a lot of responsibility during the night, to make sure they didn’t fall over or have an accident.”

Levanah loved her work, and the patients loved her, she was well respected because of her dedication and only recently her daughter Chaya took her back to Jerusalem to visit the area where Levannah lived and worked. Incredibly in the streets of Jerusalem Chaya was overwhelmed with the incredible amount of people that approached her mother. People who recognised Levannah and reminded her of the time she looked after them as patients in Shaare Zedek.

Levanah shared with us, “To be a nurse you have to love and care for people,” and she hasn’t stopped caring. In 2022 Levana celebrated her 90th birthday and her family chose to make a big donation in celebration of this wonderful occasion, and what did they choose to donate the money to? Nursing scholarships, a fitting tribute to a wonderful woman who gave so much of her life to Shaare Zedek Medical Centre and continues giving today.