The history of Kupat Holim, the health organization of workers in Israel, began at the 2nd Convention of Jewish agricultural workers in Judea in December 1911. Due to the lack of health services within the economic means of the workers, and the refusal of the farmer-employers to extend health services to their employees, the Jewish agricultural workers in Eretz-Israel -- at that time, a distant province of the far-flung Ottoman empire -- decided to establish a workers' health fund (kupat holim in Hebrew). In the years 1912-15, two funds similar to the ones in Judea were also established in...

The Hadassah Book covers the topics of women, public health, and Zionism. The book focuses mainly on the unique endeavor of the members of the Hadassah Women's Organization, who took upon themselves the mission of building modern public health services for the Jewish community in Palestine under British rule, based on their American experience in that field. During these first ten years, public health services were provided to 46,000 pregnant women, 53,000 infants, 700,000 house visits were made by nurses, and 1.7 million visits were made to the 44 maternal and infant welfare centers that...