While visiting Israel this past June, I experienced sudden cardiac arrest.

Fortunately for me, I was with someone who knew CPR and they immediately called for a defibrillator and an ambulance. Although I was closer to another medical center at the time, the decision was made to take me to Shaare Zedek Medical Center because of their superb heart center.

Once at Shaare Zedek, I was wheeled immediately into an operating room where Dr. Yaron Almagor was waiting with his medical team. Dr. Almagor found a blocked artery behind my heart and inserted two stents. Within two hours of the event, I was wheeled out of the operating room and my wife was told I was totally fine.

I was subsequently treated by other physicians on the cardiac floor and the decision was made to implant a defibrillator/pacemaker. The implant was done by Dr. Michael Ilan a week later.

After a few days in the hospital and a checkup with Dr. Ilan, my wife and I flew back to New York.

I cannot say enough positive things about the care I received at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Unfortunately, I have had a number of serious medical conditions over the years which have given me a unique perspective on the quality of care available at some of the best hospitals on the east coast of the United States. A hospital should first and foremost be judged by the quality of the physicians who are responsible for the primary treatment of an admitted patient. But a hospital is also judged by the quality of the support staff, the nurses and attending physicians; and finally, by the facilities of the hospital.

I was greatly pleased with the overall care which I received from every member of the Shaare Zedek medical staff and I was especially impressed with the assistance given to me in the cardiac administrative office where Sherri Aharoni was an absolute godsend—all the more so because I was an English-speaking American Jew without any family members to help interact with the doctors, nurses and administrative staff.

Moreover, because I was in the hospital for eight days, during which time I was fairly mobile, I had the chance to experience the larger context of the hospital and the way in which Shaare Zedek cares for the entire Israeli community—Arab and Jew alike. While there is so much talk within the American Jewish community of the tension and friction between Israeli Jew and Israeli Arab, and between Israeli and Palestinian, it was a revelation to see how Jews and Arabs co-exist side-by-side in the hospital and how the hospital made no distinction between the way Jews and Arabs were received and treated. I made a number of beautiful friendships with Palestinians who were there, caring for their own family members and one of the loveliest of all the nurses to care for me was a male Arab nurse.

In a very real sense, Shaare Zedek Medical Center is living the Zionist dream: A Jewish hospital in which anyone and everyone—Jew, Arab, anyone—is welcome to dwell side by side.

I should also mention that I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with the general director of Shaare Zedek, Dr. Jonathan Halevy. We spoke about the philosophy of the hospital, its particular strengths and the plans for the hospital’s future.

I promised Prof. Halevy that I would produce some wonderful television for the hospital for repeated telecast on Shalom TV and I will be working on that production in the near future. Everyone in the American Jewish community should know about Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center and everyone associated with the hospital should take enormous pride in the contribution it makes to Israel society.

By Rabbi Mark Golub, President, Shalom TV