Northern Israel’s premier medical center, delivering comprehensive excellence to the Jezreel Valley and Galilee region
Northern Israel’s premier medical center, delivering comprehensive excellence to the Jezreel Valley and Galilee region
Emek Medical Center in Afula stands as the central medical anchor for the Jezreel Valley and Galilee, serving over half a million residents across northeastern Israel. Recently celebrating its 100th anniversary, the hospital has undergone a historic transformation throughout 2025, blending a century of legacy with unprecedented development. Today, Emek is in the midst of a massive expansion, highlighted by the inauguration of the “Beit Shulamit” Comprehensive Cancer Center—one of the most advanced in the world—and the new Hellenberg Rehabilitation Wing, the largest of its kind in the north.
The medical center continues to lead in quality and safety, recently ranking first among Israel’s large hospitals in the Ministry of Health’s national quality indices with a perfect score of 10. As a teaching hospital affiliated with the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Emek combines robust clinical care with academic excellence, offering state-of-the-art facilities like the new industrialized operating theater wing and a growing array of specialized departments, including a new Neurology department and Thoracic Surgery unit.
Emek’s catchment area is a microcosm of Israeli society, spanning the Jezreel Valley, Lower Galilee, and Gilboa regions. The patient population includes residents of kibbutzim, Arab towns and villages, development towns, and immigrant communities. This diversity requires culturally and linguistically tailored care, a mission Emek fulfilled with distinction during the security challenges of 2025, serving as a steadfast island of stability and coexistence for all residents of the north.
Emek is driving a technological revolution with the acquisition of the world’s most advanced medical systems, including the Da Vinci surgical robot, a new 3 Tesla MRI, and a state-of-the-art PET/CT. The newly opened “Beit Shulamit” Cancer Center integrates inpatient wards, a cutting-edge radiotherapy institute with Varian linear accelerators, and a center for cancer research.
Innovation extends to infrastructure with the 2025 opening of a new operating wing featuring 10 smart operating rooms built with industrialized construction methods. Additionally, the new multi-disciplinary building houses the Hellenberg Rehabilitation Wing, featuring inpatient and day-care floors and a hydrotherapy pool, alongside a modern delivery complex. Research remains a core pillar, with physicians publishing in leading journals and leading studies in oncology, genetics, and population health.
The year 2025 proved Emek’s resilience as a critical strategic asset during the “Swords of Iron” war and Operation “Rising Lion” in the north. Operating under continuous emergency conditions, the hospital ensured continuity of care by significantly upgrading its fortified infrastructure. This includes underground hospitalization complexes, protected delivery rooms, and fortified operating theaters.
The medical center is prepared for any scenario, with a newly protected maternity emergency room and NICU, ensuring that even under fire, the most vulnerable patients remain safe. Teams constantly drill emergency scenarios to maintain the highest level of readiness, solidifying Emek’s role as the secure medical frontline for the entire northern region.
The Israel Healthcare Foundation (IHF) is the U.S.-based partner of Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest and most trusted healthcare organization.
Since 2011, IHF has connected global donors, partners, and institutions to support Clalit’s mission of delivering equitable, excellent, and accessible healthcare to every corner and segment of Israeli society.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Danielle Thau has been a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Stamford, CT. She specializes in treating patients and families who are experiencing chronic or acute medical crisis. She served as the Officer of Education and Israel Liaison of the Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative (JCMHI). Additionally, Dr. Thau is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, contributing her expertise to the advancement of psychological education and practice.
Director, Institutional Advancement
Rebekah Raz is a seasoned nonprofit development professional with over 25 years of experience cultivating major gifts and building strategic donor relationships within the Jewish community. As Senior Fundraiser for the Israel Healthcare Foundation, she connects high-capacity supporters to transformative healthcare projects across Israel. Her deep personal and professional ties to Israel fuel her commitment to strengthening its hospitals and frontline care.
Development Operations Manager
Sophia coordinates comprehensive development activities for the Israel Healthcare Foundation, serving as a key liaison between the U.S. team and our partners in Israel. She manages large-scale events, strategic donor stewardship, and oversees the complete lifecycle of major grant portfolios from initial application through final reporting. Additionally, Sophia leads research initiatives to identify and evaluate prospective donors and funding opportunities.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College, where she studied American Literature and Creative Writing.
Senior Resource Advisor
Margy-Ruth Davis is the founder and chair of Perry Davis Associates. Founded in 1986, Perry Davis Associates specializes in fundraising, board development and strategic planning. Ms. Davis formerly served as Executive Director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. In that capacity she organized the Solidarity Sunday marches; over 250,000 joined the marches each year. Ms. Davis was also the Associate Director of the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center, where she established the Development Department; created an ongoing program of foundation support and corporate membership; and oversaw all aspects of board and donor relations. She currently heads the PDA strategic development program and supervises the communications and outreach strategy for a number of top clients.
Senior Resource Advisor
Perry Davis is the founder and president of Perry Davis Associates. Founded in 1986, Perry Davis Associates specializes in fundraising, board development and strategic planning. He has served in key positions in government, education, and the private sector. As the New York City Partnership’s Vice President for Economic Development, he directed the completion of the Partnership’s strategic plan and its new project selection process, and developed its first program-related budget of $8 million. Prior to joining the Partnership, Mr. Davis was the Director of Funded Programs for the New York City Board of Education, where he raised $350 million annually. Mr. Davis, who holds a doctorate in Government and Administration from Columbia University, has also served as an Assistant to the Mayor of New York City. He is the editor and a contributing author of a book on public-private partnerships published by the Academy of Political Science and has served as guest speaker at conferences sponsored by the White House, the International Downtown Association, and various corporations.
Steve is a member and Chair of the Public-Private Partnership Working Group and President of The United States Global Development Council. Steve is one of twelve Americans plus the Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury to serve. Prior to this role, He previously served as CEO of the world largest international Jewish social service agency, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
John Richards, MD, MMM, CPE, began his healthcare career as a family and emergency medicine physician in the United States Army. He served as faculty at the Medical College of Georgia. Starting in 1980, as an early adopter of technology in health care, he has been a serial entrepreneur with over 35 startup companies. Dr. Richards pioneered concepts and products in many health-related fields: health promotion, disease prevention, mail-order pharmacy, physician office dispensing, alternate site infusion therapy, health care data acquisition and mining, and cost containment to name but a few. Dr. Richards has worked for over 4 decades to reformat population health & its delivery, consumer and provider access & expectations and medical systems to improve patient care outcomes & provider efficiencies
Dr. Benjamin Lebwohl received his MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2003, and then completed his internship, residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at Columbia. He stayed at Columbia as a fellow in Digestive and Liver Disease, during which time he obtained a Masters in Patient Oriented Research from the Department of Biostatistics at the Mailman School of Public Health. He joined the faculty of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in 2010.
Dr. Philip Lanzkowsky is a retired pediatric hematologist-oncologist. Dr. Lanzkowsky was instrumental in the development, planning and establishment of Schneider Children’s Hospital (now the Cohen Children’s Medical Center) and served as its Chief-of-Staff from the inception of the hospital in 1984 until 2008. He is currently a consultant to Cohen and to Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel.
Dr. Adam Goldstein is a Professor and Director of Departmental Advancement at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Goldstein is the Director of Tobacco Intervention Programs (Nicotine Dependence Program and Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program) at the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Goldstein has taught internationally on leadership development, substance abuse, health policy, cancer and clinical medicine in Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Argentina, Chile, Haiti and Israel.
Dr. Feinstein is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and its two supporting organizations, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and Health Careers Futures Dr. Feinstein serves on a number of nonprofit and for-profit boards, including the Board of Directors of NRHI, the Center for Innovation Advisory Committee at the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Board of Overseers at Brandeis University’s Heller School, and as co-chair of the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative
Dr. Paul Appelbaum is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law, and Director, Division of Law, Ethics and Psychiatry at Columbia. Dr. Appelbaum is Past President of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, and has twice served as Chair of the Council on Psychiatry and Law and of the Committee on Judicial Action for the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
