Shulamith Cantor
Born Frieda Jedid Halevi, Cantor studied nursing at the American University in Beirut before making aliyah in 1919. Her knowledge of nursing and Hebrew allowed her to teach at the American Zionist Medical Unit’s nursing school. Although she quit in 1921 when she married Louis Cantor, she returned to the profession after her husband died in 1933, leaving her the sole supporter of their four children. She studied for a year at Columbia University in New York, then returned to Jerusalem to become head nurse and director of the school of nursing at Hadassah Hospital in 1934. She updated the curriculum and created specialized courses for midwives and operating room nurses, and beyond Hadassah offered advice and expertise to new nursing schools and to Israel’s new Ministry of Health.
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Early Life in Beirut and Early Career in Jerusalem
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Reforming the Hadassah School of Nursing as Director
In October 1934, after a year of study at Columbia University in New York, Cantor was appointed director of the school of nursing and head nurse at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1939 she handed over to Bertha Landesman the task of supervising nursing services, herself focusing on running the nursing school.
Cantor wanted the nursing school’s management to be run independently, but Dr. Haim Yassky (1896–1948), the director of Hadassah from 1928 to 1948, was staunchly opposed to this. Hadassah’s leadership in New York believed that Cantor would succeed in carrying out their goals, but feared that acceding to her suggestions to broaden the theoretical component of the curriculum and even incorporate the nursing school into the Hebrew University would impact negatively on the nurses’ practical capabilities.
It was in this context that Cantor instituted educational reforms in the nursing school, updating the curriculum according to the suggestions of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and also renewed specialized courses such as those for midwives and operating room nurses, in response to the requirements of the national public health service. During the 1930s, Cantor made efforts to organize a Jewish-Arab association of registered nurses in Palestine, in order to become a member of the ICN.
Developing Nursing in Palestine Beyond Hadassah
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Selected Works
“A Nursing School in Palestine.” The American Journal of Nursing 40:8 (1940): 880–884.
“Nursing and Nursing Education, As Done by Hadassah.” The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review (1947): 46–50.
“Nursing in Israel.” The American Journal of Nursing 51:3 (1951): 161–163.
Memoirs. Unpublished manuscript, 1968 (mimeographed).
American Jewish Historical Society Repository, New York. Records of the Hadassah Medical Organization (record group 2).
Bartal, Nira. “Theoretical and Practical Training of Jewish Nurses in Mandatory Palestine, 1918–1948, through the Prism of the Hadassah School of Nursing, Jerusalem” (Hebrew). Ph. D. diss., Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2000.
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem. Records of the Hadassah School of Nursing (J117), records of the Hadassah Medical Organization (J113), and Rose Jacob’s records (A375/235).
“Shulamit Cantor, Nursing Pioneer, Feted at 80.” Jerusalem Post, March 8, 1974.
Steiner-Freud, Judith. Interview with author. Jerusalem: 1999.
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