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Portman's donation is earmarked for an improved and expanded emergency trauma center. The Hadassah Women's Zionist movement is behind the project. The expansion will enable three times as many victims to be treated at once.
At a ceremony last week at the Jerusalem Theater, Dr. Kobi Assaf, Hadassah Hospital's director of surgery and shock trauma, said the expansion of the trauma center will save many lives. "One of the most crucial things we can do for trauma patients is treat them quickly," he said. "The new unit is arranged specifically to do that; everything we need to treat them is right here."
The old center could handle 23,000 admissions a year, but demand has risen to 73,000 in recent years.
Natalie Portman, whose family name is Hershlag, was born in 1981 in Jerusalem, where her father worked as a doctor and her mother as an artist. The family left Israel for Washington when she was still very young, ultimately ending up in New York, where she lived until her graduation from high school. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard. Natalie spent last summer studying Jewish history at Hebrew University.
While studying at Harvard, Portman wrote an open letter defending Israeli security policies after a pro-PLO student attacked Israel in the campus newpaper. She frequently paid visits to Israeli victims of terrorism in hospitals during the course of the Oslo War.
http://youtu.be/c60slgTB5aY
