Showcase 2: Immigration, Jews-Arabs Unrest, and Preparing for Independency and the Liberation War. Health during the Period of Mass Immigration, 1938-1954

A powder bellows used for spreading powder,
usually DDT.
• A locally made sprayer used to spray antiseptic
liquids such as carbolic acid or DDT.
• Two enema containers and nozzles.
• Two feeding spouts (one with the old Kupat
Holim logo).
• A nurse’s traditional white cap.
• Small sterilizer (usually for syringes), larger
enamel and glass containers used to keep the
sterile instruments and dressings, two stands
to keep non-disposable instruments in
disinfecting alcohol, cotton wool, 1941.
• The small Jewish community in Israel had
intense pride in their ability to be selfsufficient
and produce what they needed
themselves, “Hebrew work”. They expressed
this pride by including symbols on the items
they produced.
o A stainless-steel medicinal powder shaker
with the Kupat Holim logo and a Magen David
(Star of David) with the word, “May” inside it
to commemorate May 1, Worker’s Day.)
o A sterilization tray with the producer logo: the
Hebrew word “Izmel” which means
“scalpel” written in Hebrew letters with
English transliteration.
• Tooth extracting pliers.
• Two rinsing syringes and nasal bleeding
tamponade guide.
For years, even before 1948, many of the
kibbutzim and moshavim were quite isolated,
often amidst hostile Arabs and the British
army that supported them. The clinics and
the paramedics or nurses tried to be ready for
any emergency and accumulated facilities,
often beyond their real skills. Thus, it is
unsurprising that they prepared for general
anesthesia and transfusion.
• Ether and chloroform. Schimmelbusch
anesthetic mask rarely used as ether or
chloroform were rarely available and the
injured had “to bite the bullet” when treated.
• Two glass plates used for cross-matching
blood types to allow cross-blood transfusions
and aluminum pressure tap for infusion
systems (Kibbutz Revivim).
• A stainless-steel lancet.
• A microscope, rarely used in the clinic setting.
The threats from the Arabs and WWII, which
raged nearby, were strong incentives to better
prepare for war injuries. Any “military”
medical equipment and material that could be
bought or stolen found its way to the clinic’s
hiding caches. The Declaration of the
Establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and
the War of Independence that immediately
followed brought to light an eclectic mixture
of arms, uniforms and military medical first aid
materials.