Mayor nearby cotton her skin national president bar Senate on former president professor Zev Rothstein director-general Barbara Goldstein honored guests and gathered colleagues and Friends of Edessa I'm honored to join you today on behalf of USAID the US Embassy and of course the US government to celebrate with you the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the two campuses I've noticed that there's been a lot of personal stories presented to all of you today and I want to add my own to this celebration as well forty-nine years ago my father dr. Sheldon came at a blessed memory a pediatrician in Chicago inspired both by the victory the six-day war inspired by the achievements of a young country to build a new nation brought his young family myself included for six months to volunteer at the pediatrician on the staff of this hospital to work for Hadassah like the mayor I have very strong childhood memories I live in cata motets I played in the backyard and the old trenches that had divided the two countries experiences that we'll never forget and I'm very proud to sit here 49 years later as a representative of my government to honor again that same inspiration that brought my father here four to nine years ago earlier this week we celebrated a visit of our president Donald Trump to visit the country of Israel and celebrate your greatness and achievements I was honored to participated in the visit of First Lady Melania Trump together with Sarah Netanyahu to visit the other campus where they saw firsthand your achievements made their amazing faculty and saw children who are serviced by your by your services firsthand we had several hours there to kill and I had a chance to look at the the scheme of the pages of the book commemorating this hospital it takes a dream the story of Hadassah I was struck by the words of Elie Wiesel in the foreword to that book in which he stated Hadassah is more than an organization it's a family a family that loves it is loved it loves to.

Help those in need the weak the ill in short those who need help and it's a family that is loved because it does these things with as much devotion as competence there's truth to these words that we see here surround us today this marvelous celebration and they continue to inspire all of us including the US government to this day I'm very proud that said going back to 1977 as it's just stated we were one of the first government really entities to provide support to help with the renovation of this campus and in the years since we have provided in the 40 years since we have provided through over 30 grants close to 60 million dollars of support including up to this various day and again in the spirit of partnership of the American people with this organization we I tell you today that we will continue to provide that same support as you grow into the future I can't let me congratulate all of you on this amazing achievement and a 50th reunification of the two campuses wish you well and if you graduate all of us on such a great day thank you very much.