Dealing with Adversity – Recalling Schvester Selma Meir, A”H

This past 2 Adar I marked the fortieth yahrtzeit of the legendary Selma Meir, a”h, who served as head nurse at Shaare Zedek Hospital for about half a century. She was a paradigm of strength and chessed, not only with regard to bikur cholim, but also in confronting adversity, both personally and professionally.

Selma Meir was born in 1884 in Hanover, Germany, to an indigent Jewish family. When she was five years old her mother died in child­birth, leaving behind five young orphans. Selma later wrote, “Because I lost my mother very early and therefore had a rather difficult youth, a strong need grew in me to give people that which I had missed so much: mother love and love of human beings. Therefore I chose the profession of nursing.”

Schvester Selma, as she came to be known, was serving as a nurse at Salomon Heine Hospi­tal in Hamburg when the legendary Dr. Moshe Wallach visited from Yerushalayim in search of a head nurse for Shaare Zedek. The head nurse at Salomon Heine recommended Selma for the position, and she agreed to come for a period of three years.

It took Selma four weeks to journey from Germany to Eretz Yisrael — from Berlin to Budapest to Constantinople to Damascus by train and car and finally to Yerushalayim. Upon her arrival in the holy city, this woman, a prod­uct of the cultured environment of Germany, was taken to the hospital by donkey wagon. There was no electricity or piped water and there were no pavements. There was no pub­lic transportation — quite different from her native Germany to say the least.

In the hospital itself, she found, in her words, “a rather disordered state of affairs.” The condi­tions were primitive and the nursing staff con­sisted of a group of girls who had to be trained.

Food was still prepared on kerosene cookers, or Primuse stoves, and heat in the winter was generated by kerosene stoves. The surgical and internal medicine departments and maternity ward were on the same floor. Only the depart­ment for infectious diseases was located sepa­rately in its own pavilion.

During the first weeks, she made her rounds in the hospital recording in a notebook “every­thing I noticed that was not as it should be.” She gradually introduced innovations according to the German system. It was difficult to find peo­ple suitable for work in a medical environment who would remain for a long time.

Dr. Wallach maintained a high standard of kashrus and shemiras Shabbos in the hospital, which she ensured was upheld.

The city was hit by a few epidemics shortly after she arrived and patients with severe cases of typhus and other diseases came for treat­ment. People stood in line outside waiting to be admitted. To safeguard her staff from infection, she had them don overalls and hoods over their heads.

Schvester Selma had a special affinity for the maternity ward. She derived tremendous satisfaction when an ill baby gained weight and regained health. Unfortunately, giving birth carried great risks at that time and in the exist­ing conditions, mothers at times became ill, sometimes fatally. Other times, the infant did not make it, R”l.

Once, a woman passed away after giving birth and there was no one to care for the baby. A woman was found to nurse the infant and the hospital would provide food and medical atten­tion, but Dr. Wallach asked Selma if she would undertake responsibility for the baby long-term. However, her three-year commitment was nearing its end and she was considering returning to Hamburg. She thought it over and agreed to stay. Later another motherless baby came under her care.

The hospital was greatly impacted during World War I when the British forces fought the Ottoman Army in the city environs. Wounded soldiers from both sides and civilians were brought to the hospital; with the explosions heard in the background, the staff treated the victims and assisted Dr. Wallach in numerous operations. As the sounds of battle came closer, Selma had all the patients transferred to the basement. The next day all was still and they learned the Turks had surrendered.

A nursing school opened in 1934 under her leadership, which emerged as a great boon for the hospital. She maintained that the priority was to “remember and never forget that one has to try everything when dealing with the patient to cause him as little pain as possible and to spare no effort [towards that].”

When war erupted again in 1948 with the founding of the Jewish state, Selma was in Tel Aviv. Knowing she was needed, she managed to join a convoy headed for Yerushalayim despite the danger of bombs and Arab snipers.

The strong need to give to others continued to fuel her passion as Schvester Selma worked well into her senior years. When she retired she continued to live on the hospital grounds, in a modern and professional health-care environ­ment a far cry from what the hospital was when she arrived. One of the baby girls she had adopt­ed decades earlier had grown up and cared for her needs.

Chazal say that bikur cholim is one of the mitzvos whose fruits one enjoys in Olam Hazeh and whose principal remains intact for him in Olam Haba. Schvester Selma Meir’s life reflect­ed that and much more.

(Quotes are from My Life and Experiences at Shaare Zedek by Schvester Selma Meir and published by Shaare Zedek Medical Center.)

Rabbi Yosef Gesser is a longtime writer for Hamodia Newspaper as well as an inspirational speaker on vari­ous topics, including dealing with adversity. He can be reached at ygesser@hamodia.com.