Public lifeזלמה מאיר

Schwester Selma

Selma Mayer, known as Schwester Selma, was an Israeli nurse who served as head nurse of Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for about 50 years.

1884 to 1984Head nurse of Shaare ZedekFounding the Shaare Zedek nursing schoolYakir Yerushalayim award

Born: 3 February 1884, Hanover
Died: 5 February 1984, Jerusalem
Occupation: nurse
Education: Israelitisches Krankenhaus

Schwester Selma was born in 1884 in Hanover

Selma Mayer was born on 3 February 1884 in Hanover, Germany, to a poor Jewish family. Her mother died in childbirth when Selma was 5, leaving 5 orphans.

In 1906 she started work as a nurse at the Salomon Heine Hospital in Hamburg and trained in several of its departments. In 1913 she and another nurse passed the state nursing exams. They became the first Jewish nurses to earn a German State Diploma.

In 1916 Dr. Moshe Wallach recruited her for Shaare Zedek Hospital on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, and she arrived that December. She faced epidemics of typhoid, typhus and meningitis, and introduced German nursing standards such as white uniforms and daily bathing of patients. The hospital then had no electricity or indoor plumbing.

She trained and supervised the hospital staff and served as Wallach's right-hand assistant, sometimes acting as director in his absence. In 1934 she founded the Shaare Zedek School of Nursing. She never married and lived in a room in the hospital until her death on 5 February 1984.