Prof. Avraham Rivkind, a senior surgeon at Hadassah University Medical Center who treated hundreds of victims of terror attacks, will receive the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced Tuesday.
Rivkind will be honored on Independence Day for his special contribution to Israeli society and the state. In 1992, he founded Israel’s first trauma unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem in Jerusalem and went on to head the hospital’s department of general surgery and trauma.
He is widely known for working on the front lines of emergency medicine during the Second Intifada, when suicide terrorists carried out bombings on buses and in city centers, treating hundreds of wounded.
The prize committee, chaired by Miriam Peretz, said Rivkind is among Israel’s leading general surgeons and cited his decades-long contribution to advancing trauma care. It described his work treating victims of terror attacks and IDF soldiers as the centerpiece of his career.
“Prof. Rivkind is a pioneer in developing new medical approaches and tools for saving lives that have become an integral part of the State of Israel’s reality,” the committee said.
The panel also noted that he established a comprehensive life-saving system for trauma victims, both in the field and in hospitals, which has served as a model in Israel and abroad. As a physician and researcher, he trained generations of doctors, students, medics and paramedics specializing in trauma medicine.
The committee added that Rivkind “embodies the values of the sanctity of life, love of humanity and the land, and high-quality, equitable public medicine.”
Rivkind, the only child of Holocaust survivors, began his medical studies in 1973 at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. Seven years later, he began his residency in general surgery under Prof. Natan Zalts, a recipient of the Israel Prize in medicine, and Prof. Arie Durst. He later trained at the shock trauma unit at the University of Maryland in the United States.
Upon returning to Israel, Rivkind led the establishment of the trauma unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem, an initiative that initially faced skepticism regarding its necessity and chances of success. When it opened in 1992, it was the first and only trauma unit in Israel.
Over the years, the unit treated thousands of patients, many in critical condition, including victims of terror attacks in Jerusalem. Rivkind was also called to assist in international disasters, including the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, terror attacks in Kenya in 2002, the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, and a deadly snowstorm in Nepal’s Annapurna region in 2014.
The Israel Prize is the country’s highest civilian honor and will be awarded at the conclusion of Israel’s 78th Independence Day celebrations.