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Chaim Sheba

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Chaim Sheba
חיים שיבא
Chaim Sheba, 1948
Born
Chaim Scheiber

1908 (1908)
Frasin, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (now Romania)
Died10 July 1971(1971-07-10) (aged 62–63)
EducationUniversity of Vienna
OccupationPhysician
Known forFounder of Sheba Medical Center
AwardsIsrael Prize (1968, Medicine)
Chaim Sheba (right) escorts Eleanor Roosevelt during her visit to Sheba Medical Center
Sheba in 1967, photo by Boris Carmi, (Meitar collection, National Library of Israel)

Chaim Sheba (Hebrew: חיים שיבא; born 1908, died 10 July 1971) was an Israeli physician and the founder of Sheba Medical Center.

Biography

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Chaim Scheiber (later Sheba) was born in Frasin, near Gurahumora, Bukovina, then in Austria-Hungary (now Suceava County, Romania), to the well known Scheiber Hasidic family, a descendant of the Hasidic court of Ruzhin.[1] As a young child he studied in heder, a school for religious studies only.[2] He transferred from there to the 8th grade in a secular school.[2] Influenced by his grandfather, he began medical studies, and he completed them in Vienna in December 1932.[2] In 1933, Sheba immigrated to Mandate Palestine.[1]

Sheba died in 1971 of a heart attack.[3]

Medical career

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From 1933 to 1935, Sheba worked at HaEmek Medical Center.[4] He moved to Kfar Vitkin in 1935, where he had a clinic and served as a rural doctor for the area.[5] He also joined the Haganah that year.[6] In 1936 he began working at Beilinson Hospital.[1] In 1942, he enlisted in the British Army and served as a military doctor during World War II.[7] From 1948 to 1950, he commanded the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), serving during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and became Director General of the Ministry of Health after leaving the IDF.[8] He fulfilled this position until 1953, when he moved on to become the director of the Tel HaShomer Hospital (today Chaim Sheba Medical Center, named in his honor).[9][10]

Sheba was involved in found the medical school at Hebrew University,[4] and is described in some sources as having served as Professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[11] He was one of the founders of the Tel Aviv University Medical School[11] and served as a Vice-President of that University.[12] He also helped to establish medical schools in Jerusalem and in Haifa.

Awards and recognition

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In 1968, Sheba was awarded the Israel Prize, in medicine.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Sheba (Schieber or Schiber), Chaim | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  2. 1 2 3 Fellowship, The (2018-04-13). "Israelis You Should Know: Dr. Chaim Sheba". IFCJ. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  3. ↑ "new_emoployee_sheba_2jan22 Flipbook PDF". dokument.pub. 2022-06-02. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  4. 1 2 "שיבא: רופא לכל אדם / רות בונדי - פרויקט בן־יהודה". benyehuda.org. Retrieved 2026-10-20. השנה 1933, ואני רופא־בית מתחיל בבית־החולים המרכזי אשר בעמק.
  5. ↑ line, eden (2021-02-09). "בית הרופא". כפר ויתקין (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  6. ↑ Moreshet.com. "Chaim Sheba: A Pioneer in Israeli Healthcare". Moreshet.com. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
  7. ↑ Barell, Ari; Kirsh, Nurit (2022). "The hospital as a laboratory: Population studies at Tel-Hashomer hospital in Israel (1950s-1960s)". Science in Context. 35 (3): 272–293. doi:10.1017/S0269889724000036. ISSN 0269-8897.
  8. ↑ Nuriely, Benny; Kozma, Liat (2024). "Monopoly on doubt: Post-mortem examinations in Israel, 1950s-1980s". Social History of Medicine: The Journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. 37 (3): 516–536. doi:10.1093/shm/hkad101. ISSN 0951-631X. PMC 11531400. PMID 39498452.
  9. ↑ Ro'i, Nathan (1982). "Liet. Col. (Res.) Dr. Chaim Sheba". IDF in Its Corps: Army and Security Encyclopedia (in Hebrew). Vol. 12. Revivim Publishing. p. 107.
  10. ↑ Barell, Ari; Kirsh, Nurit (2022). "The hospital as a laboratory: Population studies at Tel-Hashomer hospital in Israel (1950s-1960s)" (PDF). Science in Context (35): 272–293 – via Cambridge.
  11. 1 2 "Israelis You Should Know: Dr. Chaim Sheba". IFCJ. 2018-04-13. Retrieved 2026-10-21.
  12. ↑ "צפוי קרע במחנה הסטודנטים". הארץ⁩. 1967-03-10.
  13. ↑ "Israel Prize Official Site - Recipients in 1968 (in Hebrew)". Archived from the original on 2012-03-07.
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