Pediatrician Adrineh Karakashian: Serving Jerusalem’s Neediest Children for More than Half a Century

This month, Jerusalem lost Adrineh Karakashian, a beloved pediatrician who cared for generations of Jerusalemites in the 20th century.

Varsen Agabakian-Shahin, the first Armenian Palestinian to have a cabinet-level position in the Palestinian National Authority (PA) as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, mourned her passing and called her “a distinguished member of the Armenian Jerusalem community.”1

Karakashian passed away on October 12 at the age of 97. She will be best remembered as a prominent pediatrician who served the Palestinian refugee community and Palestinians at large for over 60 years. Although she specifically served in the Jerusalem area, her reputation spread well beyond Jerusalem.

Born in Lebanon in 1927 to a family that survived the Armenian camps in Deir al-Zor, Syria, Karakashian moved to Palestine in 1951 as a young pediatrician and worked at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem and with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where she worked for more than 20 years.

In 1967, she opened her private clinic to continue her dedicated service to needy children.2

Karakashian not only treated children but also trained nurses and other practicing physicians, mentoring hundreds of medical staff in the pediatric ward at Augusta Victoria Hospital. She was perhaps the only female physician in Jerusalem in the 1950s. Agabakian-Shahin wrote that Karakashian “served thousands of children—Armenians and Arabs—often free of charge. She loved Palestine and opted to stay in Jerusalem.”3

Agabakian-Shahin was treated by the popular pediatrician as a child. As a mother, she brought her children to her former doctor. In a eulogy published on the Christian-focused website Milhilard.org on October 15, she said, “Children loved Karakashian. She had a petite body and a distinct voice to which children were at ease. She was skillful in easing sick children’s pain and their parents’ anxiety. Her dedication to serving sick and healthy children on routine visits was unparalleled. She continued her uninterrupted medical service way into her eighties.”4 Her only concession to her age was that she cut down her working hours. Agabakian-Shahin also noted that Karakashian “will be remembered for her compassion and dedication to childcare, especially for the ones in need, and as a role model of tolerance and understanding, who gave to others with a sense of purpose.”5 A philanthropist, she contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars for education.

Fadi al-Hidmi, the former minister of Jerusalem in the PA, told Jerusalem Story that Dr. Karakashian was a family friend. His father was the well-known Dr. Arafat al-Hidmi, the former president of Al-Makassed Charitable Society, who contributed to establishing the health system in Jerusalem with several other doctors who came from the first generation of Palestinian Jerusalemites to become doctors. “She always visited us. She was also a colleague of my father, and they worked together in the 1960s at Augusta Victoria Hospital. They also worked together after the occupation of the city in the UNRWA clinics before Dr. Karakashian devoted herself to her private clinic at the Shu‘fat Junction.”6

He added, “There is no child in Jerusalem that Dr. Karakashian did not treat, including me and my sisters. I remember that I was sick a lot, and she used to come to our house every day to check on my health, and for this, I owe her a lot, as do the children of Jerusalem.” She is part of the wonderful Jerusalemite mosaic that exists, in which everyone fuses with love and service to the city.

The Jerusalem branch of the Palestinian Medical Association paid tribute to this pediatrician who served the children of Jerusalem, describing her clinic as a compass for the people of Jerusalem in Shu‘fat.

George Sahhar, a Jerusalem resident and communications and advocacy professional, recalled in an interview with Jerusalem Story how the late doctor had a strong sense of engagement with her patients. “I was treated by her as a child. When I met her 30 years later, as soon as I mentioned my name, she recalled all the minute details about me. I was surprised at how much she remembered about her patients.”7 A Palestinian mother told Jerusalem Story that Karakashian was the role model for her daughter, who decided to become a medical doctor after engaging with her as a child.8

Abdul Muati, 45, a resident of Shu‘fat, said his father knew the doctor personally and told him, “There is no child in Jerusalem who does not know this wonderful doctor who did not hesitate to receive any visitor, whether rich or poor, and she used to listen to us as if she was part of the family, and I am speaking from personal experience.”9

In the past, doctors and their patients enjoyed close relationships; they felt as if they were all one family. Some Jerusalemites would feel their health improve the moment they saw the doctor, as though they had received a psychological and spiritual boost for their aching body.

Dr. Karadashian’s private clinic in Shu‘fat, located on the main road from Jerusalem to Ramallah, was a landmark known to taxi and bus drivers and the population at large, and everyone referred to the junction that connects the neighborhoods of Shu‘fat and Beit Hanina to the Old City as the “Karakashian junction.” From that junction, drivers can head for the settlement of Ma‘ale Adumim and the Jordan Valley as well as to Tel Aviv.

As a result, traffic jams throughout the day are common; a month ago, a tunnel was opened under this Karakashian junction to ease the traffic.

Al-Hidmi recalled that when his father walked along Salah al-Din Street in East Jerusalem, everyone would run to greet him and talk to him; the doctor was part of the community and the story of the city. The late Dr. Amin al-Khatib was another local celebrity; he was called “the doctor of the poor” because he treated patients for free and provided medicine to those who could not afford to pay, especially after the occupation of Jerusalem, when the economic conditions of the city worsened and the poverty rate increased.

Dr. Amin Majaj played a similar role in his small clinic. His wife, Betty Dagher Majaj, herself a nurse, described in her memoir, War without Chocolate, how her husband undertook dangerous daily trips during the 1948 War to transport the wounded and emergency cases to the Austrian Hospice in the Old City of Jerusalem, despite the presence of snipers and the many bombs that fell near his vehicle and the hospital where he worked (see A War without Chocolate). She says that despite the war, he refused to emigrate and kept repeating, “Nothing will prevent me from my beloved Jerusalem.”10

Jerusalem’s Palestinian doctors—Adrineh Karakashian, Amin Majaj, Emile Jarjoui, Salim Maatouq, Abdullah Sabri, Abdullah Khoury, and many others—remained in the city to alleviate the medical and psychological suffering of Palestinian Jerusalemites caused by Israel’s 1967 occupation.

Karakashian was laid to rest in the Armenian Cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the city she loved. She will forever be remembered as a compassionate and dedicated pediatrician who cared for generations of Jerusalemites.