Helena Kagan

Helena Kagan (; September 25, 1889, Tashkent, Uzbekistan – August 22, 1978, Jerusalem) was a physician, an Israeli pioneer in pediatrics, active in Jerusalem. She was responsible for the expansion of health care in Israel. Working under the auspices of the Hadassah organization, she gave treatment to generations of local children regardless of their parents' religious affiliation.

Biography Helena Kagan was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to Moshe and Miriam Kagan, a Jewish couple from Riga. They also had one son named Noach.

Kagan studied piano at the Musikschule Konservatorium Bern by the Ottoman authorities, and playing a decisive role in containing a cholera epidemic, Kagan was granted an honorary license and started to work at a small children's hospital, becoming the first pediatrician in the country and the only female physician in the Ottoman Empire, In the same year, she opened a shelter for homeless children, and a health center in the Old City of Jerusalem for working mothers, In 1936, she established the pediatrics department of the Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem, which she headed until 1975. In 1947, she was elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew University, becoming its vice-chairwoman in 1965.

Awards and recognition She was awarded the Israel Prize in 1975 The pediatric department of Bikur Holim Hospital and a community center in Katamonim, Jerusalem, bear her name since 1962 and 1968 respectively. In her later years, Kagan worked as adviser to the Ministry of Health while keeping the pediatric consulting work at home.