Bios

Palestinian Jerusalemites have made myriad and diverse contributions to their city’s history and community fabric. Here we profile some of those people—past and present; famous and obscure—whose lives and work and stories have helped shape the larger Jerusalem Story over time.
Fatima Budeiri

An Arabic-language teacher and media personality who became the first Palestinian woman to work as a radio broadcaster

Tawfiq Canaan

An epidemiologist, ethnographer, and institution builder who made foundational contributions to medicine and health care in Jerusalem and Palestine

Georgette Rizek

An activist who lived through the Nakba and founded and directed the Infant Welfare Center, the first medical center in the Old City of Jerusalem

Find alphabetically by first letter of last name

Amin Majaj

A Palestinian physician and public servant who was the “father of pediatrics in Jerusalem”

The West Side Story Betty Dagher Majaj

A nurse from Lebanon who married a Jerusalemite and moved to the city right before the Nakba and embraced the responsibilities thrust upon her for caring for the sick, wounded, and disabled of the city over decades