Eitanim

Eitanim is situated in the Jerusalem Hills and is categorized as a hospital under the Regional Council of Matteh Yehudah.[1] An account of the August 2021 Jerusalem Hills wildfire describes the hospital as being reached by a single access road, which became impassable as the fire approached.[7]

Eitanim and Kfar Shaul operate as the unified Jerusalem Mental Health Center, a state-owned institution.[4] A 2025 guide to Israel's health system lists the center as government-owned, academically affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and containing approximately 330 beds.[5]

A population table dates Eitanim Hospital to 1952 and places it in the Jerusalem Hills.[1] The National Library of Israel also catalogs an archival item documenting the hospital's inauguration; the item's title states that the facility was named for Danish King Christian X.[3]

The National Library catalogs a Hebrew bi-monthly periodical titled Eitanim concerning public health and public medicine. Its record dates the item to 1950 and gives an additional date of 1 March 1950, but does not establish a relationship between the publication and the hospital.[8] A separate catalog record identifies a poster titled "Signed for Eitanim — Kupat Holim monthly," but supplies no date, publisher details, or explanation of any connection to Eitanim Hospital.[9]

Eitanim was subsequently merged with Kfar Shaul into the Jerusalem Mental Health Center. Statistical reporting therefore covers the unified institution rather than Eitanim separately.[4]

An Encyclopedia.com population table records 200 inhabitants at Eitanim as of 31 December 2004 and classifies the site as a hospital under the Regional Council of Matteh Yehudah.[1] The entry does not clarify whether the figure represented hospital residents, associated housing, or a separately organized residential community.

As part of the Jerusalem Mental Health Center, Eitanim's operations are reported alongside those of Kfar Shaul. The unified center maintained 333 regulated beds in both 2017 and 2022.[4] Admissions rose from 2,715 in 2017 to 3,099 in 2022, while discharges, including deaths, increased from 2,645 to 3,025.[4]

Occupancy declined from 97% in 2017 to 88% in 2022. Over the same period, the average length of stay fell from 51.3 days to 31.4 days, while total hospitalization days declined from 119,708 to 107,568.[4]

In August 2021, a major forest fire swept through the Jerusalem Hills and reached the area surrounding Eitanim. Because the hospital was served by a single access road, the fire rendered the route impassable as flames approached the facility.[7]

At the time, 156 patients and staff members were at Eitanim.[10] Police and firefighters launched an emergency rescue operation through dense smoke, transporting patients by car after the road was blocked. Some patients, disoriented by the emergency and unfamiliar rescuers, resisted evacuation, and officers reported having to place some individuals into vehicles by force.[11] Accounts of the evacuation identified Prof. Gadi Lubin as the hospital's manager.[11] Firefighting efforts saved the hospital from burning, and the facility remained largely unharmed.[10]

In September 2023, Eitanim was affected by a suspected cyberattack.[12] The Health Ministry said staff switched to manual protocols while medical treatment continued without disruption. The ministry described Eitanim as a branch of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center and transferred responsibility for handling the incident to the National Cyber Directorate.[12]

The name Eitanim—rendered as "strong ones"—is also used by the Israeli-American Council for an educational program separate from the hospital.[6] The program pairs American-Jewish and Israeli-American middle- and high-school students with adult mentors in technology, business, and engineering.[12] It has been described as a year-long program, with individual mentored project cycles running 10 to 15 weeks. Students identify social issues, develop practical solutions, and present their projects before judges in an accelerator-style event.[12][6]

The program was named for Maj. Eitan Balachsan, who served alongside program founder Shoham Nicolet in the Paratroops during the 1990s and was killed in 1999 during a mission against Hezbollah.[13] It began as a pilot with 100 students in seven U.S. locations—Seattle, Boston, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey—and was scheduled for an official launch involving three additional locations.[13] In 2022, more than 400 students from across the United States competed in an environmental challenge involving Israeli environmental inventions.[6]

A 2013 human-rights report recorded that a court sentenced a nurse at Eitanim psychiatric hospital to nine months' imprisonment for abusing patients; three other employees received suspended sentences and/or fines.[14][2] The case appeared in a discussion of broader concerns about abuse and violence against psychiatric patients. Although the report discusses events from 2013, it does not explicitly state the calendar year of the September sentencing.[14]