History The World Fellowship of the Israel Medical Association was created in January 1912, at the first session of the Hebrew Medical Association of Jaffa. During that historic session, Dr. Sherman, creator and founder of the Israel Medical Association, proposed the idea of instituting two classes of membership: members residing in then Palestine ("active members") and those residing abroad ("correspondent members"). His proposal was approved. According to its founder, the basic idea behind the creation of the World Fellowship was the unification of Diaspora Jewish physicians around the Israel Medical Association as its nucleus. The fulfillment of the dream was not at all simple. Following the approval of the decision regarding the membership of foreign doctors, a written message was mailed to thirty prospective members, in order to encourage them to join the organization. Its wording was proposed at the general meeting in February of 1912 and was subsequently approved. The message was worded in a laconic style, contained nothing suggesting a calling, an appeal or an invitation and offered no explanation of the reasons behind the World Fellowship or its goals. Although the message was mailed to Zionist physicians, its style was insufficient and disappointing, and not surprisingly brought few replies. Only after a new and better-worded announcement, containing relevant information and explanations, was sent with no change in membership fees, did the first requests for membership begin flowing in. The first two members of the World Fellowship were Dr. A. Baham, who a year later immigrated to Jerusalem, and Dr. Rochlin, both from Charkov. (Both were admitted in August 1912). By October of the same year, four additional members had joined the World Fellowship. Among the first foreign members was also Dr. Bihovski, a prominent neurologist from Warsaw. By 1913, the number of members in the World Fellowship had reached 9, and comprised a third of the general membership (18 members were local residents). The program was at the point of taking off. World War I, however, cut short all the World Fellowship activities. Following the war, Russia had become completely cut off from Palestine, and here, too, changes were taking place all over the place in general, and in the Medical Association in particular, and no actions were taken to revive the World Fellowship. The First World Congress of Jewish Physicians, held in 1936 had no connection to the World Fellowship of the Israel Medical Association. Although the Israel Medical Association actively participated in the preparations for the Congress and its running, its role was no different from that of its counterparts in Vienna or Warsaw. At the time, there were not many who could distinguish between the ideas of a world union of Jewish physicians and that of the World Fellowship of the Israel Medical Association. The purpose of the first was to bring together all Jewish physicians into one world organization and to create an organization whose location and number of chapters were not determined at the outset. All the while, the World Fellowship opposed the establishment of any new worldwide organization and strove to unite the Jewish physicians around the Israel Medical Association as its foreign members. In other words, the idea was to turn the Israel Medical Association into the center for Jewish physicians world-wide, and it therefore opposed its evolvement into simply another member of a world organization. Dr. Sherman, who served as Chairman of the Central Committee throughout the physician community's difficult years of World War II, realized the importance of renewing activities to attract foreign members into the Israel Medical Association, and succeeded in passing a resolution regarding the issue, without arguments or opposition. During the first session of the convention held in 1945, several committees were selected with the purpose of proposing issues for discussion for the second session. Dr. Sherman proposed to the organizational committee the inclusion of a clause in the bylaws, enabling foreign physicians to become members of the Israel Medical Association. His argument offered the reasoning that many members of the Israel Medical Association leave Israel for extended periods, yet desire to continue their membership privileges in the organization so as to continue receiving "Harefuah" and "A Letter to the Members." The motion passed unanimously and was consequently approved unopposedly by the second general session. The approval of the motion in the summer of 1945 marked the renewal of the "World Fellowship." Immediately following the creation of the State of Israel, Dr. Sherman took upon himself the development of the World Fellowship. Within the next few years, owing to his ardent work and tireless efforts in behalf of the World Fellowship in Israel and abroad, the World Fellowship experienced another period of expansion. Dr. Sherman took advantage of the Second World Congress of Jewish Physicians, which convened in 1952, and used its stage for the expansion of the World Fellowship idea and its consolidation. Prior to the appearance of the then prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Dr. Sherman announced to the convention delegates that the time had come for all Jewish physicians in the Diaspora to take an active role in the re-birth of the country, not merely with individual contributions, but as an organized group. World Jewish physicians, according to Dr. Sherman, could achieve the purpose if they unite and organize, and the goal could be achieved most practically by joining the veteran physicians' organization of Israel, the Israel Medical Association. Dr. Sherman was also successful in developing connections and chapters in additional countries of Western Europe, the Far East and South America. By the end of the 1950s, the World Fellowship membership had reached 4,000 members, and by the end of the 1960s, membership numbers were near 11,000, throughout 37 countries. By the end of the 1970s the World Fellowship consisted of 12,500 members in 38 countries.