Sixty two years ago i.e on the 4th of March 1952, the Rotary Club of Nazareth received its Charter. It was the first club to be chartered after the establishment of the State of Israel and the fourth with Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv that were established during the British Mandate in Palestine.
Mr. Baz Kawar was the first elected president for the club, who during his presidency and for business and family reasons had to leave and settle in Amman Jordan. It is worth mentioning here that the same Baz Kawar established the first Rotary Club in Amman Jordan.
I joined the Rotary Club of Nazareth in December 1953, elected as President of the club for 1963/4 and as Governor of Rotary Israel for 1999/2000.
During the last 62 years the club had done quite a lot to the benefit of the town and the country. In the fifties of the last century the club had established programs to fight the Polio Epidemic that struck the children during those years, established a branch of the national societies of “Fight Cancer”, ” Fight Against Road Accidents” and promoted awareness against heart diseases. The club helped the three hospitals with donations of different medical items and the most important of which was the “Four Artificial Kidney Units” that were donated to the English Hospital in 1981, a project that boosted positively the financial conditions of the hospital then.
For the last ten years the club had succeeded to donate through the Matching Grants Projects to several Medical, Humanitarian, Educational and Cultural Institutions in Israel and Palestine and with the help of clubs from Italy, United States, Germany, Austria, France and Jordan and of course the Rotary International, to donate equipment, furniture, wheelchairs, and other items whose total value exceeded one million two hundred thousand dollars.

Photo copy of the cover page of the Directory of 1954.

Names of the Board of Directors of Rotary Nazareth for the year 1953/54

Names of the 30 members of the Club of Nazareth in the year 1953/4

Back Row: Emile Bathish, Habib Wihbeh, Geries Khoury, Costandi Touma, Elias Azar, Farhat Rashid, Dr. Scombardis, Basem Farah, Adib Jarjoura, Nasrat Kawar, Dr. Elias Srouji.

Middle Row: Bishara Jabaji, Mohamad Onallah, Said Abboushi, Dr. Michel Shammas, Baz Kawar , Dr. Sami Geraysi, Fred Thomson, Said Bushnaq, Costandi Muammar.

Front Row: George Hanania, Aziz Dahdal, Anis Sroouji, Farah Dahdah, Michel Haddad, Yusef Shoufani.

Yusef Srouji
Past District Governor
1999\2000