Dr. Ilana Belmaker (née Elaine Zarembka) served as the chief public health officer for the Israeli Health Ministry’s Southern District Health Bureau from 1988 to 2012, but her journey to that position was unconventional.
She grew up in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. During her sophomore year at Radcliffe College, she met Robert Belmaker (later known as Haim), and together they graduated from Harvard University in June 1967. In 1971, they earned medical degrees from the Duke University School of Medicine.
Learn how to buy your home in Israel with confidence >>In 1974, the Belmakers made aliyah. Ilana obtained a master’s of public health degree from the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health, along with certification as a physician specialist in public health in 1979.
When Ilana began her tenure as the chief public health officer, the couple moved to Omer, a suburb of Beersheba. She also joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, eventually becoming an associate professor of public health.
Even after retiring from BGU in 2012, Ilana continued her scientific research. Over the years, she has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. In 2017, she co-authored a paper in The Lancet, a world-leading medical journal, on the topic “Maternal and child health in Israel: Building lives.”
In 2024, she co-authored an article identifying Israel as a regional “hot spot” of plastic pollution, elaborating on the adverse health effects of exposure to plastics, microplastics, and their additives.
Ilana and Haim raised six children in Omer before retiring to Modi’in, where they currently reside. The Magazine recently interviewed Ilana.
How did you manage to get enough sleep while raising six children and pursuing your career?
With a great deal of help from my husband, Haim. For example, when I was breastfeeding, we took turns with ‘night-on’ and ‘night-off’ shifts. When our newborn cried, Haim would change the diapers, bring the baby to me for nursing, and stay up until the baby fell asleep. The next night, I would be ‘on call’ while Haim slept.
This way, each of us got a full night’s sleep every other night. It was just as important to Haim as it was to me. Haim, an Israeli psychiatrist, has held major academic positions in Israeli psychiatry since 1974.
What are some of your recommendations based on your 2024 article ‘Adverse health effects of exposure to plastic, microplastics, and their additives: Environmental, legal, and policy implications for Israel,’ published in the ‘Israel Journal of Health Policy Research’?
- Never microwave milk in a plastic baby bottle – not even for a minute.
- Don’t heat any food or liquid in plastic containers in the microwave.
- Always buy BPA-free water bottles.
- Use non-plastic plates, bowls, cups, and utensils whenever possible.
Plastics contain many different additives, many of which are toxic and can leach into food and drinks, especially when heated. Items containing plastic – such as furniture, clothes, synthetic grass, glitter, acrylic latex paint, and single-use plastic items – disintegrate into microplastics that contaminate our air, water, land, and food. They accumulate over time in the environment and have already been found in multiple organs of the human body.
In 2019, you received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Public Health Physicians Association. What were two of your major achievements as chief physician?
In 1990, a major measles outbreak was stopped by a mass immunization campaign carried out by public health nurses in my office, along with medical students from the Ben-Gurion Faculty of Health Sciences. Subsequently, our office raised the measles immunization rate among Bedouin children from 50% (before the outbreak) to over 90%.
Another major health challenge was air pollution from the chemical-industrial complex known as Ramat Hovav, now Neot Hovav. We secured funding for an epidemiological study on the potential adverse health effects on those living near Ramat Hovav. The study’s results, presented to the public in 2006, led to public demands for reducing air pollution at the site.
My career in public health in Israel was the fulfillment of a childhood dream of becoming a ‘microbe hunter.’
You became chief health officer without prior administrative experience. What helped you succeed?
Good training in public health, respect, and a readiness to listen to every worker in my office, giving credit for successes to relevant staff, avoidance of gossip or public criticism of staff members, maintaining good relations with leaders of communities from various cultural/religious/ethnic backgrounds, and close association with the staff of kupot holim (healthcare providers), Soroka Medical Center, and BGU.
Additionally, consulting as needed with outside experts on public health challenges; demands that staff opinions be supported by data (I come from the Show Me state of Missouri, so I don’t accept opinions without supporting data); a willingness to work long hours; amazing support from my husband and children, even when a public health emergency caused me to interrupt a vacation day together – they all helped me succeed.
Were you raised in a Zionist home? Did you attend Jewish classes as a child or belong to a Jewish youth group as a teen?
My mother spoke frequently and emotionally about the horrors of the Holocaust. I attended Israeli folk dancing events and read books about the exciting new State of Israel, but I did not grow up in a Zionist home nor belong to a Jewish youth group.
Yet, you married a Jewish man, moved to Israel, and have lived here for 51 years. How did that come about?
Haim’s father left Poland for Israel in the 1930s; the rest of his family was killed in the Holocaust. As a wedding gift, his father gave us two plane tickets for a honeymoon in Israel. We were married in Boston on June 16, 1967, when I was 21, and we left the US on the first available flight after the Six Day War. After two months of volunteering, we returned to the US for medical school, already knowing that we both wanted to come back.
With the Vietnam War dragging on, those were tough times for young Americans. We found Israel to be a young and idealistic country. When we asked if they needed doctors, we were told they needed good doctors.
Why did you choose to move to Modi’in?
Four of our children live in Israel, and 11 of our 13 grandchildren are here. We moved to Modi’in after retiring so we wouldn’t be more than an hour’s drive from any child or grandchild.
Do you make time for any hobbies?
I’ve enjoyed birdwatching since I was 12 years old as a student at Meramec Elementary School in Clayton. Two of my sons, who are also serious birdwatchers, recently gave me a wonderful birthday gift: Once a month, the three of us travel to a different part of the country for birdwatching. And this spring, we’re heading to Costa Rica.
What places in Israel do you recommend for birdwatching?
Start with these resources: birds.org.il/en agamon-hula.co.il/home-en/ https://shorturl.at/eYtvG
Ilana Belmaker: From St. Louis to Jerusalem, 1974; To Beersheba, 1988; To Modi’in, 2012
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