Rambam Health Care Campus is proud and honored to bestow the 2017 Rambam Award upon Ambassador Dennis B. Ross in recognition of his decades-long commitment and enduring effort on behalf of the well-being and integrity of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora; with deep admiration for his work to bring both communities together; for his past and ongoing diplomatic activities at the highest levels towards the much yearned-for and needed pursuit of peace in the Near and Middle East; and for his life’s work focused on coexistence to the benefit of all peoples everywhere, including Israel and Rambam Health Care Campus.
Ambassador Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, he worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright. Prior to serving as special Middle East coordinator under President Clinton, Ambassador Ross served as Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff in the first Bush administration. He also served for two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Ambassador Ross had an early leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and dealing directly with the negotiating parties. He successful brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord and facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty. Ambassador Ross serves as cochair of The Jewish People Policy Institute, a non-profit Israeli professional policy think-tank whose mission is to ensure the thriving of the Jewish people and civilization in Israel and globally.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, and the author of several important books on the peace process, Ambassador Ross has been an influential presence in the quest for peace. He is a firm believer of diversity and coexistence, exemplified by the people of Haifa, and a standard upheld daily at Rambam Health Care Campus.
In acknowledgement of all the aforesaid, the Honorary Awards Committee has found Ambassador Dennis B. Ross deserving of the 2017 Rambam Award.