title: Caring in a divided community.
abstract: The Order of St John's links with Jerusalem span 900 years. Returning to its roots in 1882, the St John Ophthalmic Hospital was opened in Jerusalem, the first of its kind in the Middle East. But the hospital has not been immune to the area's political troubles - during fighting which followed the end of the British mandate in 1948, it was so badly damaged that a new start was needed.