Esrath Nashim was the name of the women's forecourt of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The words can also be interpreted as ‘women's aid’ and were adopted as its title by a ladies' benevolent organization. This body, in 1895, established in the Old City of Jerusalem a one-room asylum where two patients were cared for. In 1905 the Esrath Nashim Hospital was opened in the Jaffa Road in the New City, and after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 it remained as the only psychiatric hospital in the new State, though others were soon established. The old hospital was a Turkish-style stone building which was impressive of its kind, but the difficulties under which it operated may be illustrated by recalling that when the present chairman of the Hospital Board took office in 1948 and obtained the first grant from the newly-established Ministry of Health it was decided that the most pressing need was to install a hot-water system. In the late 1950s the chairman persuaded the Board that they should build a new hospital, and in August 1968 this was finally opened, the first purpose-built psychiatric hospital in the country. At that time three pavilions, each with 50 beds, were complete.