American Friends of Soroka Medical Center returns to Margate this month for an evening of Mediterranean food, a luxury raffle, and a keynote from Newsmax correspondent Sarah Williamson, with proceeds going toward mental health care at a hospital still recovering from a direct Iranian missile strike last year.
Margate Rooftop Benefit Will Support a Hospital Still Rebuilding From a Direct Missile Strike
South Jersey’s Meet and Mingle in Margate benefit returns this month, bringing together supporters from across the region on the rooftop of Sofia Restaurant for an evening built around a hospital most attendees have likely never visited but whose story has become increasingly hard to ignore. American Friends of Soroka Medical Center is hosting the event on Sunday, August 16th at 5 p.m., with a Mediterranean dinner, a luxury raffle, and a keynote address from Newsmax correspondent Sarah Williamson anchoring the evening.
The Hospital Behind the Fundraiser
Soroka Medical Center, located in Beersheba, functions as the primary hospital for more than a million residents across Israel’s southern Negev region, the closest major medical center to Gaza and, as a result, one of the country’s most consistently strained health care institutions. The hospital has treated thousands of casualties since October 2023 alone. Its already difficult role became considerably more literal on June 19, 2025, when an Iranian ballistic missile struck the hospital’s Northern Surgical Inpatient Building during the twelve day Israel-Iran conflict, destroying eight operating rooms and six research laboratories and costing the hospital 144 inpatient beds, though the building had been evacuated the day before the strike and no one inside was killed.
More than a year later, Soroka remains in the middle of what hospital officials have described as one of the most ambitious health care reconstruction projects in Israel’s history, backed by more than 300 million dollars in combined public and private funding, including a major donation from Canadian Israeli businessman Sylvan Adams. Alongside the physical rebuilding, hospital administrators have pointed repeatedly to a less visible but equally urgent need, expanded capacity for mental health and post traumatic stress treatment, both for patients who lived through the attack and for the broader population the hospital serves in a region that has spent years living under recurring rocket and missile threat.
A Keynote Speaker Who Has Covered the Region Firsthand
This year’s keynote speaker brings direct, on the ground experience to the evening’s theme. Sarah Williamson, an Australian journalist now working as a Newsmax correspondent, has spent five years reporting from Israel in addition to covering the war in Ukraine, building a career specifically around conflict and foreign policy reporting rather than general assignment news. Her talk in Margate is expected to focus on countering misinformation, sharing frontline perspective from her reporting, and making the case for expanded mental health resources at Soroka specifically, tying her own firsthand experience covering conflict directly to the fundraiser’s stated purpose.
Williamson is also a featured participant in Heroes of Truth, a global storytelling and portrait project created by photographer Limor Garfinkle in direct partnership with American Friends of Soroka Medical Center. The project was launched specifically to help raise funds for the hospital’s psychiatric department and PTSD treatment programs, profiling individuals connected to the story of the hospital and the broader conflict through portraiture and firsthand testimony. Williamson’s inclusion in that project makes her keynote appearance in Margate less a guest booking than a continuation of a fundraising relationship that already existed before this specific event was scheduled.
A Recurring South Jersey Tradition
This is not the first time Margate has hosted an evening built around Soroka’s mission. American Friends of Soroka has held versions of this rooftop gathering in past summers as well, drawing South Jersey and Philadelphia area supporters together for an evening the organization has described as building bridges between the local community and a hospital most attendees will only ever know through stories like the ones shared at events such as this. Registration for this year’s Meet and Mingle in Margate is open through the organization’s official event page, with the rooftop setting at Sofia Restaurant once again serving as the backdrop for an evening pairing a South Jersey summer night with a fundraising mission rooted several thousand miles away.
