An international symposium on inflammatory bowel diseases was held in
Jerusalem on September 7th-9th, 1981. The symposium was sponsored by the
Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical SchooL and the Israeli
Gastroenterological Society. The idea was to bring together leading
workers in the field, to invite all those interested to present their
new work on IBD and thus to enable exchange of information and cross-
fertilization needed to improve our understanding and handling of these
diseases. The symposium was organized into four panels devoted to state
of the art reviews. presentation of new findings and approaches on the
follow- ing topics: New pathological concepts. etiology. pathogenesis
and management of IBD. In addition. 89 abstracts were presented as
posters during the symposium. all of which were published in the book of
abstracts. The concluding panel outlined new directions for future
research on IBD. We owe our gratitude to Drs. J. B. Kirsner, G. L.
Gitnick and C. E. Rubin, members of the Organizing Committee, without
whose encouragement and help the symposium could not have taken place.
The Organizing Committee owes a considerable debt of gratitude to all
the contributors who presented their work in a clear and concise manner,
to all those who presented posters and to all the participants who came
from 27 countries. Their stimulating presentations and discussions con-
tributed to the success of the meeting.