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.