 Although the rest of his parents' families perished from the Armenian Genocide, Donabedian's immediate family was able to escape, ultimately migrating to Palestine.His father had qualified as a doctor at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and soon after set up practice in the small Christian town of Ramallah, near Jerusalem.Donabedian received his early education at the Friends’ (Quaker) school there and subsequently followed his father in studying medicine at the American University of Beirut.