What was going on when I was born?

Four of New York City's largest and most prestigious private nonprofit hospitals are asking the state this year to approve renovation costs of more than $1.5 billion for buildings they say are obsolete after decades of neglect. But state health officials are holding back their approval of those projects and others, totaling $2.2 billion all together, because paying for such construction could raise the cost of health care in the state by 3 or 4 percent, about $300 million a year. It is because the hospitals' individual reimbursement rates for patient care are set by the state and include the costs of capital construction -essentially passing them through - that the state is involved in approving the renovation projects. 'Buy What You Can Afford' While hospital officials argue that every year lost in contemplation of the projects means millions of dollars in inflationrelated costs, the state has created several blue-ribbon study panels and will not be rushed. ''You don't go out and buy a Cadillac today because it's going to be more expensive tomorrow - you buy what you can afford,'' said Dr. David Axelrod, the State Health Commissioner. ''I think there's a real question whether we can go out and build all of these projects at the same time.''

A package of bills designed to deal more strictly with violent juvenile offenders and allow the monitoring of their home life was signed into law today by Governor Kean. ''This is a very, very important day for law enforcement,'' Mr. Kean said. ''The rapid and tragic upward surge in juvenile crime has been of deepening concern and demands that government deal with it.'' The five-bill package, which represents a complete overhaul of all statutes dealing with juvenile crime, would accomplish these things: - Permit offenders 14 years old and older to be tried in Superior Court as adults in cases involving serious crimes, such as murder, kidnapping or sexual assault. Under previous law, anyone under 18 was treated as a juvenile offender regardless of the crime.

Consumer prices surged by 1 percent in June, the Labor Department reported today, keeping the annual inflation rate at double-digit levels for the second consecutive month. As in May, when consumer prices also rose 1 percent, last month's increase in the Consumer Price Index resulted from a sharp increase in gasoline prices, higher food prices and a baffling rise in housing prices, despite the slump in home sales. Medical costs also continued to rise. From an annual rate of increase of only 1 percent in the first quarter, when falling energy prices brought the monthly changes in the index almost to New York area prices rose 1.7 percent, ending a seven-month period of negligible inflation. Page 37. zero, the price index has jumped to an annual rate of 9.3 percent in the second quarter and to a rate of 5.1 percent for the first six months of the year. For June alone, the index is up at a compound annual rate of 13.3 percent.

At the end of an all-night session that frayed tempers, the Senate early today passed the largest revenueraising bill ever approved by either house of Congress. Over the next three fiscal years, the bill would recover for the Government $99 billion of the tax cuts that Congess approved a year ago. Those cuts, over a three-year period ending in the fiscal year 1985, were to total $435 billion, the largest ever enacted. Before passing the bill at 4:48 A.M., the Senate adopted a surprise floor amendment that would halve the deductions that companies can take for business meals and entertainment other than that on overnight trips away from home.

Interior Secretary James G. Watt warned the Israeli Ambassador to the United States last month that American support for Israel could be undermined if ''liberals of the Jewish commmunity join with the other liberals of this nation'' in an effort to block the Reagan's Administration's effort to speed the development of energy resources. The warning, in a letter to Ambassador Moshe Arens whose tone was cordial, said that Jews in the United States should support the Administration's energy policies ''if they are really concerned about Israel.'' The White House, in a formal statement Friday, disavowed the letter, which was dated June 17, several days after Mr. Watt had spoken with Mr. Arens at a dinner. The White House statement said that the Watt letter was ''unofficial'' and represented the Secretary's ''own personal views.''

Israeli planes and artillery attached Palestinian neighborhoods in west Beirut today for the second straight day after Palestinian guerrilla raids behind Israeli lines in southern Lebanon. The Israeli air strikes and artiliery bombardments, which lasted about 90 minutes, appear to reflect mounting Israeli frustration with the failure of American mediation efforts to arrange a peaceful withdrawal of the 6,000 Palestine Liberation Organization fighters trapped in west Beirut. The P.L.O. press agency, Wafa, said 56 people were killed or wounded in today's Israeli attacks, but it gave no breakdown between guerrillas and civilians. In another development, former Prime Minister Saeb Salam of Lebanon said in an interview that he had "good, good reason to believe" that David Dodge, the acting president of the American University of Beirut who was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen Monday, was still alive.

The International Whaling Commission voted today to ban all commercial whaling, starting in 1986. The 25-to-7 vote, taken at the commission's session in Brighton, England, does not necessarily mean an end to the killing of whales. Participants at the commission's meeting said some of the nations that opposed the ban, including Japan and Norway, had threatened to file exceptions to the decision and continue to hunt whales.

With songs and chants from supporters, the first of 1,807 Haitian refugees ordered freed by a Federal judge were released today from a Federal detention camp near the Everglades. The action followed an agreement Thursday night between the Government, refugee groups and voluntary assistance agencies that set aside the final obstacles to the release of the refugees, some of whom have been held for more than a year. Immigration officials released 17 refugees in the first group. They said others would be freed as voluntary agencies came forward with the names of sponsors, in a process likely to take several days.

The newly appointed president of the country's principal land redistribution agency has charged that the agency has been marred by corruption and mismanagement. As a result, $6 million in Institute for Agrarian Transformation funds have disappeared and the country's peasant cooperatives are some $30 million in arrears on their obligations, according to Jorge Arturo Argueta. He called the agrarian project's record so far ''totally negative.''

Sometime next week, President Reagan is expected to certify to Congress that El Salvador's Government has made progress in human rights and economic and political improvements. Two top State Department officials - Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and Thomas O. Enders, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs -have urged the President to make the certification. The Administration is required to report to Congress by July 28 as a condition for continued economic and military aid to El Salvador. Administration officials said Mr. Reagan was prepared to accept the advice of the officials. Mr. Abrams made a trip to El Salvador this week before sending his proposal to President Reagan, Administration officials said. Mr. Reagan's expected certification will be the source of debate next week at Congressional hearings. Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee have questioned whether political and economic changes - especially El Salvador's land redistribution program - are actually taking place in the face of strong opposition in El Salvador's legislative body, the rightist-controlled Constituent Assembly.

The Japanese Cabinet announced today a new fiveyear plan for arms purchases in the next five years that is higher than current spending but appears unlikely to satisfy the United States. The new program calls for at least $17.6 billion in spending on weapons from 1983 to 1987, an increase of more than 60 percent over the 1978-82 expenditure of about $10.8 billion.

About half the 819 Poles who went to Spain for the World Cup soccer championship stayed abroad, and some even fled en route, the weekly Communist Party newspaper Polityka said today. It said the others returned to Poland, which has been wracked by economic problems and under martial law since Dec. 13.