David Kilby, Managing Editor
MONROE — To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Zionist group Hadassah, Monroe has declared March to be Hadassah Month, and the township has erected a street sign at the Monroe Township Library entrance reading “Hadassah Way.”
The sign will remain until March 31.
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, has 300,000 women members in the United States and more than 1,550 women and 150 associate members who are men serving in the Monroe Township chapters, reads the proclamation read at the Monroe Township Council meeting Monday.
Henrietta Szold began Hadassah in March 1912, and it is now the largest women’s organization in the world.
Monroe has four Hadassah chapters: The Alisa chapter in Greenbriar at Whittingham which includes The Ponds and Encore; the Monroe chapter in Concordia; the Regency at Monroe chapter; and the Stonebridge chapter.
Representatives of each chapter were present at the meeting to receive framed proclamations.
President Norma Klein of the Monroe chapter, President Karen Ross of the Regency chapter, Co-President Barbara Schwartz of the Stonebridge chapter and President Rhoda Juskow of the Alisa chapter, received the proclamations for each of their respective Hadassah groups.
Albert Pressler, a male associate of Hadassah, shared a story about a cousin of Ms. Juskow, who was in Israel attending a wedding with his wife and son.
On the way back to where they were staying, the family was fired on by a terrorist with an automatic weapon, he said. Her cousin suffered serious head wounds as did his wife, and their son was killed. They wound up in a Hadassah hospital where they were treated.
”Looking at them, you would never know, physically, they had suffered such trauma,” Mr. Pressler said, attributing the success of their recovery to the hospital’s services.
Hadassah retains the values of its founder, who was a Jewish scholar and activist dedicated to Judaism, Zionism and the American ideal.
According to its website, www.hadassah.org, the organization is committed to the centrality of Israel based on the renaissance of the Jewish people in its historic homeland. Hadassah promotes the unity of the Jewish people.
In Israel, Hadassah initiates and supports pace-setting health-care, education and youth institutions and land development to meet the country’s changing needs.
In the United States, Hadassah seeks to enhance the quality of American and Jewish life through its education and Zionist youth programs and promote health awareness while providing personal enrichment and growth for its members.
Mr. Pressler shared the story of the origins of the women’s group.
In 1909, Ms. Szold and her mother took a trip to Palestine, he explained. When they saw the poor health and living conditions there, they decided Ms. Szold’s study group in New York City should do something to improve those conditions.
Feb. 24, 1912, 38 women subsequently met at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. This group called itself Hadassah and dedicated itself to providing humanitarian service. The women arranged to send two nurses to Palestine to begin the process.
The Hadassah hospitals they established still are expanding 100 years later. In fact, the newest addition, the Sarah Westmann Tower, just began receiving patients this month, Mr. Pressler said.
The hospitals accept all who come to its door, regardless of religion, ethnicity and nationality.
Ms. Schwartz said she recently visited a Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, Israel.
”It does me proud to see what we can do,” she said. “The organization is doing a wonderful job throughout the world.”
Councilwoman Leslie Koppel said the organization means very much to her family and told of how her grandmother was a very dedicated member.
”It’s an organization that really lasts a lifetime,” she said. “You do works that you really want to pass from generation to generation.”
