Hadassah
Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is now one of the largest Jewish organizations, with some 270,000 members around the world, most of them women. History
Hadassah was established in 1912 in New York City by Henrietta Szold and the Daughters of Zion, a women's study group.
The goal was to promote the Zionist ideal through education, public health initiatives, and the training of nurses in what was then the Palestine region of the Ottoman Empire. At the founders' meeting that coincided with the Jewish holiday of Purim, the group took the name Hadassah, the Hebrew name of the biblical heroine Esther, central figure in the celebration of Purim.
Appalled at the dismal state of medicine in Palestine, Szold was the driving spirit behind the establishment of the first medical school in Palestine, as well as the country's first Tipat Halav mother and child clinics, the first hospital in Tel Aviv and the two Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem.
Health care, education and youth programs
Hadassah founded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Hadassah Medical School, the Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing and Hadassah College Jerusalem. In 1967, Hadassah took over management of Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement, and merged it with Junior Hadassah under the Young Judaea name.
Hadassah runs the WUJS Arad Institute, in Arad, which brings foreign students to Israel.
Hadassah took over the Youth Aliyah program in 1934, which became identified with its founder Henrietta Szold, rescuing tens of thousands of children from the Holocaust and subsequently becoming involved in rescue of Jewish youth around the world and their integration in Israeli society. Hadassah is a major supporter and partner of the Jewish National Fund, which plants trees and implements other land reclamation programs in Israel.
Hadassah also advocates for progressive issues of importance to women and to the American Jewish community, including First Amendment issues, separation of church and state, support for Israel, and other causes. Hadassah supports The Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO), consisting of two hospital complexes at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
In the United States, Hadassah promotes health education, social action and advocacy, volunteerism, Jewish education and research, and connections with Israel.
Hadassah has announced plans to establish Israel's first military medical school, scheduled to open in October 2009 as part of the Hebrew University School of Medicine. Leadership
In July 2007, the organization inaugurated its 24th national president, Nancy K.
Promoting Israel's security and encouraging stem-cell research are other goals of the organization today.
Awards
In 2005, the two Jerusalem hospitals of the Hadassah Medical Organization were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Following World War I, it sent doctors and nurses to found medical clinics in Palestine, eventually building the foremost hospital in Western Asia on Mount Scopus in East Jerusalem in 1939.
During the Arab siege of 1948, the hospital and the adjacent Hebrew University held out against repeated attacks. The hospital was evacauted shortly thereafter, and five emergency hospitals were established at temporary locations throughout Jerusalem.
The cease fire of 1949 left Hadassah Hospital and the university enclave cut off from the Israeli sector of the city.
A new hospital was built in Ein Kerem (Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital) on the west side of the city, and opened its doors in 1960. The original hospital was retaken in the Six Day War and was reopened in 1975, serving the Arabs of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
International programs
Hadassah International is a network of dedicated volunteers, men and women of all faiths and nationalities, founded on the principle that advancement and cooperation in medicine and science transcend politics, religion, and national boundaries.
Its mission is to:
Enhance the image of Israel through the work of the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO).
Provide support for HMO so that it remains an academic center of excellence for healing, teaching, and research.
Serve as a bridge to nations through medicine.
In 1988, at the invitation of USAID, HMO medical staff members helped to plan, construct and open a hospital in Kinshasa, Zaire. In Kenya, Haddassah surgeons cured blindness in hundreds of people in a two week program.
However, based on an initial investment of $33 million, Hadassah had over the years withdrawn $130 milion. As a result, a so called clawback is being discussed, where those who reaped a net benefit from the Madoff hedge fund will be forced to pay in the surplus, which would then be distributed among all who invested with Madoff.
“I certainly hope Mrs.
Weinstein was more discrete about her investment decisions on behalf of Hadassah than she was about her sex life,” Madoff’s attorney, Ira Sorkin, said in a statement broadcast to the ABC morning program’s estimated 4 million viewers. http:dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/giant-wall-st-fraud-leaves-charities-reeling/?scp=3&sq=yeshiva%20university&st=Search.