Hadassah

National Jewish Book Awards Finalistfor the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies, 2012.

In February 1912thirty-eight American Jewish women met at Temple Emanuel in New York andfounded Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. This has becomethe largest Zionistorganization in the Diaspora and the largest and most active Jewish women'sorganization ever. Its history is an inseparable part of the history ofAmerican Jewry and of the State of Israel, and the relationship between them.Hadassah is also part of the history of Jewish women in the United States andin the modern world more broadly. Its achievements are not only those ofZionism but, crucially, of women, and throughout this study MiraKatzburg-Yungman pays particular attention to the life stories of theindividual women who played a role in them.

Based on historical documentationcollected in the United States and Israel and on broad research, the bookcovers many aspects of the history of Hadassah and analyses significant aspectsof the fascinating story of the organization. A wide-ranging introductorysection describes the contexts and challenges of Hadassah's history from its foundingto the birth of the State of Israel. Subsequent sections explore in turn theorganization's ideology and its activity on the American scene after Israelistatehood; its political and ideological role in the World ZionistOrganization; and its involvement in the new State of Israel in the twin fieldsof activity: in medicine and health careand in its work with children and young people. The final part of the bookdeals with topics that enrich our understanding of Hadassah in additionaldimensions, such as gender issues, comparisons of Hadassah with other Zionistorganizations, and the importance of people of the Yishuv and later of Israelisin Hadassah's activities. The study concludes with an Epilogue that considersdevelopments up to 2005, assessing whether the conclusions reached with regardto Hadassah as an organization remain valid. It considers developments withinHadassah in the 1980s and 1990s, years in which the organization was affectedby the significant changes within the wider American Jewish community,specifically the enormous increase in intermarriage with non-Jews and theimpact of the so-called 'second wave' of feminism.

This extensive, diverse, and balanced study offers apicture of Hadassah in both arenas of its activity: in the land that is now theState of Israel, and in the United States. In doing so it makes a contributionnot only to Zionist history but also to the history of American Jewish womenand of Jewish women more widely.