One hundred years of healing, educating, nurturing, advocating, planting and building.
Henrietta Szold’s original idea for a women's Zionist organization came to her during a trip to Palestine that she took with her mother in 1909. Upon seeing the poor living conditions in Palestine, particularly among women and children, Henrietta's mother Sophie suggested that Henrietta and her study group in New York do something to improve the living conditions they had seen first-hand in Palestine.
On February 24, 1912, during the Purim season, thirty-eight women met at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Many of these women were members of a Zionist study group, the Hadassah Study Circle. At that first meeting, they decided to name this new organization, "The Hadassah Chapter of the Daughters of Zion." The name Hadassah was kept because it was the Hebrew name for Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story.
And so Hadassah was born. Happy Purim and Happy 100th Anniversary Hadassah!
The traditions of Purim include “…feasting and gladness, and time for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.” (Esther9:22) The sending of gifts is a popular tradition called mishloach manot.These baskets of at least two kinds of fruits, nuts, and Purim pastries, particularly the three cornered hamantaschen (shaped so because they resemble Haman’s hat) are sent to friends and family. Fill your Hadassah mishloach manot basket and enable the world to feast on the extraordinary work of Hadassah.
