By Rhoda Smolow
When I gather with my family this Thanksgiving, I’ll be thinking of everyone who, like me, is painfully missing someone at their table, because of the Hamas war, because of illness or because of a family crisis. In city after city, we’ve been reminded in recent weeks of empty seats at other tables, thanks to the public art project featuring a sprawling, empty Shabbat table that urges onlookers to keep up the fight for the release of the hostages being held in Gaza. I’ve sat with their families, and their anguish is unrivaled.
The first Thanksgiving message I wrote as national president of Hadassah, in 2020, was also during a crisis. I wrote then of how, each evening at 7 pm on balconies in cities around the world, people of all ages and faiths applauded the emergency workers saving lives and fighting Covid. Now, just three years later, we face a different kind of crisis: a war begun six weeks ago on that incomparably nightmarish day Hamas attacked, without warning. And we are grateful, again, to be part of Hadassah’s emergency response effort.
On Tuesday, November 14, close to 300,000 people joined together in Washington, DC, for a historic pro-Israel rally — one of the largest gatherings of Jews in US history. Hundreds of Hadassah members and supporters showed up from across the country wearing Hadassah T-shirts and holding Hadassah signs to show the world that we support Israel and stand in solidarity as the American Jewish community at this difficult time.
Today, we feel the anguish and the anxiety of Israel at war and of rising antisemitism, which compels us to action. As an organization founded and led by women, we continue to do the work we’ve always done, including empowering women and standing up for women’s rights.
For more than a century, Hadassah has responded to crises by focusing our energies on the places where we can make a real difference. This is the heart of Hadassah. That is what I hear when I talk to our friends, our partner organizations, and national and international leaders and rabbis, including so many who have been to our hospitals during this war, many with me, to see Hadassah healing firsthand.
In times of war and crisis, gratitude becomes more essential than ever. When we face so much loss, we count our blessings for all that we hold dear. We find resilience and comfort in our community and know that the worse things seem, the more Hadassah is needed and the more we can make an impact! This Thanksgiving, I couldn’t be more grateful to our Hadassah family. For your voices. For your support. For your hearts.