Hadassah delegates from around the country have spoken! Carol Ann Schwartz will become Hadassah’s next national president.
Carol Ann will succeed Rhoda Smolow, beginning her four-year term as the 28th national president on January 1, 2024. The election took place at the National Business Meeting in Chicago on July 10.
A proud member of a four-generation Hadassah family, Carol Ann has more than 30 years of service to the organization at the local, regional and national levels. She currently chairs the Hadassah Speakers Bureau, and she is a Hadassah representative to the American Zionist Movement and a director of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s (HMO) board. Carol Ann was a Hadassah officer for six years — first as one of six national vice presidents and then as national secretary — and has held many other national positions and chaired or been a member of many national committees.
Carol Ann's leadership roles in her hometown of Cincinnati have included board member of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the Jewish National Fund-Cincinnati Region and the University of Cincinnati Hillel, among other positions. She has been an executive at real estate concern The Morris Investment Company for three decades. She and her husband, Michael D. Schwartz, have three adult children.
"Carol Ann Schwartz’s devotion to Hadassah, the Jewish community and Israel, her fierce intelligence and her talent as a manager and leader make her the ideal person to be Hadassah’s next national president,” said Hadassah National President Rhoda Smolow.
Rhoda, who steps down on December 31, oversaw the transition to an all-remote operation at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and led an emergency philanthropy effort that raised $9 million for HMO's COVID-19 response. As a response to the crisis in Ukraine, she spearheaded a joint humanitarian effort among Hadassah, Hadassah International and HMO that raised $2 million to send HMO physicians to the Poland-Ukraine border and displaced Ukrainian teens to Hadassah’s youth villages in Israel — a collaboration that led to the three organizations’ being among the Jewish activists and NGOs awarded the 2023 Genesis Prize, known as the Jewish Nobel.
Of her predecessor, Carol Ann says, "Rhoda Smolow’s four-decade commitment to Hadassah is a model for younger members. She is one of the many remarkable women who have made Hadassah what it is today. If I can lead with just some of the grace and wisdom she has shown over the last four years, I cannot help but succeed.”
Read Hadassah's press release to learn more about Carol Ann.