Lively and inspiring was the vibe in West Palm Beach, Florida, from January 26-28 as some 220 national and regional Hadassah leaders gathered to celebrate successes and set the course for Hadassah's crucial work ahead.
“I feel a profound sense of pride, gratitude and humility as I reflect on the generations that have come before us. And to everyone in this room who has come here because of our shared belief in hope, healing and Hadassah’s mission,” Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz said, kicking off the National Assembly meetings.
Schwartz updated the assembly on Hadassah’s accomplishments over the past year, including the accelerated opening of the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, the construction of new shelters at Hadassah’s Youth Aliyah villages, the advocacy efforts involved in Hadassah’s largest-ever global campaign to End the Silence and so much more.
“For all of our work and our accomplishment in the face of such monumental forces, it is no more than what every generation of Hadassah women achieved, no more than what they would have expected of us,” Schwartz said.
The meetings provided a formal opportunity to welcome Hadassah’s CEO/ED, Ellen Finkelstein, who will serve as a partner to Schwartz and took on this role in early January.
Hadassah’s “shared values foster a sisterhood on a really deep level, which makes Hadassah a meaningful, exciting place to be and to support,” Finkelstein said in a recent interview. “I’m here to help — namely, to assist the efforts of our volunteers and lay leadership and to energize the professional staff.”
It was also a milestone occasion for two past Hadassah national presidents: Marcie Natan and Nancy Falchuk presided over a table full of cupcakes in honor of their 80th birthdays.
And three new Hadassah vice presidents were welcomed into the fold, as Dale Marcus, Dana Waxler and Deborah Wiskind were officially installed and sworn in along with new region presidents.
The meetings took on a more serious note as attendees marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 with a call for action to urge Congress to advance policies to protect Jewish people from antisemitic hate today.
Diving further into the surge in antisemitism, a panel discussion featuring Karen Bloom, co-chair of Hadassah’s Educators Council; Erica Cohen, director of teen education for Young Judaea, and Michelle Stravitz, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, focused on fear and resilience and directed attendees to Hadassah’s recent antisemitism survey report, “From Fear to Resilience: Women Facing Antisemitism,” which showed that two-thirds of Jewish women are affected by antisemitism in their everyday lives.
Another panel focused on mental health treatment at the Hadassah Medical Organization since October 7 and featured panelists from the US and Israel including Dr. Judith Mann, chair; Dr. Stacey Maslow, vice chair; Prof. Yoram Weiss, director general; Dalia Itzik, board chair; Rhoda Smolow, past national president and HMO board member, and Shelley Kaplan, HMO board member.
Prof. Weiss, in fact, arrived at the meetings after saving a life en route, treating a fellow passenger on his El Al flight to Miami.
The assembly also adopted three policy statements: “Fighting Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Sentiment at the United Nations,” “Affirming Support for Stabilizing Emergency Care” and “Support for Science and Evidence-Based Policymaking.”
Other sessions focused on creating lasting change for youth through Hadassah’s Youth Aliyah villages in Israel and engaging communities and empowering leaders through Evolve Hadassah: The Next Generation.
Like one such engaged leader, Eliana Budoff, a member of Hadassah’s third cohort of Evolve Leadership Fellows, recently said in an interview with The Washington Jewish Week: “Become involved with organizations where you’re passionate about the mission and the impact. Somewhere like Hadassah, I’m passionate about their Zionism, women’s reproductive healthcare, all their Youth Village work, medical care, advocacy against antisemitism. So when you feel something behind the mission, your work for them is going to be that much more impactful and effective because you genuinely believe in it."
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