From our global campaign to End The Silence around gender-based violence and sharing women’s personal accounts of antisemitism to making tremendous strides in cancer research and opening a brand new Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Israel, 2024 was a lifechanging year for Hadassah. Read on to look back on Hadassah’s incredible impact!
Our People, Our Impact
- After officially taking the helm as Hadassah’s 28th national president in January, Cincinnati’s Carol Ann Schwartz served as a proud and vocal representative for Hadassah across the globe in 2024, standing in solidarity with Israel on missions with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, speaking at the Knesset, marking the 30-year anniversary of the AMIA Jewish center bombing in Argentina, celebrating Hanukkah at the White House and so much more.
- Hadassah chapters across the country marked milestones — including a centennial celebration in Dallas — and welcomed new members into the fold — like in Detroit, where an increasing number of women are getting involved.
- Hadassah’s second annual list of 18 American Zionist Women You Should Know shined a spotlight on women playing a critical role in advancing Hadassah’s priorities, such as advocating for Israel and the victims of the Hamas attacks and condemning the worldwide explosion of antisemitism, including actress and activist Debra Messing.
- In the fall, 100 women from Hadassah Super South gathered for a leadership conference to share ideas and learn from one another. “The energy was palpable, as everyone came together with a unified purpose and a shared passion for the Hadassah mission. Despite the challenging and difficult topics we tackled, the sense of community and mutual support created a warm and safe space,” conference co-chair Heidi Natan said.
- Evolve Hadassah: The Next Generation continued to welcome younger women into the Hadassah family. A third cohort of Evolve Leadership Fellows kicked off, a new Evolve community formed in Tampa and a group of 30 women gathered in New York in November for an Evolve Immersive Experience. “Evolve is having an impact across the organization by meeting women where they are and by providing new and exciting opportunities for learning and building community and connection to Israel,” Evolve Chair Debbie Knight said.
- Incoming region presidents and coordinators from around the country gathered at Hadassah headquarters in December for an intensive orientation to prepare them for their new roles. “Getting to know my fellow members of the presidents class of 2025 was great,” said Hadassah Southern Seaboard Co-President Elect Rebecca Young. “We each bring a different skill set and come from different backgrounds, and it was great learning from each other.”
- Hadassah’s professional councils stayed active in 2024, including an event late in the year presented by the Attorney and Judges Council that focused on how Hadassah can best promote our priorities with the incoming administration.
Together We Will Heal: Responding to War
- As part of Hadassah’s largest-ever global campaign, #EndTheSilence, 130,000 people from 118 countries — as well as 116 organizations — wrote to UN Secretary-General António Guterres demanding an independent, unbiased investigation of Hamas’ use of rape and gender-based violence as weapons of war on October 7, 2023, and beyond. At nearly 190 events in 17 countries and online, Hadassah leaders, members and supporters mobilized on March 8, International Women’s Day. Days later, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, spoke at Hadassah’s End the Silence event at the New York City Bar Association. And in June, Hadassah led 53 organizations in sending a letter to the UN secretary-general in observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
- During an Israel solidarity mission in January, President Schwartz and immediate Past President Rhoda Smolow delivered a petition to the Israel office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanding the organization send representatives to assess the welfare of the hostages held by Hamas. The petition was signed by more than 5,000 members and supporters of Hadassah. A second solidarity mission took place in March.
- In February, Smolow represented Hadassah on Capitol Hill, joining Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and national leaders to speak out against gender-based violence. “When we denounce rape as a weapon of war, when we call these acts what they are — war crimes and crimes against humanity — we validate the evidence, build a case for justice and accountability and ensure that the victims of these atrocities are not erased,” Smolow said.
- In September, Hadassah volunteers participated in shaping the conversation around Israel and holding Hamas accountable for war crimes at the United Nations. As world leaders gathered in New York City to attend United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings, Hadassah leaders spoke out and published an op-ed in Newsweek, urging the UN and individual countries to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization and hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity, including the weaponization of sexual violence on October 7, 2023. Hadassah also weighed in with a powerful opinion piece pushing back against a problematic UN resolution that effectively would strip Israel of its right to self-defense.
- Throughout the year, Hadassah brought members together for powerful and informative briefings, including one held after Iran’s first attack on Israel, an update on Hadassah’s role in protecting and healing Israel in August and another for the anniversary of October 7, 2023.
Medical Innovation: Leading the Way
- The new state-of-the-art Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus has had a profound impact on Israeli soldiers and civilians throughout the year since opening its doors in January. “The diversity of Israeli society is perhaps most clearly on display in the hallways, waiting rooms and patient facilities,” reporter Ryan Torok of the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles noted on a tour of the facility in July. As this video showcases, the Gandel Rehabilitation Center has helped patients — including those severely wounded on October 7, 2023, and in the subsequent wars — find hope.
- With a focus on cancer research, the Hadassah Medical Organization achieved a major breakthrough in personalized cancer care utilizing artificial intelligence, introduced a new blood test that offers early detection of potentially fatal lung damage in cancer patients taking antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and administered for the first time an innovative alpha-radiation cancer therapy to a patient with recurrent lung cancer, beginning a new clinical trial.
- Using 3D technology as a guide, orthopedic surgeons at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in February successfully reconstructed the shattered knee of a 21-year-old soldier who had been shot multiple times in a gunfight with terrorists in Gaza’s Jabalya neighborhood.
- In a study presented in March at the 2024 Forum of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, Dr. Petrou Panayiota, a neurologist at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, presented evidence of significant beneficial effects of repeated stem cell injections in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis.
- With support from donors all over the world and many years of planning, construction and anticipation, Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem welcomed the first patients into its reimagined Round Building in Jerusalem, including the Alberto and Vicky Saba Internal Medicine Complex, on May 2.
- A new study by Hadassah researchers, including Dr. Dana Wolf and Dr. Moran Yassour, showed that newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) — a leading cause of childhood neurologic deficits with lifelong implications — can be carried out reliably with pooled saliva tests for universal screening.
- Two Hadassah studies focused on suicide and the younger population: one showed a direct link between lack of sleep and suicidal thoughts in youth, and the other showed that obesity drugs can help reduce the risk of suicide in teens.
- A study by Hadassah researchers found that women’s pain is not taken as seriously as men’s, highlighting how gender bias in Israeli and American ERs impacts treatment.
- A first-in-the-world clinical trial at the Hadassah Medical Organization will directly test the extent to which the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine — developed over 100 years ago to prevent tuberculosis — reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s by strengthening the immune system.
Education & Advocacy
- In 2024, over 50,000 people utilized Hadassah’s National Action Center, taking over 103,000 actions and delivering thousands of letters to members of Congress, the Biden administration, state legislatures, the UN, college administrators and others, making their voices heard on issues including combating antisemitism, protecting women’s reproductive rights, advocating for a strong US-Israel relationship and championing women’s health equity.
- Hadassah’s “From Fear to Resilience: Women Facing Antisemitism” report, released in December, has made headlines and helped generate awareness about how the dramatic rise in antisemitism touches Jewish women’s day-to-day lives, from family to work to interacting in their communities. Of the 1,000+ women surveyed, two-thirds feel antisemitism is impacting their lives.
- On March 18, acting co-CEO Sheryl Zeligson represented Hadassah at the White House to celebrate Women’s History Month and President Biden’s new executive order focused on one of Hadassah’s longtime advocacy priorities: women’s health research.
- After months of tireless advocacy by Hadassah members across the country, legislation adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism advanced in seven states in 2024. The IHRA definition includes key concepts such as the harmful or hateful perception of Jews and both rhetorical and physical indications that impact people, communities and institutions. The definition also makes it clear that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism.
- Hadassah signed amicus briefs in two reproductive rights cases in 2024 that threatened the reproductive freedom of women across the nation: one challenging the FDA’s approval of and expanded access to mifepristone and another on Idaho’s abortion ban.
- Following national meetings in January and July, Hadassah issued policy statements on standing up to antisemitism, condemning gender-based violence, denouncing efforts to exclude Jews and Zionists and safeguarding the whole spectrum of reproductive healthcare.
Caring for Our Youth
- For the first time in five years, 150 Israeli high school students — including 11th and 12th graders from Hadassah’s two Youth Aliyah villages — were able to experience a life-changing week in Poland in November on a Hadassah-sponsored trip to learn about Jewish life in the country and the Holocaust that snuffed out 1,000 years of Jewish history. “Auschwitz-Birkenau is why we Israelis and Jews must be strong,” said one of the Youth Aliyah students.
- At Hadassah’s two Youth Aliyah villages in Israel, Hadassah is helping at-risk students to thrive, particularly in the wake of October 7, 2023, including Mina Levin and Shalhevetya (Shelly) Tannenwald, who were both struggling until they began their journeys at Hadassah Neurim, and Nikole, who found a new, safe home at Meir Shfeyah.
- In 2024, the psychological therapy center at Meir Shfeyah officially became known as the Ellen Hershkin Therapeutic Center in honor of Hadassah’s 26th national president, and a street at Hadassah Neurim was named for Barbara “BG” Goldstein, Hadassah's ambassador-at-large at the Hadassah Offices in Israel and a longtime, dedicated supporter of the village.
Accolades and Notable Events
- Hadassah’s hospitals were named by Newsweek as global leaders in cardiology and oncology in its list of the “World’s Best Specialized Hospitals 2025.”
- About 400 Hadassah leaders, members, donors, Associates and staff went all in to show their support for Hadassah, descending upon Las Vegas for Hadassah’s July 2024 National Conference.
- The Hadassah Medical Organization’s Cardio-Oncology Center was declared Israel’s first Center of Excellence by the International Cardio-Oncology Society, a notable accomplishment as the field of cardio-oncology is still developing in Israel.
- Hadassah received a four-star rating on Charity Navigator and a gold seal of transparency from Candid.
- Hadassah Magazine won eight Simon Rockower Awards, the annual prize for excellence in Jewish journalism awarded by the American Jewish Press Association.
- Israeli-American journalist Gil Hoffman joined the Hadassah Associates for a virtual Father’s Day event in June. “Look, you don’t wake up at 2 am except if it’s for love,” said Hoffman, executive director of Honest Reporting, which ensures truth and combats prejudice in media coverage of Israel. “That’s why I’m here with you tonight. I love Hadassah.”
- Hadassah Magazine took its popular One Book, One Hadassah series on the road for the first time this year, hosting in-person events in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, in addition to hosting a popular virtual event in November on Jews being written out of the book world.
- Hadassah continued to widen its reach through social media, receiving nearly 1.5 million engagements that helped raise our visibility and expand and strengthen our community.