Henrietta Szold was an American-born Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
22 Facts About Henrietta Szold
2.
Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 21,1860.
3.
Henrietta Szold was the daughter of Rabbi Benjamin Szold of Hungarian birth, who was the spiritual leader of Baltimore's Temple Oheb Shalom.
4.
In 1902, Szold took classes in advanced Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
5.
Henrietta Szold begged the school's president, Solomon Schechter, to allow her to study, he did only with the provision that she not seek ordination.
6.
Henrietta Szold did well at the seminary, earning the respect from other students and faculty alike.
7.
Henrietta Szold never married and never had children of her own.
8.
Henrietta Szold was fifteen years her junior, and he returned her feelings only platonically.
9.
Henrietta Szold was the oldest of eight daughters and had no brothers.
10.
In 1916, Henrietta Szold's mother died, and a friend, Hayim Peretz, offered to say Kaddish for her.
11.
Henrietta Szold was religiously traditional, but advocated a larger role for women in Rabbinic Judaism.
12.
Henrietta Szold established the first American night school to provide English language instruction and vocational skills for Russian Jewish immigrants in Baltimore.
13.
In 1896, one month before Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat, Henrietta Szold described her vision of a Jewish state in Palestine as a place to ingather Diaspora Jewry and revive Jewish culture.
14.
Henrietta Szold collaborated in the compilation of the Jewish Encyclopedia.
15.
Henrietta Szold joined six other women to found Hadassah, which recruited American Jewish women to upgrade health care in Palestine.
16.
Henrietta Szold persuaded her colleagues that practical programs open to all were critical to Jewish survival in the Holy Land.
17.
Henrietta Szold founded Hadassah in 1912 and served as its president until 1926.
18.
In October 1934, Henrietta Szold laid the cornerstone of the new Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital on Mount Scopus.
19.
On February 13,1945, at age 84, Henrietta Szold died in the same Hadassah Hospital she helped to build in Jerusalem.
20.
Henrietta Szold was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
21.
In Israel, Mother's Day is celebrated on the day that Henrietta Szold died, on the 30th of Shevat.
22.
In 2007, Henrietta Szold was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.