metro
Hadassah Centennial
100 Years of healing, education, nurturing, advocating, planting and building.
CELEBRATE
100 YEARS OF
NURTURING
CELEBRATE
100 YEARS OF
BUILDING
Groundbreaking for Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus
HADASSAH SINCE 1912
RaillWERS Viral iSPAR F. LIFE
Babies and nurses — then and now
CELEBRATE
100 YEARS OF
RESEARCH
Research — then and now
in 1939, above, and the new Sarah Wetsman Davidson
Hospital Tower to be dedicated in October 2012
Sonja Kass
Special to the Jewish News
A
fter taking a trip to pre-state
Israel in 1909, Henrietta Szold
was taken aback by the poor liv-
ing conditions there, particularly among
women and children. Her mother sug-
gested that Henrietta and her study group
do something to improve this situation.
On Feb. 24, 1912, during the Purim
season, Szold addressed her study group,
"The Hadassah Chapter of the Daughters
of Zion" at Temple Emanu-El in New York
City "If we are Zionists:' she told them,
"what is the good of meeting and talking
and drinking tea? Let us do something
real and practical — let us organize the
Jewish women of America and send nurs-
es and doctors to Palestine'
And so, 100 years ago, Hadassah, the
Women's Zionist Organization of America,
was born. During this centennial year,
Hadassah chapters in Detroit, across the
country and in Israel will celebrate the
accomplishments of the organization that
now numbers more than 300,000 women
members and men associates in the United
States. And, it all started with Szold's con-
cerns about women and children.
In January 1913, two nurses were sent
to Jerusalem to open a welfare station,
launching Hadassah's tradition of healing.
From its beginning, it was Henrietta Szold's
desire that Hadassah treat Jews, Arabs and
Christians with equally high standards of
medical care and compassion. These prin-
ciples have endured to this day.
More than 5,000 patients were treated
the first year. By 1948, at the creation of
the State of Israel, Hadassah had built the
infrastructure for a countrywide network
of health facilities, thriving national pro-
grams for nutrition, school health and
preventive care facilities.
For the past century, the Hadassah
Medical Organization (HMO), with its two
advanced hospitals (Hadassah–Hebrew
University Medical Center in Ein Kerem
and Hadassah University Hospital on
Mount Scopus), has been a pioneer in
Israeli medicine for advanced biotechnol-
ogy, gene therapy, imaging, bone marrow
transplant, mother and children's care, and
burn and trauma treatment. Each year,
600,000 patients from all over Israel and
beyond its borders seek medical care at
HMO.
Detroit's Historic Role
Sarah "Saf Wetsman Davidson, mother
of the late Williain Davidson and Dorothy
Gerson of Franklin, invited Henrietta
Szold to Detroit as early as 1916 to estab-
lish the first chapter of Hadassah in the
region.
In 1935, Sal Davidson visited pre-state
Israel with her father, Joseph Wetsman,
and his two business partners, David
Simons and David Zemon. The three
men purchased land on Mount Scopus
in Jerusalem thinking they would some-
day build homes for themselves. When
they decided to donate the land, Zemon
declined; the Jewish National Fund (JNF)
bought his share.
The land became the site of Hadassah
Hospital and Hebrew University Mount
Scopus. A brick at the hospital is inscribed
with the names of Wetsman and Simons.
In 1936, Sal attended the groundbreaking
ceremony on Hadassah's "first hill of heal-
ing" (Mount Scopus), along with her father
as well as Henrietta Szold.
The hospital opened in 1939, but
was evacuated during Israel's War of
Independence in 1948. It fell into Arab
hands until it was recovered during the
Eleanor Smith with some of the
therapy dolls made by local Hadassah
members
1967 Six-Day War. The hospital was reno-
vated and rededicated in October 1975.
Among the Detroit Hadassah women and
men present were Annette and Russell
Meskin, Arline Gould, Phyllis Newman,
Goldie Adler, Lillian Perlman and Tillie
Hadassah on page 10
8
March 8 • 2012