How I Developed a Stronger Jewish Identity and Why I Became a Hadassah Zionist

This is Part Two of a blog about growing up Jewish as a minority in West Palm Beach, Florida, and then finding Zionism through Hadassah.

I owe my Jewishness to my parents, mostly my mother, but I am a Zionist because of Hadassah. Though my mother and father were very active in our Reform synagogue and my mother was a member of the sisterhood, she did not join the local Hadassah chapter because she did not believe that Israel was the homeland of the Jewish people.

Many times after I joined Hadassah, my mother would remind me that she was an American wo happened to be Jewish and not a Jew who happened to be American.

In my first blog, I talked about what it was like growing up in West Palm Beach in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s and how it was hard to “go public” with my Jewish Identity. That all changed in junior high.

My mom wanted me to marry a Jewish guy, and she knew that if that was going to happen, I needed to get involved in a Jewish youth organization. B’nai B’rith Girls (BBG), part of the umbrella B’nai Brith Youth Organization (BBYO) for boys and girls, was very active in West Palm Beach, and it met at my Reform synagogue.

When I went to my first meeting, I recognized a few of the girls. Some were in my Sunday Hebrew School class. After I attended my first Florida Region BBYO convention, I was hooked. I met so many amazing Jewish girls and boys from all around Florida and I was very impressed with the feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood. I remember thinking, “I want to be just like all the leaders I am meeting.”

I got involved in my chapter, eventually serving as chapter president. I served on our council board, which covered all of Florida except Miami Dade and Broward counties, and then as the leadership vice president for the Region, which included all of Florida. This was where I really learned the leadership skills that I brought to Hadassah.

My involvement in BBYO turned out to have another benefit: In December of my senior year of high school, at the Florida Region convention, I was introduced by a friend from Jacksonville to the president of her BBYO chapter. I had just chaired our fall council conference, and he was getting ready to chair the spring conference. He shared some of the things he was going to do and I shared my experience. I let him know that there would be challenges with what he was proposing to do. Needless to say, that was the last conversation we had during that convention. He told our mutual friend that he didn’t think too highly of me (I can’t use the word he called me) and that was that.

After the spring conference, however, he came up to me and told me that my advice turned out to be right and that he had been wrong. We then discovered that we were both attending the University of South Florida (USF) in the fall. I figured that any guy who would apologize to a girl couldn’t be all bad. When we got to USF, we contacted each other. We dated all through college and have been married for 48 years. So  my mom was definitely right to get me involved in BBG!

But there’s more! Our marriage was bashert (fated to be). There was a family in Jacksonville that was very good friends with my husband’s family, and they had children the same age as my husband and his siblings. A few years before their son (who was my and my husband’s age), became a bar mitzvah, the family moved to West Palm Beach. The parents became close friends with my parents, and I became friends with their son. In fact, I had a huge crush on him.

When it came time for his bar mitzvah, my parents and I were invited, as were my future husband’s parents. As it turned out, my parents and my future husband’s parents were seated at the same table! At one point, I went over to the table to talk to my mom and, when I walked away, my future father-in-law said to my mother, “Mrs. Berman, you have a lovely daughter; I have a son at home for her.” Four years later, we met at that Florida Region BBYO convention.

In my first blog, I wrote about how the Breakers did not allow Jews until the early 1970s. In 1977, our wedding was held at the Breakers. In 1980, my husband got a new job in Miami, managing a roller skating and entertainment center, so we moved to Miami. I got a job at a small private school, teaching math to first-sixth graders.

While at the airport picking up my husband’s college roommate, we ran into a college friend, Jill Hershbein. She told me that she was starting a Hadassah chapter and, after finding out that we had just moved to Miami, she said she was going to call me and invite me to a meeting. Jill and I had been little sisters in our husbands’ fraternity, so she knew I was an “organization-type” person. Within a few weeks, she called to invite me to a meeting, and the rest is history.

At that first meeting I attended, I was asked to be the awards chair. This involved writing up the education reports given at our meetings and submitting them to the Hadassah Miami Region to possibly win an award. That was 1981. I have held a chapter, region, multi-region Sun co-op and/or National Hadassah position every year since!

My involvement in my chapter, region and the Sun Co-op enabled me to build my leadership skills and introduced me to women who are, today, my closest friends.

In 1996, while serving as the region treasurer, I was given a very special opportunity: Region President Linda Hakerem nominated me to go on the first fully funded National Young Leaders mission to Israel. Up until then, my exposure to Israel had come 100 percent from my involvement  in Hadassah, but that trip enabled me to see firsthand what we were working to support. In addition, I met women who would go on to become some more of my closest friends.

Before the trip, we were paired with other participants and assigned a site in Israel where we would present a “Moment.” My partner and I were given Masada, the ancient fortress that was the site of the Jewish forces’ last remaining stronghold during their first-century revolt against the Romans. Rather than be taken into Roman slavery, they decided to take their own lives.

I feel very fortunate to have been paired with Debra Mazon, now National Hadassah’s American Affairs Advocacy chair. We decided our “moment” would be accounts of what it was like to be a mother during the Holocaust and during the time of the mass suicides on Masada, knowing that these events would result in the end of their children’s lives. Our presentation remains the highlight of my trip.

Most of my fellow mission participants serve or have served on Hadassah’s National Board and/or Assembly. Eleven of us eventually became region presidents! Even the co-leader of our mission, Iris Altschuler, became a region president. And the vice chair of this year’s Hadassah conference, Kimi Schulman, was also on our mission! Hadassah certainly got good bang for its buck.

All of these women had a huge influence on my life. When I returned from the mission, I accepted the position of organization vice president. I also began serving on the Young Judaea (YJ) camp committee, which I did for many years. All three of my children attended YJ camp and developed their strong Zionist feelings as a result.

My “sister from another mother,” Diane Taub, was on that committee, and our older sons attended camp together. My family and Diane’s family celebrated every Jewish holiday together for so many years, even after our children were grown, until she moved to Atlanta. Diane and I followed each other in various Hadassah positions and also worked together professionally at two different day schools.

When I became region president in 2000, my class of presidents began to have a profound influence on my life as a leader. Several are still on the National Assembly and have served on the National Board. There have been so many current and past Hadassah leaders who have served as my friends and mentors. I owe the leader I am to them.

To answer the question, “Why Hadassah?” The answer is simple: the women I have met, the experiences I have had and the deep and lifelong bonds I have formed.

Alecia is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place. It’s where they celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Hadassah members are proud of their Zionist mission and their role as keepers of the flame of Jewish values, traditions and beliefs as well as advocating for women’s empowerment and health equity for all. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 650 columns in The Times of Israel Blogs and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.