Thank You to My Hadassah Moms Who Guided My Teen Years in Young Judaea

The Jewish high holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, annually ask us to look back over the past year and consider where we may have wronged others and what we might have done better. We combine this retrospective view with upbeat wishes for the new year, communicated through greetings and sweet foods.

When Pittsburgh Young Judaea (YJ)’s annual “Honey from the Heart” appeal arrived in my inbox recently, I was thrown back far more than a year, and my recollections skewed to what was done right rather than the alternative.

Despite a terrible, ongoing war, a cohort of Young Judaeans is studying in Israel, helping out where needed and immersing itself in Israeli life for the 68^th time. And Hadassah, among its many US and Israel programs, is supporting these teens. To me, the Young Judaea-Hadassah partnership is a match made in heaven.

Some years ago, YJ / Hadassah’s support for YJ’s Year Course enabled me to live and study in Israel. I arrived in Jerusalem a dozen days before the Yom Kippur War.

I have many poignant memories of that war: leaving Jerusalem for Kibbutz Ein Gedi to help with a harvest, because many Kibbutz workers were called for reserve duty (Miluim) in the Israel Defense Forces; the temporary cemetery created for the Yom Kippur war dead at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot (The Ghetto Fighters’ Kibbutz); watching from the top of Tel Aviv’s Shalom Tower as US supply planes came in to land at Ben Gurion Airport; and the founding in November 1973 of Kibbutz Keturah by a cohort that included many Young Judaea alumni.

As a Tel Yehudah (teenage) camper, a member of the YJ regional Mazkirut (teen leadership board) and Israeli dance troupe performer, I had a wonderful degree of autonomy. My peers and I had significant input in determining our own destiny. We also knew then, and I understand even more now, that we would have had no movement at all but for the kind, energetic and committed women of the Hadassah Zionist Youth Commission of Western Pennsylvania.

Some of these women were our actual mothers; others, though childless, were no less dedicated to raising the next generation of Jews and Zionists. My Hadassah moms. They hired excellent staff, found us meeting places   raised funds and arranged donated supplies for us.

Somehow, Libby Elbaum acquired bolts of red cotton and rolls of black, red and green decorative braid to replace the unbleached muslin and blanket binding we’d previously used to make dance troupe costumes. My mother, Charlotte Sadofsky, and Sally Light, zichronot livracha (may their memories be for a blessing) and numerous other women baked and sold hundreds (thousands?) of slices of kugel at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Arts Festival, among other initiatives, to raise funds for our activities. Rachel S.’s mother insisted I stay over at their house when whatever we were up to ran very late.

Hadassah, somehow, found us an office on the second floor of a converted home on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, PA, where I would stop after school at least three or four times most weeks throughout high school. A block away was the Hadassah office, which hosted our dance group rehearsals. As a teen, I worked hard for YJ, but I took these arrangements as a “given.” As an adult, I know that these facilities and programs did not emerge of their own accord—that they required care, attention and money.

As a finance professional, I understand the economic challenges that Hadassah has had to face. As a parent and YJ alumna, I also know that just as kids need parents, YJ needs its Hadassah mothers.

Officially, YJ is now independent of Hadassah, though Hadassah continues to be a strong supporter, raising funds for YJ scholarships to camp and Israel programs as well as for year-round activities. YJ’s five sleepaway camps and two-day camps remain strong. And, in Pittsburgh, YJ’s year-round activities continue as ever, thanks to Barbara B., a particularly dedicated alumna.

I am ever more grateful to my Hadassah moms, and I give huge credit to the current generation of adults and YJ alumni who are working to ensure that YJ will “be there” for future generations. So, this year I again order a few jars of honey to be dispatched to various members of my extended family. It’s a nice way to mix sweetness from the past with sweetness for the upcoming year and to invest in the Zionist future. A small price for bountiful returns.

*My Life in Young Judaea — Rishon B’Tzion, Western Pennsylvania Region

Bogrim, mid 1960s
Rishona Dance troupe, 1968-73
Regional Mazkirut, 1969-73
Camp Tel Yehudah, 1969, 70, 72
Year Course, 1973-74
Club advisor, 1977-79
Camp YJ Midwest, bus driver & bookkeeper, 1979

Michele is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts 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. 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.