Why I Volunteer for Hadassah

Hadassah is the largest women’s Zionist organization in the US with 300,000+ members and supporters. And I have Zionism flowing through my veins. You might say I got it with my mother’s milk.

My mother’s older brother, Shia went to live on a kibbutz in Palestine in the 30s, long before there was an Israel. He was an ardent Zionist and he got the whole family “infected.” All my mother’s friends were Zionists. They all studied Hebrew together and sang Zionist songs. Zionism permeated my mother’s whole life and she passed it on to me. My main foreign language in high school was Hebrew. I received a golden ע (ayin)–the first letter of  עִבְרִית, the Hebrew word for the Hebrew language–at graduation.

A kibbutz is loosely modeled on a kolchoz, a collective farm in the former Soviet Union, so the kibbutzniks were certainly not religious. Maybe it was their teenage rebellion. I remember the words to one of the songs my mother sang (in Yiddish): “No powder, no lipstick, just half a kilo of ham, long live Palestine! (In Yiddish, it rhymes!)

Now back to my Uncle Shia. He was totally sold on the whole idea of making Aliyah—immigrating to Israel. In 1939, he came back to Poland to get his wife and three children and bring them to Palestine. Unfortunately, it was too late. By the time they were packed, the war had broken out. Uncle Shia, his immediate family and extended family all perished in a concentration camp– all, except my grandfather.

We found out after the war, from Christian neighbors, that when the Germans came to round up and deport all the Jews, my grandfather stood proudly in his doorway and refused to go. He said: “This is my home and I am not going!” Of course, the Germans shot him on the spot, right in front of his whole family! Then they herded the rest of the family off to their respective deaths. The Christian neighbors described the scene with great admiration for my grandfather’s courage. Specifically, they said, “He died like a man.”

I knew that my grandparents’ home had been leveled. In 2018, when I visited Poland with my daughter, I found out that a luxurious hotel had been built in that same location and was given the exact same address. Naturally we stayed there. It felt as if I was staying at my grandparents’ house.

As for my life in the US: After living in a motel for 14 months, waiting for my house to be built, I finally moved in. Before I even unpacked, a neighbor ran out of her house, shouting enthusiastically, “You are going to a Hadassah meeting tonight!” And that is how it all began. The rest, as they say, is history.

So, my first Hadassah meeting was in 1963, and I have been active ever since, first in the chapter, then in the region. At first, I didn’t work outside the home, so Hadassah was a social outlet for me. We women really worked for the organization–everyone seemed much more idealistic then.

Most Hadassah members today are too young to remember a world without Israel. There is a different vibe. Everyone is busy working. The older members are tired. The emphasis is on “write a check,” rather than volunteer for Hadassah or take on a leadership role.

Unfortunately, writing a check doesn’t build the same emotional attachment as spending endless hours volunteering. I suppose the ideal situation would be to do both. But it’s not happening.

I am troubled that Hadassah membership hasn’t really increased since the 70s. Sadly, as the senior members die off, they are not being replaced. Will it take something cataclysmic to wake up Jewish women? My message: Wake up! Israel really needs us now.

—

Miriam 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, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 450 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.