Hadassah history

In 1913, Hadassah sent two nurses to Palestine, Rose Kaplan and Rae Landy.

The core of future Hadassah education programs emerged when Jessie Sampter founded The Hadassah School of Zionism in New York in 1915.

Through the efforts of Justice Louis D. Brandeis and Judge Julian W. Mack she was provided a modest income in 1916 that allowed her to resign from the Jewish Publication Society and to devote full time to Zionist work.

Biskind resigned in 1919 to move to Palestine, where her husband became the Hadassah Medical Unit's first director.

Hadassah began the Palestine Supplies Bureau in the 1920s.

The first 22 young women graduated from Hadassah's Nurses' Training School in 1921.

She worked indefatigably for three years to supervise and to raise funds for the unit, which in 1922 was reorganized as the Hadassah Medical Organization.

She also organized and became first president of the Histadrut Nashim Ivriot (Jewish Women’s Organization). She returned to the United States in 1923.

In 1924, the Unit's name is changed to Hadassah Medical Organization.

1927: The cornerstone is laid at a solemn ceremony for the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center in Jerusalem, conceived as a model for future health centers in Palestine, with funding from Nathan Straus.

1928: Hadassah's urban recreational activities program begins with the supervision of the Guggenheimer Playgrounds, with funds from the estate of Bertha V. Guggenheimer.

1929: Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) opens the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center to serve Jerusalem's growing population, made possible by a large gift from the Straus family. (Operates today as an outpatient facility in downtown Jerusalem)

Hadassah transferred administration of this hospital to the Tel Aviv municipality in 1931.

1933: Recha Freier begins Youth Aliyah (Jugendaliyah, Aliyat Hano'ar) in Berlin, working with German youth leaders to resettle Jewish children in Palestine.

Since 1934, over 300,000 young people in 80 lands have graduated from the Hadassah-supported youth villages.

1935: Spearheaded by National President Rose Jacobs, Convention delegates accept Youth Aliyah as an official Hadassah project and establish Hadassah as its sole American sponsor.

1936: In honor of Henrietta Szold's 75th birthday, the name of the nursing school is officially changed during graduation ceremonies to the Henrietta Szold-Hadassah School of Nursing.

The British Royal Commission, known as the Peel Commission, praised the work of Hadassah in its 1937 report:

1939: The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital on Mount Scopus, the first teaching hospital and medical center in Palestine, opens on May 9.

1940: Hadassah and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) form the American Zionist Youth Commission, establishing Hadassah as Young Judaea's co-sponsor.

1941: Hadassah sends an American neurosurgeon, Doctor Henry Wigderson, to Palestine to create the Hadassah Medical Organization's first Department of Neurosurgery.

1942: After the United States enters World War II, Hadassah immediately mobilizes to support the American war effort.

1943: Due in part to Hadassah's relentless efforts, the Teheran Children, a group of more than 800 young Polish Jewish refugees, arrive in Haifa, after four years of wandering from Poland through the Soviet Union to a squalid refugee camp outside Teheran.

1944: Hadassah opens the Apprenticeship Department at the Brandeis Vocational Center, named in honor of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.

In 1945, after her death, the organization is renamed the Henrietta Szold Foundation for Child and Youth Welfare.

1947: In the wake of the UN partition plan of November 29, which calls for the establishment of independent Jewish and Arab enclaves in Palestine within a year, travel to and from Mount Scopus becomes increasingly dangerous.

The newly reopened Hadassah-Mount Scopus hospital receives its first 100 patients in April, almost 28 years after the convoy massacre of 1948.

1949: As "Operation Magic Carpet" rescues and brings 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel, HMO creates an emergency hospital in Rosh Ha'ayin for the care of new immigrants, as requested by the new Israeli government.

By 1950, when the playgrounds were devolved to the Israel Government's Department of Education, the program had grown to fifty playgrounds throughout the country where urban children had a safe, sanitary place to play.

A fundraising campaign for this medical complex begins in 1953.

1954: HMO pilots Ya'al, the "Helping Hand of Hadassah," a volunteer auxiliary of women who serve in Hadassah's medical facilities.

1955: Youth Aliyah begins its day center program with services for youth from Israel's rural and development areas.

1956: HMO pilots a community health station in the Arab village of Abu Ghosh.

1958: Construction of the new medical center at Ein Kerem accelerates.

1959: HMO introduces open-heart surgery to Israel, installs the cobalt bomb for cancer therapy and graduates the first ten Israel-trained dentists from the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine.

In 1960, on the centennial of Szold's birth, the Israeli government, together with Hadassah and the Jewish Agency, undertake to contribute to the budget of the foundation, now renamed Machon (or Mosad) Szold, the Szold Institute.

1961: Hadassah-Ein Kerem opens on June 6 with a joyous moving day.

1962: Hadassah turns 50 and celebrates its golden jubilee year.

In 1963, Cleveland Hadassah had over 6,000 members.

1964: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine moves into its new quarters at Hadassah-Ein Kerem.

1965: The United States Agency for International Development (AID) announces its first grant to Hadassah: $335,000 for Hadassah-Ein Kerem and the Alice L. Seligsberg High School.

1967: HMO performs Israel's first successful kidney transplant.

1968: The official restoration of Hadassah-Mount Scopus begins when Hadassah plans a 260-bed hospital for the entire community and agrees to build a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center within.

1972: The Hadassah Community College graduates its first class with Golda Meir as guest of honor.

1973: Graduates of the Young Judaea Year Course in Israel lead a group of olim ("new immigrants") and native-born Israelis and establish Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava region of the Negev.

1975: On October 21 Hadassah rededicates the rebuilt and refurbished Hadassah University Hospital at Mount Scopus.

At the first National Board Mid-Winter meetings held in Israel, ground is broken at Hadassah-Ein Kerem for the Siegfried & Irma Ullman Building for Cancer and Allied Diseases, which will house the Moshe Sharett Institute of Oncology (opens 1976).

1978:Hadassah Community College opens Israel's first two-year dental technicians' course, in cooperation with the faculty of the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine.

1979: Hadassah's Aliyah Department, organizes Israel Family Live-In programs for work-study-travel participants.

1982: HMO receives casualties by helicopter and ambulance convoy throughout the first war with Lebanon.

1984: HMO receives casualties by helicopter and ambulance convoy throughout the first war with Lebanon.

1986: The Ina and Jack Kay Hospice, Jerusalem's only Jewish hospice, opens at Hadassah-Mount Scopus, in response to a critical need by Jewish patients.

1988: At the invitation of United States AID, HMO medical staff members help plan, construct and open a hospital in Kinshasa, Zaire.

Opening of the Hadassah Vocational Guidance Bureau in Jerusalem (later, the Hadassah Vocational Guidance Institute, renamed Hadassah Career Counseling Institute [HCCI] in 1989). Youth Aliyah observes its tenth year of youth rescue.

1990: As "Operation Exodus" brings waves of Jews to Israel from the dissolving Soviet Union, Hadassah takes part in these ways: 1.

Hadassah works passionately for its repeal, and it is ultimately rescinded in 1991.

1993: HMO performs Israel's first successful heart-lung transplant.

1996: Elsie Roth galvanizes her Hadassah Nurses' Council colleagues to spearhead a relief drive for war-torn Bosnia.

1998: In honor of Israel's 50th Anniversary 1.

1999: At National Convention in Washington, D.C., 2,000 Hadassah delegates from across the United States visit Capitol Hill, bringing Hadassah voices to their senators and representatives - Hadassah's largest "Day on the Hill" ever.

2000: The Hadassah College of Technology turns 30 and graduates its first academic class.

HMO's Complementary (alternative) Medicine Department opens in downtown Jerusalem (moves to Hadassah-Ein Kerem in 2001).

2002: In response to the growing need for state-of-the-art trauma medicine, Hadassah launches a major fundraising program to expand the Center for Emergency Medicine at Hadassah-Ein Kerem.

2004: With many months of recovery and reconstruction work needed to repair the devastation left by Hurricane Charley on the southwest coast of Florida, Hadassah launches a special appeal to raise assistance funds.

In 2005, the two Jerusalem hospitals of the Hadassah Medical Organization were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing areas in which they promoted peace:

2006: Hadassah staff from the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem volunteer to travel the 112 miles north to Katyusha-struck Nahariya every weekday during the missile bombardment during the summer.

2007: Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, is inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, the birthplace of the American women's movement.

2008: Nancy Falchuk, National President of Hadassah, is part of the Bush Delegation celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel.

2012: Hadassah celebrated its centennial in Jerusalem.