Funeral services were held today for Mrs. Rose G. Jacobs, one of the charter members of Hadassah at its founding in 1912 and the Zionist organization’s second president after Henrietta Szold. She died Thursday in her home here at the age of 87. Mrs., Jacobs devoted herself to the expansion of Hadassah. From 1920 to 1923 she was acting president; from 1930 to 1932 and again from 1935 to 1937 she was president.
In 1937 she was elected to the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, becoming the first and only woman to hold a post in the official body which Great Britain dealt with regarding Jewish matters in Palestine under the Mandate. During Mrs. Jacobs’ second term as president (1935-37) Hadassah instituted the youth aliya movement which rescued more than 6,000 boys and girls from Nazi dominated countries and transported them to Palestine for two years of care and vocational training followed by placement in Palestine.
Mrs. Jacobs was a delegate to the international Zionist conference in Carlsbad in 1922 and subsequently attended many international conferences and congresses. In 1940 she organized the emergency committee on Hadassah which undertook to cope with the problems created by the war. In 1939 she helped initiate a building program for the Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital and Medical School on Mount Scopus. Born in New York, she attended Columbia University and was a public school teacher from 1908 to 1914. Mrs. Jacobs was also a member of the board of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
