Hadassah Convention Opens Hospital Drive; Other Activities of American Jewish Women

A building fund campaign for the Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital and Medical School will be launched at the nineteenth annual convention of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, in conjunction with the American Jewish Physicians Committee. The University Hospital and Medical School to be built in Jerusalem is expected to provide the nucleus of a Medical center which will rival those of European and American cities.

“The completion of the plans at this time is almost imperative,” states Mrs. Rose Halperin, national president of Hadassah. “It will give to exiled German physicians and scientists who are fleeing from Germany to escape Nazi persecution, the opportunity of continuing with their research and studies, and provide them with adequate facilities to pursue their professions. In the present Rothschild Hospital of Jerusalem many German doctors have taken advantage of the post-graduate courses given there, and German nurses have made applications for training at the Hadassah Training School for Nurses.”

The League of Nations Mandates Committee recently commended the non-sectarian health work of Hadassah in Palestine, which employs the most modern and scientific of preventive and curative methods, stressing pre-natal care, infant and child welfare. Among the outstanding recent achievements of Hadassah is the opening of the first radiology institute in the Near East, headed by Professor Ludwig Halberstadter, former chief of the Cancer Institute of the University of Berlin.

Mrs. Edward Jacobs, former national president of Hadassah, who has recently returned from Palestine, where she represents the organization on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, will report to the convention the progress that has been made during the year toward accelerating the building of the Hadassah-University Hospital.

This convention marks the “coming-of-age” of Hadassah whose non-sectarian health work in Palestine was started twenty-one years ago when the late Nathan Straus financed and accompanied two American-trained nurses in their pioneer work in home nursing in maternity cases. Today the organization announces that mothers under its care have no more than two and one-seventeenth percent of mortality per thousand births, one of the lowest in the world.

A network of clinics throughout Palestine has contributed to the phenomenal decline in malaria, trachoma and skin diseases which were formerly indigenous to Palestine because of the lack of proper medical treatment and sanitary facilities.

The expansion of Hadassah’s health work to meet the influx of German refugees in Palestine and the almost unprecedented immigration of the last two years will be discussed at the convention.

More than 2,000 women are expected to attend the convention which opens today at the Palmer House in Chicago and continues until Wednesday. Mayor Kelly will greet the delegates at the first session. The “Century of Progress” will honor the organization at a tea given on the World Fair Grounds and the delegates will be the guests of the State of Illinois. Dr. Stephen S. Wise will speak on “Germany and the World Crisis in Judaism” at a mass meeting on Monday evening. The analysis and clarification of Hadassah’s relationship to the Zionist movement of the world will be fully discussed on Tuesday. The convention will be brought to a close by a banquet tendered to the delegates at which Rabbi Solomon Goldman of Chicago, one of the creators of the Jewish Pageant, will be the guest speaker.

IVRIAH’S ACTIVITIES

Ivriah, the Women’s Division of the Jewish Education Association, has resumed its regular weekly broadcast from station WHN on Thursday afternoons at one-thirty. The various programs are furnished by members of the organization.

The first Open Meeting of the West Side Division of Ivriah will be held at the Rutgers Club, 314 West 91st Street, tomorrow afternoon. Edith Stern, writer and lecturer, will discuss “Current Jewish Books.” Marie Toledano, soprano, will give a program of folk songs.

On Tuesday afternoon at two o’clock, the West Side Division of Ivriah will be hostess to the Sister-hoods of the West Side at a Tea Conference to be held at the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue. The conference will be concerned with a discussion of ways and means to help bring more children into the Jewish religious schools.

A theatre party is being given by Ivriah on Monday evening, Oct. 30, for the performance of “The Wise Men of Chelem” at the Yiddish Art Theatre.

ORPHANS’ EDUCATION

Lionel J. Simmonds, executive director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York, will speak on “Education of Jewish Orphans” over station WINS on Wednesday afternoon at three o’clock, under the auspices of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America.

MRS. BRIN WILL SPEAK

Mrs. Arthur Brin, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, will address the delegates at the Biennial Conference of the National Council of Jewish Juniors which is to be held in St. Louis during October 24-26.

SCHOOL OF THE JEWISH WOMAN

More than 200 women have been enrolled for courses at the School of the Jewish Woman, being held afternoons and evenings at the Congregation Shearith Israel, 2 West 70th Street. Registration and tuition are free, although voluntary contributions are accepted.

Courses include elementary and advanced Hebrew, Hebrew literature, Bible interpretation in English and Hebrew, history of Zionism, general and modern Jewish history, Jewish philosophy and Jewish customs and ceremonies.

Dr. Trude Weiss Rosmarin is in charge of the school. The faculty includes Mrs. Leah L. Golob, Dr. Shalom Spiegel, Rabbi Arthur Neulander, Rabbi Raphael Shochett, Mrs. Emanuel Halpern, Dr. Nima H. Adlerblum and Dr. David de Sola Pool.