Irma Levy Lindheim, who became president of Hadassah in 1926 after Henrietta Szold, the organization’s founder, went to Palestine, and served in that capacity until 1928, died yesterday at the home of her daughter in Berkeley, Calif. She was 91 years old.
A staunch believer in the American pioneering spirit, Mrs. Lindheim identified the early struggle for nationhood in this country with the similar struggle of Jews in Palestine to create a national home. A native of New York, trained in the field of child study and social service, she made her first trip to Palestine in 1925, visiting numerous Jewish and Arab settlements from Dan to Beersheba on horseback. A record of this trip was incorporated into her book, “Immortal Adventure,” published by Macaulay’s in 1928.
In 1922 Mrs. Lindheim entered the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, where she was accepted as a candidate for a rabbinical degree. From 1926 to 1928 she was, in addition to being Hadassah president, vice president of the Zionist Organization of America and a member of the World Zionist Organization Actions Committee. In 1930 she joined Hashomer Hatzair. In 1932 she helped organize the League for Labor Palestine and in 1933 became a member of Histadrut.
ACTIVITIES IN PALESTINE
After having made eight visits to Palestine in six years, Mrs. Lindheim settled there in 1933 as a member of Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek, on the slopes of Mount Ephraim, where she remained until her recent illness when she returned to the United States.
Mrs. Lindheim helped to introduce playground and recreational work in Palestine. She also interested Columbia University in 1919 in giving a three-year course to a group of women who later became nutritionists in the workers’ settlements in Palestine. She helped further interest in the settlement of the Negev and helped to foster the publication of the first magazine edited by Jews and Arabs in Haifa.
One of her other outstanding activities was the creation of Palestine Fellowships in 1935 to permit American college youth to study and learn by travel and living in the Jewish homeland. In 1939 the Fellowship Plan was officially adopted by a Joint Committee of the Zionist Executive, Keren Kayemeth and the Keren Hayesod.
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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.
