More than 3,000 men and women at the Hotel Pensylvania greeted Miss Henrietta Szold, organizer and honorary president of the Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization, who returned recently from three years’ service in Palestine as head of the Hadassah Medical Organization there.
Miss Szold was officially greeted by Miss Alice L. Soligsberg, National President of the Hadassah, who acted as Chairman. Further tribute was paid to her devotion to the cause by Mrs. Jacob Sobel, member of the National Board, and Louis Lipsky, Chairman of the Zionist Organization of America. Others at the speakers’ table were Mrs. Irving Le###man, Mrs. Nathan Strauss, Barnard C. Richards, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph, S. Ochs. the Rev. S. Maslianeky. Dr. Schmarya Levin and Reunen Brainin.
Miss Szold asked that American Jewry be not dismayed upon reading that there are many emigrants from Palestine as well as immigrants to that country. What success can one expect, she asked, if a trunkmaker tried to grow almond trees?
She appealed to members of the Hadassah and Keren Hayesod to work together. Some members of the women’s organization believed that the Keren Hayesod was not giving enough support to the medical unit. Hadassah last year contributed $130,000. She said that the medical work in Palestine is the “best Missionary work we could do in the face of our relations to the Arabs”, and she said it would be a “political blunder” if it could not continue.
Miss Szold was loudly applauded both at the beginning and at the end of her address.
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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.