The sixth annual Henrietta Szold Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service was conferred posthumously today upon Monnett B. Davis, American Ambassador to Israel until his death last December, at the closing session of the Mid-Winter Conference of Hadassah. More than 1,500 Hadassah leaders, representing the organization’s 300,000 members in chapters throughout the United States, attended the presentation ceremony in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor.
The award was accepted on behalf of the family of the late Ambassador by a son, Thomas M. Davis. Mrs. Monnett B, Davis, the Ambassador’s widow, was also present. Mrs. Rebecca Shulman, national president of Hadassah, announced that the $1,000 cash award which accompanies the Henrietta Szold Citation would be used to establish a permanent memorial to the late Ambassador in the new $10,000,000 Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in the Jerusalem Corridor. Mr. Davis’ name will be inscribed on a special Wall of Healing.
John F. Simmons, Chief of Protocol of the United States Government, speaking at the ceremony, declared that “Ambassador Davis was able to influence the minds of men and women in all walks of life, and his lively curiosity took him into almost all parts of Israel. He seldom missed an opportunity to see how others lived and worked and he shared with them an intimate understanding of their problems. In every sense his mission was humanitarian.”
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