for the Advancement of Judaism. Dr. Kaplan stressed the need for a Jewish adult education that must be nothing less than an adventure in nation building and he appealed to the American Jewish woman for her support.
“By helping her people to regain Palestine as a place in the sun,” he said, “the Jewish woman will qualify herself to interpret Palestine as an idea or symbol of the regeneration of her people throughout the world.
“Zionism needs the Jewish woman”, continued Dr. Kaplan, “if it is to carry out its purposes not only of redeeming Palestine but of regenerating the Jewish people. By learning to know and serve her people, the Jewish woman will make a place for herself where she will never have occasion to feel that she is an intruder, or that she is one of a limited quota — a feeling that no self-respecting Jewess can endure — but where her presence is greeted with acclaim and her interest with gratitude. Such is the redemption which Hadassah can bring to the Jewish womanhood of America.”
Sunday evening the convention delegates were guests at a reception tendered them by the New York branch of Hadassah. The auditorium of Temple Rodeph Sholom where the reception took place was filled to capacity and Dr. Stephen S. Wise was the guest speaker.
Eloquently praising the “mighty achievement” of Hadassah, Dr. Wise, in the course of his address said, “this gathering of people betokened more than a meeting of Hadassah.”
“This meeting”, he said, “is a sign, a symbol of the awakening of the Jewish race. Although we may be loyal to our different viewpoints on liberalism or conservatism, we are all obsessed by a passion, an ideal, and that is, that the Jewish people shall live and that they shall once again live to bless the peoples of the earth.
“Zionism”, continued Dr. Wise, “is one of the superior aims of Jewish life, ennobling the ideas of the Jewish people and one for which the Hadassah has rendered mighty service. Zionism is the greatest Jewish enterprise of the country and in its common enterprise it is an affirmation of the Jewish soul.
“Hadassah”, Dr. Wise concluded, “has done the greatest Jewish work performed by any group in all Jewish history”.
The Women’s Branch of the Union of Jewish Orthodox Congregations, National Federation of the Temple Sisterhood of America, and the Stuyvesant Group of the New York Branch of the Hadassah were among the organizations whose representatives pledged their support for the work of Hadassah.
Yesterday’s sessions were chiefly devoted to the reports of Dr. Chaim Yassky, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine.
“The importance of health welfare work is greater in Palestine than in any other country”, Dr. Yassky declared. “This is due to the fact that immigrants come from all over the world and there is extraordinary difficulty encountered in their adaptation and adjustment because of the entirely different climatic and social conditions to which they have been subject.
“One must also bear in mind”, Dr. Yassky stated, “that with the prevalent specific conditions of pioneering a normal development is not possible. We realized that the principal cause for the very bad hygienic conditions in Palestine was ignorance and that the best weapon for changing the conditions would naturally be health education. So health education became the axis of our welfare program.”
Dealing with the problem of nutrition which proved to be a vital one, Dr. Yassky said:
“The nutrition department supervised the school luncheons of Hadassah which fed 3,600 children daily during the past year and there is undoubtedly a marked improvement. Although the scope of curative work was reduced to a certain extent, the preventive work was carried on intact along two main lines: the child hygiene program, including pre-natal care, outside obstetrical service, infant welfare work, pre-school and school hygiene, and health education; and a general program of prevention and combatting of infectious diseases, such as trachoma, and tuberculosis.”
Another prominent speaker at yesterday’s sessions was Israel B. Brodie, chairman of the American Economic Committee for Palestine.
Discussing the economic needs of Palestine, Mr. Brodie told the Hadassah delegates that there is great need of hastening and enlarging the stream of Jewish immigration to Palestine.
“Is is essential,” Mr. Brodie said, “to populate Palestine within a comparatively short time with a preponderant body of manly self-supporting Jews who will develop into a homogeneous people with high Jewish ideals, so that they will ultimately become a self-governing commonwealth.
“A major problem in accelerating immigration to Palestine is that of providing immigrants with a means of being self-supporting. Capital for Palestine must continue to be provided in the main by the immigrating and non-immigrating investors.
“The New York and Tel Aviv ‘Economic Bureau’ facilitates business contact and is a service extended to those who wish information concerning the business possibilities of Palestine. For the present this service is extended free of charge but it is to be hoped that eventually it will be put on a paying basis.”
Last night Morris Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America, and Judge Julian W. Mack, were the chief speaekrs at a dinner given the delegates at the Commodore Hotel.
Messages of greeting were received by the Hadassah leaders while in session from Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, Palestine High Commissioner; Nahum Sokolow, President of the Zionist World Organization; Acting Governor Herbert H. Lehman and the leaders of the National Council of Jewish Women, Young Judea and many other groups.
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.
