Simple rites marked the funeral today of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, who died of a heart attack last night in her room at the Hadassah Nursing School, on Mt. Scopus, at the age of 84. She was buried on the Mount of Olives.
All Jewish institutions throughout the country flew their flags at half mast, nourning the death of the "mother in Israel". Work did not stop because Miss Szold had always opposed any cessation of work in Jewish institutions in palestine. The Jewish Agency for palestine and the Jewish National Council issued a joint tribute emphasizing the loss suffered by the Jewish people.
Representatives of the 12,000 young Jewish refugees whose settlement in Palestine was made possible by the Youth Aliyah, of which Miss Szold was the leading spirit, arrived here during the day from settlements throughout the country to attend the funeral of the woman who was the heart and soul of the Youth Aliyah movement. The funeral took place at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and there were no eulogies.
Miss Szold was stricken with pneumonia last August, but recovered sufficiently to resume her work at improvised offices in the Henrietta Szold School of Nursing, adjacent to the Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital from which she continued her activities until she was again stricken with double pneumonia and was confined to the hospital.
The entire Hebrew press appeared today with black-bordered pages carrying warm tributes to Miss Szold and publishing lengthy biographical articles.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Miss Szold was the daughter of the well-known Rabbi, Benjamin Szold. She was educated in Hebrew, French and German by her father and in the public schools of the city. When the Jewish Publication Society of America was founded, Miss Szold became its secretary in 1898, a post she held until 1916.
In the 1890’s when thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants fled to America from the pogroms in Russia, Miss Szold started a new activity, when she became one of the first women in America to engage in Americanization work. She organized classes where Russian Jewish immigrants were taught the language, customs and the ideals of America.
In 1909 Miss Szold went to Palestine for the first time. She was horrified by the Near East standards of living which prevailed in Palestine under a Turkish regime and was galvanized into action. She returned to America the following year, and in 1912 organized a group of women whose specific task was to bring modern methods of medical science into Palestine. Her unique talents as an organizer, her broad Jewish background and her compelling personality were in a large measure responsible for taking this group, which became known as Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, one of the largest and most influential Zionist bodies in the world.
In 1930, the Jewish National Council of Palestine elected her a member, with a portfolio in health. After the advent of Hitler when German Jewish children had to be rescued from the Nazi regime, Miss Szold became director of the movement which has since brought children to Palestine from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Czschoslovakia, Poland, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria, Italy, from the north coast of Africa, from India, and even from far-away Japan. Thousands of these children have been wanderers for years. Many were rescued from countries of temporary refuge. The majority are orphans.
Miss Szold was listed as one of the hundred outstanding American women of the last century by the Woman’s Centennial Congress in 1940, during the national celebra tion of her eightieth birthday. In March 1944, she received another unusual honor when she was given the degree of Doctor of Humanities in absentia by Boston University. Zionist Groups in America Mourn Miss Szold
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.
