Hadassah Leader Says Youth Dissatisfaction Understandable but Must Be Tempered

Mrs. Fay Schenk, President of Hadassah, told delegates at the Hadassah Mid-Winter Conference being held here that “dissatisfaction of youth today is understandable but the impatience which accompanies it must be tempered.” The Hadassah leader stated that her organization engages in constructive dialogue with its young people in order to “help them to do the job they have to do off and on the campus, while at the same time we enable them to realize their own Jewish and Zionist fulfillment.” Mrs. Schenk also touched upon the “change that has all of us in its grip.” She observed that many traditions, rituals and accepted patterns are “being repudiated, if not destroyed,” and noted that “articulate young spirits strike out against controls to which they are subjected and which they believe have no relevance to the age in which they live.”

Analyzing the type of women who constitute the current membership of Hadassah, Mrs. Schenk told her audience that 87 percent of Hadassah women are in the 20-59 age range; nearly 60 percent have some college background; 70 percent of Hadassah families have incomes of $10,000 and up, and more than 50 percent of Hadassah families have incomes of more than $15,000. “Although this is substantially above the national average,” Mrs. Schenk declared, “it hardly represents affluence and we must therefore be filled with admiration when we consider Hadassah’s high fund raising quotas and results. Let it be known that 96 cents of every dollar collected for our Israel projects goes to Israel.” At the close of yesterday’s session, the annual Henrietta Szold Award, given to an outstanding humanitarian who perpetuates the tradition of Miss Szold (founder of Hadassah), was presented to Israeli President Zalman Shazar. Presenting the award to President Shazar, former Hadassah President Mrs. Judith Epstein declared: “No man exemplifies the ideals of Henrietta Szold more than President Shazar-a great scholar and at the same time-a lover of learning who was nevertheless not a recluse.”