Hadassah and the Zionist project / Erica B. Simmons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simmons, Erica S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.

Zionism--United States--History--20th century.

Zionism.

History.

Palestine--Social conditions--20th century.

Palestine.

Israel--Social conditions--20th century.

Israel.

Social conditions.

Jewish Agency for Israel. Youth Aliyah Department.

Jewish Agency for Israel.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 241 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2006]

Summary:

Founded to give women a frontline role in the Zionist struggle for statehood, Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, first sent public health nurses to Palestine in 1913. Despite clashing with other Zionist organizations as it fought to keep control of its own projects, Hadassah grew to be the largest single American Zionist organization in the interwar period, an organization dedicated to developing an egalitarian, democratic Jewish state.

In Hadassah and the Zionist Project, Erica B. Simmons uses original historical documents to examine Hadassah's roots in the American Progressive movement and assess some of the American field-tested projects that Hadassah exported to Palestine including visiting nurses, school lunches, and play-grounds. She traces Hadassah's involvement in the Youth Aliyah child rescue movement, which saved thousands of youngsters from Nazi-occupied Europe as well as from the beleaguered Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa, as its education projects tried to make Israelis out of young refugees from all over the world during the first decades of statehood.

The book is distinguished by its historical approach-rooted in the analysis of original archival material, including publicity brochures, newsletters, and correspondence as well as the contemporary Zionist and mainstream American press-and its fresh perspective in showing how American Jewish women played a leading role in achieving Zionist goals and shaping the Jewish state. It is intended for students, scholars, and anyone interested in American Jewish history, Israeli history, women's studies, the history of philanthropy, Progressivism, and the emergence of the welfare state.

Contents:

Introduction : American maternalists in Palestine and Israel

"The healing of the daughter of my people" : Henrietta Szold and the creation of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America

"A joyful mother of children" : child welfare in the Yishuv

"A new type of woman" : the struggle for women's equality in the Yishuv

"Persecuted, uprooted" : Youth Aliyah and the rescue of European Jewish children

"Future builders of the state" : Youth Aliyah and the rescue of Oriental Jewish children.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-228) and index.

ISBN:

0742549372

0742549380

OCLC:

60360426