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Raritan Valley Hadassah at 90: Something to kvell about
By Enid Weiss
April 26, 2008
More than 60 years ago, before there was a modern country called Israel, the Raritan Valley Chapter of Hadassah was going strong.
On May 20, the chapter will mark its 90th anniversary with a gala at Congregation B'nai Tikvah in North Brunswick.
"People who haven't been involved for years are getting involved and coming," said Lila Schwartz of Highland Park, a former chapter president. "A lot of people I know who have moved to Florida are coming up for it. It's going to be a blast, it really is."
Gala planners Elaine Rand Fromkin, Marian Campisi, and Lila Schwartz have sent out roughly 1,000 invitations to the dinner catered by Classical Caterers and beginning at 5:30 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by Hadassah members and associates as they star in a self-written and self-directed musical salute.
It's not a fundraiser; tickets are only $36 to encourage more people to join the celebration, Schwartz said.
Over the years the chapter has contributed many pieces of equipment to Hadassah's medical center in Israel and contributed to the college educations of many Israelis -- both immigrants who made aliyah and sabras.
The chapter officially begun in 1916, only four years after Henrietta Szold founded the organization she named after Purim's heroine Queen Esther in 1912, according to the chapter's history compiled by current president Ellen Lacy of Highland Park. Szold wrote to Sophie Wolfe of New Brunswick and asked Wolfe to arrange a meeting with local women in order to form a study group and inspire them to improve healthcare in Palestine. That meeting led to the official organization of the New Brunswick Chapter of Hadassah in 1917 with 45 members. It was later renamed the Raritan Valley Chapter of Hadassah.
"We Hadassah women are committed to helping people in need in the land of Israel -- providing the real and practical -- from handmade to high-tech," Lacy said in an e-mail to The Jewish State. "This current fiscal year, we generated more funds than possibly ever before in the history of our chapter -- totaling well over $100,000."
Examples of chapter efforts include delivering hand-knitted caps and blankets for newborns in Israel and donating funds to purchase a respirator for the intensive care unit at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem.
"It's a remarkable organization," Schwartz said. "It's the epitome of tikkun olam (repairing the world)… for me, seeing the videotapes -- like Sissy Princz of Highland Park talking about the time we honored her husband at a youth aliyah event -- brought it all into focus.
Hugo Princz was a 17-year-old United States citizen and a child living with his family Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust when Nazis shipped them off to concentration camps. Princz survived Auschwitz and Dachau before he was liberated by the U.S. Army and sent to an American hospital because they saw U.S.A. stitched onto his prisoner clothing. After a lengthy battle in U.S. courts and Congress he won a landmark reparations case. Germany had previously denied him reparations due to his American citizenship.
Sissy Prinz and Gertrude Gerr will be honored for their 60-membership as well as 30 other women who will be recognized for more than 50 years of membership each.
Schwartz said one of the more memorable achievements during her tenure as president was in the 1960s when the chapter started its first Young Judea club. Today, Young Judea is still an active Zionist youth group with several New Jersey chapters including Metuchen and East Brunswick.
"This is an absolutely fabulous year for Hadassah and our region," said Shelley Kaplan, president of the Zionist women's group's southern New Jersey region. Kaplan, who lives in Ocean, kvelled: "Many of our chapters are celebrating their 60th anniversaries and they're one of our oldest and one of our largest chapters with 800 members."
Current president Ellen Lacy of Highland Park was aided by the Central New Jersey Historical Society as she compiled the chapter's history and took charged of gathering and organizing a display of archival materials showcased during the gala's cocktail hour. Videos of past presidents also will be shown that night followed by a candle lighting ceremony in their honor.
"As a psychologist, I am particularly interested in how Hadassah helps those in the Israeli communities who suffer from emotional trauma," Lacy said. "During conflicts in Israel, the two hospitals, Hadassah Medical Organization in Ein Kerem and Hadassah University Hospital on Mt. Scopus, provided ongoing critical health care services and were on constant high alert. Rotating medical teams and supplies traveled to areas of need. Psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and pediatricians help those in communities where families and children are confined to shelters after a bombing incident and help those who suffer from emotional trauma."
For more information contact Elaine Fromkin:
Dmssafta@aol.com or Schwartz, savtalila@optonline.net.
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