LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Henrietta Szold
built 267 days ago
To this day Henrietta Szold is regarded as one of the genuine heroic figures of American-Jewish history. She was one of the few women to play a foundational role in creating meaningful American Jewish culture. Szold... was constrained by the limited opportunities that the Jewish world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could offer a woman of her brilliance, organizational abilities and vision. Yet, her influence extended beyond the United States, to the Jewish people. She helped shape the political, cultural and social worlds of Jews, creating a new world of opportunity for Jewish women. Even before her death in l945, she had become an icon for the practical idealism that could build a Jewish state.
Source:
Henrietta Szold, 1860-1945, was an educator, social pioneer, editor and visionary figure in modern American and Jewish history. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, at the outbreak of the Civil War, she was the oldest of eight daughters whose parents had only recently arrived in the United States from Hungary. Growing up in an immigrant community, she fast learned that education was empowerment and in 1889 opened a night school to teach new Americans English and civics. By the time the program was taken over by the City of Baltimore in 1898, it had more than 5,000 Jewish and non-Jewish graduates. With this project, Henrietta Szold not only "invented" the concept of night school in America, but she created a model for immigrant absorption in the U.S. A trailblazer, she soon went on to become the first full-time (and female) secretary of the Jewish Publications Society, the premiere publisher of Jewish liturgical and secular texts.
Source:
While a teacher, Henrietta Szold's ... had a second career as a writer and editor. She began writing for Jewish journals on a wide variety of issues of concern to the American Jewish community. In 1888, when she was 28 years old, she was invited to be one of nine members, the only female, of the publications committee of the new Jewish Publication Society; four years later, she was the first executive secretary of the JPS, holding this job until she was age 56, in 1916. She translated, edited, and indexed many important Jewish works during this time.
Source:
Henrietta Szold organized numerous groups dedicated to zionist efforts, including Hebras Zion, one of the earliest such groups in the United States, and Hadassah, a women's society. Szold was the daughter of a rabbi and taught in his synagogue from an early age. From 1893 to 1916, she served as editorial secretary of the Jewish Publication Society. During a trip to Palestine in 1909, Szold became convinced of the need for a Jewish state and by 1916 she was devoting all of her energies to the zionist cause. She organized new chapters of Hadassah, coordinated the Palestinian activities of the American Zionist Medical Unit, and led the Histadrut Nashim Ivriot (Jewish Women's Organization) as president. In 1933, she directed the Youth Aliyah, which relocated children from Nazi Germany to Palestine.
Source:
Ten years later, at the age of 59, Henrietta Szold made Aliyah. Her next historic mission began in the early 30's, when it became imperative to evacuate thousands of Jewish youth from Nazi Germany. Once again, Miss Szold devoted herself to this task and contributed to the newly formed Youth Aliyah movement. During this time Ships were bringing Jewish youth to Palestine from Europe. These children were sent to Kibbutzim all over Eretz Israel. A new kibbutz was established in the upper Galilee at that time and was named in honor of this remarkable woman.
Source:
Henrietta Szold, Zionist leader, was born in Baltimore of Hungarian-Jewish parentage. She taught school at the Misses Adams School in Baltimore, and was the founder of a night school for Russian immigrants in Baltimore in 1889. From 1892-1915 HS was the secretary of the Jewish Publication Society of America. A trip to Palestine in 1909 was the turning point in her life. She became an enthusiastic Zionist, became the Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists and founder and first President of Hadassah, the organization dedicated to supporting health work in Palestine. During 1920-1933 HS divided her time between the United States and Palestine.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Henrietta Szold