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Hadassah News
Members Advocate for a More Tolerant World
Standing proudly as Jews and Zionists Stories compiled by Marlene Post
Hadassah leaders participated in the No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March in New York in January 2020.
Hadassah Mobilizes to Counter Antisemitism
Jewish communities across the country are facing a sharp increase in antisemitic violence and hate speech—an alarming trend that demands swift action from lawmakers at every level of government and an unwavering commitment from us to stand proudly as Jews and Zionists.
Hadassah is an influential leader on Capitol Hill, working hand in hand with members of Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that strengthens America’s capacity to combat antisemitism at home and abroad. Hadassah advocates have been urging federal lawmakers to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and are building support for bills that hold the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority accountable for the antisemitic and anti-Zionist curricula in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)-run schools. In the last Congress, Hadassah members were instrumental in passing legislation supporting Holocaust education and enhancing the prestige and budget of the United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.
Hadassah knows that combating antisemitism requires robust action at the state and local levels, too. Just recently, armed with valuable information from his wife, Carol Rosenthal, a Hadassah National Board member, Hadassah Associate Stephen Rosenthal brought a request to Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota for her to adopt the IHRA definition, which she did by executive proclamation in coordination with Shine the Light, a new national initiative to spotlight antisemitism and bring together partners, including Hadassah, to educate and advocate.
Over the last year, Hadassah members in Arizona, Massachusetts, Nevada and Ohio have appeared before state legislatures in support of mandates to include Holocaust education in schools. Through letters, interviews, opinion pieces and testimony before legislative committees, members are having a tremendous impact. For example, when Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s chose to align itself with the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), Hadassah members in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas spoke up quickly to demand punitive action under anti-BDS statutes.
The energy and enthusiasm of members who advocate for a more tolerant world is the lifeblood of our efforts in Washington and in state capitals. Engaging your elected officials is easier than you might think thanks to Hadassah’s Day in the District and Date with the State programs, when our members meet in person or virtually with federal and state legislators. To learn more about how you can get involved, email advocacy@hadassah. org or contact your region president.
Ruth Fast, Witness to Zionist History
Most people who meet a centenarian ask the same question: What is the secret to a long life? The answers are seldom surprising, centering on healthy habits and genetics.
But when you ask Ruth Fast, a Seattle woman who turned 101 last August, her answer is a little different. Fast credits Hadassah and its founder, Henrietta Szold, for saving her life when she immigrated to Palestine in 1936 as a member of Youth Aliyah. She was 15 at the time.
Soon after German law limited the number of Jewish children attending German public schools, Fast learned about Youth Aliyah from a representative of the organization who visited her hometown of Stettin.
“I was raised as a Zionist, so when Hitler came in, I felt immediately that we had to get out of Germany,” Fast recalled. “I told my parents, ‘I want to go to Palestine. I’m not going to stay in Germany, they don’t want us.’ ”
In 1935, she traveled with her mother to Berlin for an interview at the Youth Aliyah offices and soon was accepted. Before the long journey by train and then ship to Haifa, Fast joined a group of 60 Jewish recruits from across Germany at a retreat near Berlin, studying Hebrew and learning what to expect when they reached Palestine, where they would live on a kibbutz.
The following year, when Fast’s ship arrived in Haifa, Henrietta Szold was waiting at the pier to greet the children, whom she addressed in both German and Hebrew. But that was not the only time Fast had an opportunity to meet Hadassah’s founder. After the rest of Fast’s immediate family immigrated to Jerusalem in the wake of Kristillnacht in 1938, they ended up living three houses away from Szold.
After spending two years on Kibbutz Ein Herod with her Youth Aliyah group, Fast moved to Jerusalem to be near her family. In 1942, at age 21, she enlisted in the British Army, went to officers training school and performed a tour of duty in Egypt.
Once World War II was over, Fast traveled to the United States to visit family and ended up meeting her
Ruth Fast
ZIONISM…DID YOU KNOW?
For centuries, the Land of Israel has
provided sanctuary to Jewish people around the world who face antisemitism in their countries of birth.
In the 1560s, Doña Gracia Nasi—a wealthy and influential Portuguese Jew— and her nephew Joseph established a Jewish settlement in Tiberias as a refuge for Conversos fleeing Spain and Portugal.
Eastern Europeans and Yemenite Jews comprised the First Aliyah (1882 to 1903). Also known as the Agriculture Aliyah, many immigrants became citrus farmers.
The Second Aliyah (1904 to 1914) occurred in the wake of pogroms in Czarist Russia. The new olim built the first kibbutz, Degania, near the Kinneret and created the first Jewish self-defense group, Hashomer, in the region and established a suburb of Jaffa that became Tel Aviv. The Third and Fourth Aliyahs (1919 to 1928) were triggered by pogroms in Russia, Poland and Hungary.
Aliyah Bet (1934 to 1948) rescued Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe and brought them, illegally, to Palestine. In 1932, Recha Freier conceived the idea of Youth Aliyah, while Henrietta Szold later brought the plan to fruition.
Almost 50,000 Jews from Yemen were repatriated to Israel as part of Operation Magic Carpet from 1949 to 1950. Moroccan Jews began arriving in 1954 and today they and their descendants comprise the largest Jewish demographic from an Arab country. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Persian Jewry found safe haven in Israel.
Beginning in the 1970s, Jews from Russian lands started to make aliyah and continued doing so well after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By 2006, more than 1.7 million Russian Jews had immigrated to Israel.
Between 2000 and 2017, over 10 percent of the French Jewish community moved to Israel reportedly because of antisemitism.
And last May marked the 30th anniversary of Operation Solomon, one of the clandestine Israeli airlifts that brought more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
future husband, Alfred, in Portland, Ore. She remained in the United States. When members of the local Hadassah chapter in Portland learned there was a new neighbor from Palestine, they reached out to her. Fast joined the organization and became a popular speaker, even after she and her husband relocated to Seattle in the 1950s. She continues to give talks to this day, including at a recent West Coast fundraising event focused on Youth Aliyah, then and now.
“I was devoted to Hadassah,” Fast said. “I still am devoted to Hadassah, because I felt it saved my life and it saved the lives of many, many people, and it still does wonderful work.” —Donna Gordon Blankinship
