HADASSAH’S 100TH NATIONAL CONVENTION

IN ISRAEL

‘THIS IS WHAT MAKES US HADASSAH’

By Lisa Hostein

Perhaps it was bashert that the taxi driver who drove me to the airport as I was leaving Israel following Hadassah’s 100th National Convention in Jerusalem in mid-November was a man who was only too familiar with Hadassah Hospital and what he termed its “avodat kodesh,” or holy work.

David Nissim’s stepdaughter, Adi Hooja, was critically injured during a deadly suicide bombing in the center of Jerusalem in December 2001. She was 11 years old at the time. A medical team at Hadassah not only saved her life but also her leg, which was filled with shrapnel.

More than 20 years and many operations later, including one as recently as November, Hooja is walking, leading a relatively normal life and continuing to receive treatment at the hospital. Her stepfather said his family is “more than grateful” for all that Hadassah and her doctors have done for her.

Indeed, the healing work of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and the Hadassah Medical Organization was on full display throughout the four official days of the convention—“Together in Israel: Our Pride. Our Purpose.”—as well as during the wide array of pre- and post-convention programming.

It was on display at the numerous gatherings where doctors, nurses and their patients recounted poignant and often miraculous journeys from illness and injury to treatment and recovery.

It was on display at the Jerusalem

Delegates gathered at Jerusalem’s Haas Promenade to open the festivities. Lifting the challahs are (from left) former Hadassah National President Nancy Falchuk, CEO Naomi Adler, current President Rhoda Smolow and Convention Chair Joyce Rabin.

Theater during the convention’s opening Hadassah Pride program when Alexander “Sasha” Buzunar was surprised with a dramatic re‑ union with his mother. The 14‑year‑ old teenager from the Russian‑ captured Ukrainian port city of Mari‑ upol had found refuge from the war at Hadassah Neurim, a Hadassah‑ supported youth village, and hadn’t seen his mom, Alina, in eight months.

It was on display at Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hadassah Mount Scopus, HMO’s two hospital campuses in Jerusalem that attendees visited to witness firsthand the innovative med‑ ical technology and pioneering work being done.

And it was on display among the more than 350 leaders, members, associates and staff from every corner of the United States who reveled— with dancing, singing and lots of schmoozing—in the opportunity to physically come together after nearly three years of a pandemic that had relegated most Hadassah activities to Zoom.

“This has been my dream since the day I accepted the presidency,” Rhoda Smolow, Hadassah’s national president, told the participants at the welcome dinner on November 14. “We needed to do this. We needed to be together. We needed for you to take that first step out the door, on the plane, on the tarmac and in Israel. This is what makes us Hadassah.”

What makes Hadassah is recog‑ nized by all kinds of Israelis. Hadas‑ sah Hospital “represents much more than a medical institution,” declared Nachman Shai, who was concluding his tenure as head of Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs when he spoke at the opening program.

“It is an establishment with the goal of healing a nation, one that has a close connection to all of our hearts,” Shai said. “It has remained a cornerstone of Jerusalem from before the establishment of the State of Israel until this day. I owe you all a personal thank you for this tremen‑ dous contribution.”

Tom Nides, the United States ambassador to Israel, whose mother was an active Hadassah leader in his hometown of Duluth, Minn., recounted his personal experience at Ein Kerem during the Hadassah Honors event that bestowed the Henrietta Szold Award upon past Na‑ tional President Marlene Post and the

Evolve Leadership fellows Sandye Fertman (left) and Amy Sapeika formed a special friendship as they and eight other Evolve fellows found ways to connect more deeply with Israel and Hadassah. They are all part of the Evolve effort to attract younger women to the organization.

inaugural Power of Esther Award to Israel’s first lady, Michal Herzog.

When he felt sick just a day ear‑ lier, Nides told the crowd, he called Dalia Itzik, chair of the board of HMO. Before he knew it, he was at the emergency room of the hospital getting the royal treatment for what turned out to be just a cold.

What follows are some snippets and scenes from the convention. For more coverage, including videos and a photo gallery, go to hadassah.org/

100convention.

Dr. sagui gavri, head of pedi‑ atric cardiology at Hadassah Ein Kerem, was in the cath lab treating a Palestinian child from East Jerusalem in May 2021 when the red alert on his phone went off, signaling incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip. Hours later, he got word that his home on Kibbutz Nir Am, which borders Gaza, was hit, destroy‑ ing the roof and surrounding fields.

That didn’t stop his work then, or now, as his commitment to treating Palestinian children remains unwav‑ ering. More than 200 from the Gaza Strip have been treated over the past 15 years, he said.

He has a special relationship with one of those children, Fayez Ha‑ sheem, who almost died three times in his short lifetime, Dr. Gavri said, “and we pulled him out of death every time in the last minute.”

For Fayez, Dr. Gavri is like a father. “He treats me like I’m his son,” said the adolescent, who took the stage at the convention with his mother and sister.

His mother, Layali Hasheem, still gets emotional when she talks about

Israeli singer Idit Halevy (far right) took the stage with a group of girls from the Neve Oz Choir to help tell the story of Hadassah.

Sasha Buzunar enjoyed a tearful—and surprise— reunion with his mother, Alina, on the convention stage. The 14-year-old, who found refuge from his war-torn city of Mariupol at Hadassah Neurim, recounted his frightening experience watching burning buildings, leaving his home and getting on a plane to Israel with just a quick ‘goodbye’ to his mother. Soon after arriving at the youth aliyah village, he said, he ‘understood that here is a place for me. I have anything that I need. Now I feel free.’

Dr. Sagui Gavri spoke about his special relationship with Fayez Hasheem and his family.

their experiences at Hadassah. “When I’m in Hadassah, I feel like I’m in my home with my family,” she said.

Dr. Gavri said he is not naive, but he is hopeful that these interethnic interactions and relationships formed at Hadassah Hospital are “seeds that can make a change—maybe.”

HONORING TWO IMPACTFUL WOMEN

Marlene post has been a powerful force in the Jewish world for decades, but nowhere has her impact—and her commitment—been greater than at Hadassah. The organization showed its appreciation for her half-century of service by honoring her with its highest honor, the Henrietta Szold Award, at the convention.

At a festive evening at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem that included musical performances as well as an act from world-renowned Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard and dancing in the aisles, some 500 people gathered to honor both Post and Michal Herzog, Israel’s first lady, who received Hadassah’s inaugural Power of Esther Award.

Herzog, an attorney, was recognized as “a role model for women in Israel and abroad, an advocate for those in need and a champion of social mobility,” as denoted on the award itself.

Accepting the award, Herzog likened Queen Esther’s “soft power”—her use of wisdom and persuasion rather than coercion—to effect change to her own efforts as partner to her husband, Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“Soft power is perhaps the central tool available to first ladies,” she said. “For me, it has become the best instrument for promoting the causes dear to my heart, such as awareness for mental health; social mobility and equality; psychological humanitarian support.”

She also congratulated Post, as did her husband in his video remarks a day earlier when he welcomed the convention participants and noted that so many of Hadassah’s contributions “are a seamless part of this country and its story.”

Noting his admiration for Szold, Hadassah’s founder, and the organization’s motto, “The Power of Women Who Do,” the president lauded the past national president and current chair of Hadassah Magazine. Post is “by definition a woman who did and does, and will do,” he said.

Ellen Hershkin, a past national president, presented the award to Post, who was honored “for her extraordinary service, lasting contributions to the ideals of Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people worldwide.” She “empowers emerging generations of leaders,” the award continues, and “embodies the spirit of innovation, global perspective and courage to create a more just and equitable world.”

Among the many achievements under her presidency from 1995 to 1999, Post, a former nurse and nurse educator, opened the first Hadassah office in Washington, D.C., and launched the Hadassah Foundation, which funds programs to benefit women and girls in Israel and the United States.

In her acceptance speech, Post noted her beginnings in the Catskills town of Monticello, N.Y., where she was born 85 years ago, and credited Hadassah, which “made me who I am in many, many, many ways.”

In addition to her involvement in Hadassah, Post has held many lay positions elsewhere in the Jewish world, including founding chair of the Birthright Israel program and founding chair for the American Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled. She continues to hold leadership positions with numerous organizations, among them the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish National Fund.

Ambassador Tom Nides told the crowd, ‘One of the greatest honors anyone can possibly have is to be the American ambassador to Israel. Without question, America has got Israel’s back.’ Marlene Post, past national president of Hadassah, accepted the Henrietta Szold Award, saying, ‘Hadassah made me who I am.’ Also being honored was Israel’s First Lady Michal Herzog (left), who received the Power of Esther Award from National President Rhoda Smolow.

Convention participants spread out across jerusalem and the country for all kinds of excursions, from culinary tours of Mahane Yehuda to a military briefing along part of Israel’s security barrier. And of course, to Hadassah Hospital’s two campuses and to Meir Shfeyah, one of two Youth Aliyah villages supported by Hadassah.

At Hadassah Ein Kerem, major donors to the Round Building were honored at a ceremony beneath the Chagall Windows of the Abell synagogue. Delegates had the opportunity to don hard hats and tour the construction site. Once the renovation is complete, it will house several key hospital departments as well as updated operating rooms, and it will increase by 200 the number of patient beds available.

Dr. Yoram Weiss, HMO’s director general, noted among its many recent accomplishments that Hadassah was in the forefront of Covid treatment and was the first Israeli hospital to send medical teams to the Polish border with Ukraine to assist those fleeing the war, treating 35,000 patients.

Surrounded by steel beams and partially constructed concrete walls, Hadassah members and associates got an explanation of the progress of the Round Building renovation by Moshe Levy (right), one of its chief architects.

Rhoda Smolow cut the ribbon on the plaque honoring top donors to the Round Building. Smolow with (from left) Hadassah CEO Naomi Adler, HMO Director General Dr. Yoram Weiss and Convention Chair Joyce Rabin.

Dianne Gottlieb, HMO chair and herself a midwife and nurse educator, spoke at the dedication of the Learning Center at the Goldwurm Auditorium at the Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing.

Karen Ezrine and Jorge Diener (above), chair and executive director, respectively, of Hadassah International, brought together 40 staff and volunteer leaders from around the world, including South and Central America, Canada, Europe and Australia for a meeting that focused on building a global team for developing major fundraising for HMO. As the international arm of HWZOA, focused outside the United States, it plays a key role in funding HMO capital projects and medical research and also facilitates strategic collaborations to bring HMO expertise to other parts of the world.

At Meir Shfeyah Youth Aliyah Village, associate and longtime Hadassah supporter Burt Krull met with a teacher and her students (left) in a learning center made possible by his donation, at the request of his late wife, Alma, in honor of three Hadassah legends (above, from left): Barbara Sofer, Audrey Shimron and Barbara “BG” Goldstein. Shimron, who has stepped down from her longtime position as executive director of HWZOA’s Israel Offices, was honored at a special ceremony during the convention. Shimron now holds the title of executive director emeritus. Suzanne Patt Benvenisti is the new executive director.

YOUR VOICE CAN HELP MAKE HADASSAH STRONGER

You love Israel. You love Hadassah. And you

love how Hadassah helps Israel. That’s why we need you!

Help us strengthen Hadassah across the world— and make an even greater impact. Please take 10 minutes to share your opinions in this simple survey: surveymonkey.com/r/HWZOA_Ops1.

Thank you for all you’ve done and will do for Hadassah. With this survey, you’re helping advance Hadassah’s legacy in the months and years ahead.

FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

For some of its 350-plus attendees, Hadassah’s 100th National Convention was a family affair. Several mothers and daughters came to Jerusalem together, as did at least one father-son pair. In many cases, Hadassah volunteering, leadership and philanthropy are

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©2022 Akerman LLP. All rights reserved. Mother-daughter duo, Kimi and Miki Schulman

family traditions.

Take Kimi and Miki Schulman. Kimi Schulman has been to many Hadassah conventions, including when she held leadership positions in the Florida Atlantic and New York regions. This time she came as national liaison for Evolve Hadassah, which was created to attract younger women to the organization.

One important generational shift, she said, is that younger leaders such as herself—an operations manager at a high-end furniture company in Boca Raton, Fla.—are more likely to work full time than their Hadassah elders, but they’re just as eager to be part of something bigger.

Despite her focus on her Evolve role, Schulman said that her most powerful moment at the convention was one shared with her mother, Miki, the chair of 360° of Healing, The Full Circle Campaign and a longtime national Hadassah leader.

“At the pre-convention trip for the Society of Major Donors, my mother dedicated a special gift that our family has made in my father’s memory,” said Kimi Schulman, who herself has made repeat Founders-level donations. “L’dor v’dor, from generation to generation. My parents always instilled in me and my brothers…the importance of tzedakah.”

For one Hadassah mother, bringing three of her four adult daughters

was extremely meaningful. “We’re happy to be here celebrating Hadassah’s 100th Convention,” said Hindea Marcowicz of Toledo, Ohio, a former longtime chapter president.

“Hadassah is a part of who we are as a family,” said Nina Friedman, one of Marcowicz’s daughters, who is a social worker and currently the membership vice president for Hadassah Chicago-North Shore.

Attending this convention together, said Friedman, was “a way for us to honor our mother for her dedication and commitment to Hadassah over the years, and remember our grandmother.” Visiting Hadassah’s hospitals and the Meir Shfeyah Youth Aliyah Village, she said, helped “remind us what we are working for.” —Erica Brody

HADASSAH’S TEACHABLE MOMENT

The Hadassah Educators Council welcomes all those who interact with students of

all ages and at any level and in any educational environment.

The role of an educator is challenging and changing, and we need to work together to address the difficult issues we encounter. Education can improve lives, change communities and create enlightened citizens of the world. Our programming will support educators with the tools and information needed to achieve these ideals, focusing on antisemitism, Holocaust education, Zionism, Israel, advocacy, mentoring and networking, among other topics.

There is strength in numbers. We educators can make a difference in advocating for issues locally and nationally, for Holocaust education in all 50 states and for balanced and inclusive curricula related to Jewish issues, Israel and Zionism.

Last summer, we made our voices heard at the National Educators Association regarding pro-Palestinian new business items. We wrote an op-ed piece that was published and shared by the Jewish News Syndicate and StandWithUs.

Let’s keep the momentum going. Mark your calendars for these upcoming online events: January 31, for Hadassah Loves Educators: Inaugural Celebration of Our New Educators Council; and May 2, for a program focused on the American and Israeli educational systems. An advocacy workshop is being planned for summer 2023.

Learn more, including how to join, by emailing educatorscouncil@hadassah.org. —Gail Hammerman and Karen Bloom, Educators Council Co-Chairs

Proud supporter of those who reach higher

KPMG is proud to support Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.’s important work to bring healing where it is needed most... in the US, Israel and around the world. Congratulations on your 100th convention! Your commitment, determination and insight will have a powerful impact for years to come.

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Battling a Silent Killer

Israel is a testing ground for treating ovarian cancer By Wendy Elliman

Rosalyn schofield would have dismissed the dull, intermittent ache between her hips had she not been leaving on a long-awaited trip to the Galapagos Islands. “I didn’t want to find myself sick out there,” said the 59-yearold attorney, “so I got checked—and learned I had ovarian cancer.”

Dr. Rivka Brooks, 52, was hiking in Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains when she got her period. Noting that it was different than usual, she was immediately suspicious.

“I’m not hysterical, but I think I’ve got cancer,” she messaged her Hadassah Medical Organization colleague and friend, Dr. Drorit Hochner, who heads the obstetrics and gynecology department at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.

Both women are alive and cancerfree today because the disease, known for its stealthy arrival, gave them warning.

“Ovarian cancer is usually asymptomatic and goes undetected until disease is advanced,” said HMO gynecologist-oncologist Dr. Tamar Perri. “Discovered in its early stages, before it spreads, its cure rate is 95 percent. After it metastasizes, however, it turns into what was, until recently, a death sentence.”

Dr. Perri is an expert in gynecological cancers. She came to Hadassah in January 2021 to establish and run the Gynecologic Oncology Center. A facility within the Patricia and Russell Fleischman Center for Women’s Health at Hadassah Ein Kerem, the oncology center brings under one roof the treatment and follow-up of gynecological cancers—ovarian, cervical, uterine and vaginal—along with that of endometriosis, fibroids, pelvic masses and more. This approach enables swift management of conditions in which timing is often critical.

“I got back to Israel on a Friday in late June 2021 and saw Dr. Hochner on Sunday,” said the British-born Dr. Brooks, who has lived in Israel since age 3. Today, she heads the pediatrics department at Hadassah Mount Scopus. “She referred me to Dr. Perri, who diagnosed me on Tuesday. I was in surgery by Thursday and started chemotherapy two weeks later.”

Drs. Brooks and Perri discussed their patient-doctor link as well as their practices at a dinner for major donors at Hadassah’s 100th Convention in Jerusalem in November.

For most ovarian cancer patients, unfortunately, their diagnosis is not as simple as that of Dr. Brooks. One 34-year-old woman who prefers to remain anonymous experienced coughing, fever and shortness of breath that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room just as Covid-19 was tightening its grip in 2020. Testing negative for coronavirus each time—the medical staff thought she had a different virus—she would return home, only for the symptoms to persist.

She was eventually diagnosed with malignant pleural effusion, a build-up of excess fluid between the cushioning layers of pleura around her lungs.

“This often indicates advanced ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Perri. “Almost half the women who die from the disease have pleural metastases.”

In 2021, the woman became the first patient to be treated in the newly opened Gynecologic Oncology Center. Because her ovarian cancer had reached stage 4, she received three cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to shrink her tumors so that eventual surgery would be less invasive and more effective. More chemotherapy followed the surgery, and the woman is now in remission.

While chemotherapy is not easy for anyone, the recent experience of a 43-year-old woman who struggled with infertility (she also prefers to remain anonymous) had an added dimension of concern.

“She had been in fertility treatment for eight years at the time of her diagnosis,” said Dr. Perri. “A scan seven weeks after her latest in vitro fertilization cycle finally showed a fetus—but also particularly aggressive stage 4 ovarian cancer.”

Although the cancer did not affect the growing fetus, the woman’s survival was at risk. Her medical team advised terminating the pregnancy and immediately treating the cancer. The woman, however, refused to terminate.

“She began chemotherapy at 13 weeks’ gestation, when risk of miscarriage or serious deformities to the

Dr. Rivka Brooks hiking in the Caucasus Mountains.

fetus drops, although it doesn’t dis‑ appear,” said Dr. Perri. While she suffered some of the usual side effects of chemo—loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, low blood count, bruis‑ ing and infections—“the pregnancy held,” Dr. Perri recounted.

At 33 weeks, a healthy little girl was delivered by Cesarean section.

“The new mother heard her daughter cry and stroked her head,” Dr. Perri recalled. “Then we admin‑ istered a full anesthetic and removed her ovaries and uterus.”

Dr. brooks and schofield, and the two other women described, all carry a muta‑ tion of the BRCA gene, the only proven risk factor for ovarian cancer. Those with mutations of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have about a 70 percent chance of developing breast cancer and a 44 percent chance of ovarian cancer by the age of 80, ac‑ cording to the United States’ Nation‑ al Cancer Institute.

Schofield, whose mother and grandmother died from breast cancer at relatively young ages, knew there was a strong possibility of the muta‑ tion in her family, “but, I’m ashamed to say, I was too afraid to test.”

The other three, however, were astonished to learn they carried the culprit mutation. “I couldn’t be‑ lieve I was BRCA‑ positive!” said Dr. Brooks, who was tested after her diagnosis. “I come from a large family with no known history of cancer.”

In the general population, where the prevalence of a BRCA mutation is 0.24 percent, ovarian cancer affects one in 78—making it the fifth‑deadli‑ est malignancy in women.

“BRCA’s incidence in Ashkenazi Jewish women, however, leaps to 2.5 percent, meaning it’s carried by one in every 40,” explained Dr. Perri. “So the message is: If you’re Ashkenazi and toward your 40s, test for BRCA.”

Because of these genetic realities, Israel proportionally has one of the world’s largest populations of women with ovarian cancer, making the country a testing ground for diag‑ nostic and therapeutic trials. One life‑saving development already in wide use is BRCA inhibitors, a class of cancer‑fighting drugs.

“BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes help healthy cells repair themselves,” said Dr. Perri. “When there’s a fault in one or both these genes, this ability is damaged and cancer cells can invade. Inhibitors that block a cell enzyme, called PARP, prevent cancer cells from thriving and replicating and reduce the risk of a recurrence of BRCA‑associated ovarian cancer by up to 70 percent.

“PARP treatment is enabling the survival of even those diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer,” she added. “I have patients like this who are alive and well six and seven years since diagnosis.”

Another direction showing prom‑ ise is immunotherapy, which treats ovarian cancer by activating the nat‑ ural immune system against tumor cells. While still experimental, sev‑ eral clinical trials are underway, and researchers are optimistic.

With cure rates high when the dis‑ ease is found early, a key emphasis in research is early detection.

“Only one in five ovarian tumors is found before it spreads,” said Dr. Perri. “We at Hadassah are try‑ ing to develop a form of Pap smear in which changes in cells swabbed from the cervix will warn of ovarian cancers, as they now signal cervical malignancy.”

Until research routs gynecologi‑ cal cancers for good, the Gynecologic Oncology Center is easing the path for the hundreds of women who come to Hadassah each year.

“Our center is built with the patient and her family as the focus,” said Dr. Perri. “Instead of making ill, frightened women trail from one department to another for diagnosis, treatment and follow‑up, everything is in one place. Alongside that, we build personal relationships with every patient, which foster better, more comprehensive care—whether it’s advanced therapy or surgery, pre‑ serving fertility or minimizing side effects, or simply giving a smile or hug at the right time.”

Wendy Elliman is a British-born science writer who has lived in Israel for more than four decades.

HADASSAH ON CALL

Hadassah On Call, Hadassah’s premier

podcast, helps decode today’s top devel‑ opments in medicine, from new treat‑ ments to tips for staying healthy. In each episode, journalist Maayan Hoffman, a third‑generation Hadassah member, interviews one of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s top doctors, nurses or med‑ ical innovators. In 2023, she’ll zero in on heart health, nutrition, new Covid‑19 variants and more.

Look for past episodes on topics from women’s mental health to relief for those with sleep disorders. Subscribe and share your comments at hadassah.org/ hadassahoncall or wherever you listen to podcasts.