Henrietta Szold (1860–1945)

Gerta Ries Wiener (Germany 1898-2000 New York)
USA, 1976
Bronze, h. 1 ¾ x w. 1 ¾ in.
Cincinnati Skirball Museum, Jewish-American Hall of Fame Collection, gift of Mel and Esther Wacks, Debra Wacks, and Shari Wacks, 2019.7.15

Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore, Maryland a little more than a year after her parents arrived from Hungary. Her father, a prominent rabbi, gave Henrietta the attention and education usually reserved for an eldest son. She learned German, English, French and Hebrew. After graduation from high school she taught at Miss Adam’s School and at Ohab Shalom religious school, her father’s congregation. She also gave Bible and history courses for adults. In 1899, she took on the lion’s share of producing the first American Jewish Year Book, for which Szold was the sole editor from 1904 to 1908. She also collaborated in the compilation of the Jewish Encyclopedia. Szold studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America but was not permitted to seek rabbinic ordination. Her commitment to Zionism was heightened by a trip to Palestine in 1909. During her tour she was impressed both by the beauty of the land and the misery and disease among the people. In 1912, with the support of Rabbi Judah Magnes, she joined six women to form Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, recruiting American Jewish women to upgrade health care in Palestine. Within a year, the fledgling organization had two American nurses in Jerusalem. Today, Hadassah’s hospitals in Jerusalem are world-renowned, treating patients of all religions and races. In 1933, at the age of 73, Szold embarked on a major project to rescue Jewish children from the oncoming Holocaust. By 1948 her Youth Aliya program brought 30,000 children from troubled Europe to Palestine.