A dozen Jewish organizations sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry expressing their concern over the rise of anti-Semitism in Hungary. The May 14 letter commended Kerry for his offices’ recent human rights report that detailed the rise of the xenophobic and anti-Semitic Jobbik party and encouraged Kerry “to keep the issue of intolerance and discrimination squarely on the US-Hungarian bilateral agenda.” The Jobbik party has called for the creation of a list of Jewish public officials …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News Sometimes accidents lead to the greatest discoveries. In a recent study conducted at Israeli medical center Hadassah, researchers stumbled on a key mechanism in the heart’s regenerative capabilities. Researchers were examining the left atrial appendage, a part of the heart whose role is relatively unknown and is sometimes removed in heart-surgery, when they noticed something astonishing. When a different part of the heart was placed in the left atrial …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News Israeli researchers at Hadassah Medical Center have developed a test that can predict if healthy women are at a significant risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Using a blood test, the researchers were able to identify the presence of a harmful mutation, which may trigger those types of cancers in women. The researchers, led by Dr. Asher Salmon, then Senior Oncologist at Hadassah, developed the test that is able to predict the presence of harmful BRCA1 and …More

The Hadassah Women’s Organization is a vernacular part of the Jewish vocabulary. More uncommonly known, however, is the name of Henrietta Szold, the woman whose tireless work led to the formation of the historic group. Szold was born in 1860 in Baltimore, the eldest of eight daughters from Rabbi Benjamin Szold. The family was deeply devout, and Szold became a religious teacher for both children and adults and worked for the Jewish Publications Society after graduating high school. She held both positions …More

In 1960, the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem decided to add a spiritual, creative component to its worship area. A series of stained glass windows were the order of the day, and staff set out to determine which skilled artist was up to the task. Marc Chagall was an easy choice. Arguably the most famous Jewish artist at the time, he had spent decades depicting Jewish life and customs through his many paintings and glassworks. When Chagall met with Hadassah heads in Paris to discuss the commission, his wife …More

Hadassah transferred $10 million to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem to help cover its subsidiary's $50 million deficit. The New York Jewish Week reported Monday that the Zionist women's group took the unusual measure after learning of the deficit run up by the hospital, which was founded nearly 80 years ago. Meanwhile, the medical center's director general, Ehud Kokia, has submitted his resignation. The medical center's board chair, Esti Dominissin, will fill the position until a replacement is …More

More than 2,000 Hadassah members have donated funds for the creation of a commemorative tree lot in Israel to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. The idea came from Veronique Pozner, mother of 6-year-old Noah, the youngest victim of the school shooting in Newtown, CT, last month. A collection of 3,300 trees will be planted by Jewish National Fund in the new Beersheva River Park in Israel. Hadassah President Marcie Natan recently planted the first of thousands of trees to remember the 26 …More

Three US Jewish groups welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to review restrictions on women’s prayer at the Western Wall. The Union for Reform Judaism, Hadassah and the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. “It's a really important development,” Mark Pelavin, a senior advisor to the Union for Reform Judaism's president, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, told JTA. “It's the first time the prime minister has recognized that the status quo is problematic. It's the …More

When 30 ladies gathered in a room in Temple Emanu-El in New York City on February 24, 1912 for the first meeting of a new woman’s group and affirmed “that the time is ripe for a large organization of women Zionists,” woman still had not won the right to vote in New York State. Unfazed by the relatively few leadership opportunities for women in Jewish organizations and public spheres at the time, the women decided to form a woman-led Zionist organization of their own. At the first meeting, nearly …More

Five years before the Balfour Declaration gave Jews their first realistic hope for a modern state in the Land of Israel, Henrietta Szold founded the women’s Zionist organization Hadassah and sent two nurses here to fight disease and provide milk to infants and their mothers. A century later, Hadassah runs one of Israel’s premier hospitals -- a medical center with two campuses in Jerusalem and a budget of $500 million. The organization also has created and supported Israeli educational, youth and …More

Israeli President Shimon Peres was on hand this week to dedicate Hadassah Hospital’s newest tower in Jerusalem. The state-of-the-art, 19-floor building can hold more than 500 patients, has 20 operating rooms, 60 ICUs, and a technologically advanced heart institute. The floor area measures nearly 300,000 square feet. The site was dedicated to coincide with Hadassah's 100th anniversary and was made possible by a $75 million donation from the Davidson family. Its official name is the Sarah Wetsman Davidson …More

Every Jewish community wants more Raymonde Fiol among its active retirees. The question is whether those communities are prepared to meet the needs she and hundreds of thousands of "younger seniors" and older ones will have in the near future. Now 76, Fiol has resided in Las Vegas for the past 11 years. She belongs there to a synagogue, Hadassah and Na’amat USA, a women's Zionist organization. Her volunteer time largely is spent as president of the Holocaust Survivors Group of Southern Nevada. In spare …More