Trenton Haddasah
To be honest with you, my prior knowledge of the organization was well limited to Allan Sherman's shout out to the "Ladies of Haddasah" during the multiple repetitions of the chorus of "My Zelda" from his album, "My Son the Folk Singer" album. He also immortalized them in another song, "Westchester Hadassah", sung to the melody of Winchester Cathedral. Music is a great way to warm up an audience, so that's where my talk started. Sherman's song pokes fun at the fundraising prowess of Hadassah, but as I started my research, I found out that Hadassah was, in fact, something a little different from when it started 100 years ago. Henrietta Szold, the founder, studied at the Jewish Theological Society, at the time under the direction of Solomon Schecter. She studied there if she agreed not to press for ordination. Szold went to pre-Israel Palestine in 1908, and it changed her life forever. She founded Hadassah in 1912, and the Women...