Women -- Societies and clubs

The Annual and Mid-Winter National Conventions Records document the proceedings and outcomes of the conventions and conferences attended by Hadassah’s National Board as well as by convention delegates from the various regions of Hadassah. The conventions in particular are where local and regional leaders meet with each other and the National Board and learn about Hadassah’s various projects and committees. This record group also includes annual reports from 1926-2001.

This record group contains three-dimensional objects and printed materials that relate to the history of Hadassah. A bulk of this record group consists of promotional and commemorative objects and awards created by Hadassah for its Annual and Midwinter National Conventions, and for Young Judaea events. Examples of such items include t-shirts, hats, bags, buttons, stationery and keychains. Artifacts created by local Hadassah chapters and regions, as well as awards received by local and national Hadassah leaders from other organizations, are also included. Of a particular interest is the bronze death mask of Henrietta Szold.

This record group is made up of mostly audio and moving images materials, including ¼-inch open audio reels, 16mm film, filmstrips, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, LPs, 3.5 inch floppy disks, and other media, dating from the 1920s up to 2010. The films and audio recordings document Hadassah's efforts to publicize themselves to their members and those outside of Hadassah, by raising awareness of their history, fundraising efforts, and projects in United States and Israel, especially the Hadassah Medical Organization and Youth Aliyah projects and programs. Hadassah also used recordings to document important proceedings, including departmental and board meetings, Midwinter Conferences, and National Conventions.

The collection consists of material relating to Betty Kaplan's involvement in two volunteer philanthropic groups affiliated with the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital (Brooklyn, NY): the Lillian R. Spector League, and the Mildred Forman Foundation for Cardiac Children. Included are minutes of meetings of the LRSL, anniversary journals and correspondence of the LRSL, and a photograph album of a dinner given by the LRSL honoring Betty Kaplan. Also included is an anniversary album of the MFFCC and newspaper clippings relating to Betty Kaplan's work with MFFCC.

This record group contains materials related to the local units of Hadassah—groups, chapters, regions, and co-ops—as well as Junior Hadassah, a youth organization that functioned as a group within the Hadassah Chapter structure. The record group documents over one hundred years of Hadassah’s growth, and illuminates a century of American Jewish communal life, particularly that of Jewish women, across the United States. The record group reflects the formation, administration and activities of the individual groups, chapters, co-ops and regions, and contains information on local events and programs organized around fundraising, Zionism, Jewish heritage, religion and holidays celebration, the study of Hebrew and Yiddish, women's issues, fashion, health, technology and many other topics.

This record group includes documents created and maintained by the Office of the President, the Office of the Executive Director and the Chair of the Division Coordinators/Directors Committee. Prominent is the Henrietta Szold series, containing correspondence by and to Szold as well as printed materials written by and about her. The files in this record group were created by a national president or executive director, or for their use, or maintained in their office during their years in office. Included are correspondence, minutes, memos, publications, reports and subject files on topics with which these individuals were involved.

The Hadassah Archives documents the activities of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Founded in 1912, the organization engaged hundreds of thousands of American Jewish women in the Zionist project. Materials include extensive records of its social welfare projects in Palestine and later Israel, such as Youth Aliyah and the Hadassah Medical Organization. Administrative records document the organization's governance, operations, and functions. The collection also includes the papers of Hadassah founder, Henrietta Szold, as well as the organization's national presidents, executive directors, and other important individuals. Additional materials also document Hadassah's organizational activity in the United States such as annual and midwinter conventions and the dozens of active local chapters from all over the United States. Hadassah maintained an active publishing schedule, and the records include hundreds of published newsletters, flyers, and magazines. Other materials include thousands of photographs, extensive audiovisual material, and hundreds of artifacts.

The Lilli Liegner Collection centers on the work of this social worker and her role within the Jüdischer Frauenbund in Breslau. A smaller amount of material relates to the history and individual members of the Liegner and Rawicz families. Included in this collection are reports, correspondence, organizational papers and newspaper clippings on the Jüdischer Frauenbund of Breslau. In addition, the collection contains personal and official papers of family members along with a family tree and personal correspondence.

The collection documents the National Jewish Welfare Board's (JWB) evolution from an organization founded in 1917 to provide support for soldiers in times of war to an agency involved in all aspects of Jewish life both in the United States and abroad. In 1990 JWB recreated itself as the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America.

Correspondence of Schoenewald with institutions and individuals, including Leo Baeck, Klara Caro, Dora Edinger, Alfred Hirschberg, Selma Jolowicz, Hannah Karminski, Ernst Lowenthal, and Lilli Marx; Manuscripts, clippings, and offprints of articles, lectures, and speeches, by Schoenewald and others, on feminism, social work, the Juedischer Frauenbund, post-World War II Germany, U.S. immigration laws, and denazification; Material on Bertha Pappenheim; Records of the Juedischer Frauenbund; Records of the International Council of Jewish Women; Clippings.

The materials in this record group document the entirety of Hadassah’s history and work in Israel and the United States in photographs—prints, slides, glass lantern plates, and digital images.

This collection contains incomplete annual convention programs (1922-1986), organizational minutes (1912-1973), newsletters (1967-1981), constitution and by-laws, plaques, awards and citations. Also contains newspaper articles about the Federation and correspondence with affiliated organizations and hospitals.

This collection contains the minutes (1920-22, 1929-1936, 1943-1944) of the Society, financial records (1927-1940, 1943-1958), membership records (1921-1926, 1937-1955) and records of interest-free loans made (1921-1927, 1939-1942) and repayments, as well as information on various social activities conducted by the Society from 1928 to 1957. Correspondences are also included.