Prologue

Hadassah ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Mira Katzburg-Yungman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Rare Combination ◽  
American Jewry ◽  
American Jewish ◽  
Zionist Organization

This introductory chapter is a brief overview of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. It briefly describes the organization's founding, as well as its leader, Henrietta Szold (1860–1945) — a woman who personified a rare combination of spirit, vision, idealism, and an extraordinary organizational and practical ability. Szold, who was both the spiritual and the organizational progenitor of Hadassah, envisioned it as a way to harness the unique capabilities of American Jewish women to the Zionist enterprise in Palestine. Here, the chapter discusses Hadassah's parallel history with that of American Jewry in general, and reviews the extent of scholarship regarding the organization. It places the study within the context of the circumstances prevailing both in the United States and in the Yishuv and Israel.

Hadassah

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Katxzburg-Yungman
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
American Jewry ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Zionist Organization

In February 1912, thirty-eight American Jewish women founded Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. This has become the largest Zionist organization in the diaspora and the largest and most active Jewish women's organization ever. Its history is an inseparable part of the history of American Jewry and of the State of Israel. Hadassah is also part of the history of Jewish women in the United States and in the modern world more broadly. Its achievements are not only those of Zionism but, crucially, of women, and this book pays particular attention to the life stories of the women who played a role in them. The book analyses many aspects of the history of Hadassah. The introductory section describes the contexts and challenges of Hadassah's history from its founding to the birth of the State of Israel. Subsequent sections explore the organization's ideology and its activity on the American scene after Israeli statehood; its political and ideological role in the World Zionist Organization; and its involvement in the new State of Israel in medicine and health care, and in its work with children and young people. The final part deals with topics such as gender issues, comparisons of Hadassah with other Zionist organizations, and the importance of people of the Yishuv and later of Israelis in Hadassah's activities. It concludes with an epilogue that considers developments up to 2005, assessing whether the conclusions reached with regard to Hadassah as an organization remain valid.

Comparative and Feminist Perspectives

Hadassah ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Mira Katzburg-Yungman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Zionist Movement ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Pioneer Women ◽  
Humanitarian Work ◽  
Zionist Organization

This chapter compares Hadassah to other American Zionist organizations. In particular, the chapter compares it to the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Pioneer Women, and the Mizrachi Women's Organization of America, and also with WIZO, the Women's International Zionist Organization. Through these comparisons, the chapter aims to better understand Hadassah's sources of strength. In addition to these, Hadassah drew strength from its apolitical character. The avoidance in principle of any affiliation with any political party, either in the United States or in Israel, was based on the central objective of Hadassah to be a popular, mass-based Zionist movement of Jewish women. This motive was coupled with the accepted view at the time of its establishment that political involvement was not appropriate for women. Indeed, to this day the largest women's organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, are mainly involved in humanitarian work, and declare themselves non-partisan.

Judaism and Jewishness in Histories of American Jewry

2021 ◽  
pp. 253-260
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Jews ◽  
American Jewish History ◽  
American Jewry ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
American Jewish

This chapter reviews five books on American Jewish history, written by Joyce Antler, Jessica Cooperman, Kirsten Fermaglich, Rachel Kranson, and Jack Wertheimer. Reading these books together is challenging because they present substantially different interpretations of American Jews. If no definitive single interpretation of 20th-century American Jewish history emerges from these five books, what can be learned about American Jews by reading them together? Two key points emerge. Judaism proves a highly contested arena of American Jewish life. Yet despite the importance of religion, this fractious domain involves only a small portion of American Jews. Cooperman, Kranson, and Wertheimer all explore limits that confound efforts to promote Judaism in the United States among ordinary Jews. By contrast, “Jewishness” opens a valuable window into the complexity of life among Jews in the United States. Fermaglich focuses on how New York Jews coped with rising discrimination that impeded their ambitions for social and economic mobility. In her exploration of Jewish women's politics, Antler illuminates varied components of Jewish identity only occasionally influenced by religious dimensions.

Hadassah, 1912–1933: Finding a Role

Hadassah ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 11-33
Author(s):  
Mira Katzburg-Yungman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Health Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Main Field ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Zionist Organization

This chapter details the founding of Hadassah within the context of its American setting as well as the growing need for organizations dedicated to providing health services. It shows how Szold and six other women published a flyer calling upon the Jewish women of America to found a large Zionist organization, with the twin aims of disseminating Zionism in the United States and setting up health and welfare services for women and children in Palestine. In response to this appeal, thirty-eight women gathered at Temple Emanuel in New York in 1912. The new organization adopted the name Hadassah Chapter of the Daughters of Zion, after the study group that formed its core; and the women agreed, following Szold, that it should be devoted to meeting the pressing need for better health services in Palestine. The main field of activity that Hadassah chose to enter was one already considered suitable for women in the United States, professionals and volunteers alike.

scholarly journals JEWISH LAW, STATE, AND SOCIAL REALITY: PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENTS FOR THE PREVENTION OF DIVORCE REFUSAL IN ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Amihai Radzyner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western World ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
State Law ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
The Common ◽  
Official Status

AbstractRabbinical courts in Israel serve as official courts of the state, and state law provides that a Jewish couple can obtain a divorce only in these courts, and only strictly according to Jewish law. By contrast, in the Western world, especially the United States, which has the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel, the Jewish halakha is not a matter of state law, and rabbinical courts have no official status. This article examines critically the common argument that for a Jew committed to the halakha, and in particular for a Jewish woman who wants to divorce her husband, a state-sponsored halakhic system is preferable to a voluntary one. This argument is considered in light of the main tool that has been proven to help American Jewish women who wish to obtain a halakhic divorce from husbands refusing to grant it: the prenuptial agreement. Many Jewish couples in the United States sign such an agreement, but only a few couples in Israel do so, primarily because of the opposition of the rabbinical courts in Israel to these agreements. The article examines the causes of this resistance, and offers reasons for the distinction that exists between the United States and Israel. It turns out that social and legal reality affect halakhic considerations, to the point where rabbis claim that what the halakha allows in the United States it prohibits in Israel. The last part of the article uses examples from the past to examine the possibility that social change in Israel will affect the rulings of rabbinical courts on this issue.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Mayhew
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory State ◽  
World Power ◽  
Federal Debt ◽  
American Society

This introductory chapter talks about Congress's imprint on American society and life as driven by the aches, anxieties and headlines of the day. But instead of dwelling on aspirations, processes, and optics, it looks at the effects or results of congressional activities. Going as far back as 1789, the chapter examines Congress's distinctive imprint on American society from those of the presidency, cradling the analysis in the experience of peer countries. These congressionl imprints include the launching of the country in the 1790s, the coming of the regulatory state, the rise of the United States to world power, the onsetof economic neoliberalism, and the management of federal debt and deficits.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Alcoholics Anonymous ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spiritual Path ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book analyzes the role of revelatory claims in three groups that emerged in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the network of students associated with A Course in Miracles. These three case studies are not only richly documented but also present intriguing comparative possibilities. Each had a key figure whose unusual experiences and/or abilities led to the emergence of a new spiritual path and to the production of scripture-like texts that were not attributed directly to them. However, the three groups do not make the same claims for their scripture-like texts, and their respective collaborations generated very different social formations.

Introduction

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Maurer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Government ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

This introductory chapter discusses the shift from politicized confrontations like the imbroglio of 1900 to legalized disputes like the more orderly affair of 2007. It advances four basic findings. First, American government intervention on behalf of U.S. foreign investors was astoundingly successful at extracting compensation through the 1980s. Second, American domestic interests trumped strategic concerns again and again, for small economic gains relative to the U.S. economy and the potential strategic losses. Third, the United States proved unable to impose institutional reform in Latin America and West Africa even while American agents were in place. Finally, the technology that the U.S. government used to protect American property rights overseas changed radically over time.

Know Thyself: What Is “Wilsonianism”?

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Wilsonianism, which comprises a set of ideas called American liberal internationalism. More than a century after Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States, his country is still not certain how to understand the important legacy for the country's foreign policy of the tradition that bears his name. Wilsonianism remains a living ideology whose interpretation continues either to motivate, or to serve as a cover for, a broad range of American foreign policy decisions. However, if there is no consensus on what the tradition stands for, or, worse, if there is a consensus but its claims to be part of the tradition are not borne out by the history of Wilsonianism from Wilson's day until the late 1980s, then clearly a debate is in order to provide clarity and purpose to American thinking about world affairs today.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document