For Hadassah’s Elizabeth chapter, a sad ending and a new beginning

by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

Although last month’s Hadassah luncheon was to be the last ever for the organization’s Elizabeth chapter, the mood of the event was celebratory rather than mournful.

One by one, guests at the Gala Legacy Chai Luncheon, held at the YM-YWHA of Union County in Union May 31, recalled the highlights of their involvement in the 80-year-old chapter. Apart from some very brief tears, the event was treated as a fresh beginning rather than an ending.

With its membership dwindling, the chapter’s 70 or so remaining members have been invited to join the Hillside-Union chapter of Hadassah.

“We have already put the Elizabeth people on our mailing list and they will be receiving our next newsletter,” said Lila Barsky, vice president of the Northern New Jersey Region and a leading member of the Hillside-Union chapter, which has about 300 members.

Bryan Fox, executive vice president of the Y, said that the combined group will be meeting there, taking over the time and place assigned for all these years to the Elizabeth chapter.

But while age and migration has taken its toll on the Elizabeth chapter, the members’ generosity and commitment to the organization remained unflagging.

Opening the program, life member Gloria Segel said, “This is the last time that an event will be organized in the name of the Elizabeth chapter.” There was a deep hush, but later the mood lifted: The president of the chapter for the past 15 years, Anitta Fox, who had arranged the event, announced that the chapter would be giving $18,000 toward a new center in Jerusalem for Hadassah’s youth wing, Young Judaea.

There was a roar of applause from the 100 or so members, associates, and guests in attendance. That upbeat spirit found its voice in a song written by Fox for the occasion and sung, to the tune of “I Feel Pretty,” by her friend and lifetime Hadassah member Cantor Lorna Wallach.

“Wherever our Elizabeth members go,” Segel said, “they will be treated with respect because of the abilities that they will bring to benefit the Hadassah organization.”

Segel recounted that the Elizabeth chapter was formed in 1905. It was 14 years after Henrietta Szold started the organization in New York as the first women’s Zionist group, and around the time that women won the right to vote.

Since then, as former national and Northern NJ regional president Deborah Kaplan said, the chapter’s members have played a major role in numerous projects locally and in Israel, fostering women’s rights, supporting education, and raising funds for Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and many other causes.

The rich record of those years is contained in a five-inch-thick scrapbook of pictures, reports, and clippings tracking the chapter’s activities since 1948. It will be stored in the archives of Hadassah’s national office in Manhattan, said Fox.

At the luncheon, Kaplan provided an overview of the national scene. She said that while some Hadassah branches, like the Elizabeth one, have been shrinking, the organization has seen a dramatic growth. That has come from both ends of the age spectrum: Young members are coming in through the Hadassah Leadership Academy, a two-year leadership development program. In areas attracting retirees, like southern New Jersey, Florida, and Arizona, numbers are rising. Last year Hadassah ranked 183 on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of 400 top philanthropies.

Toby Brooks of Hillside was wearing a five-flowered gold brooch, each bloom symbolizing a member from a different generation, starting with her grandmother and including her two granddaughters. The long-lasting, cross-generational involvement inspired by the organization was evident all around. Fox’s daughter was there, filming the proceedings; Kaplan mentioned that her own daughter — after complaining as a child about how her mother was often away from home — has joined and made her own daughter a member.

The men behind these women were at the luncheon, too, most notably Fox’s husband Sheldon, who recited Hamotzi. He and his wife cosponsored the luncheon, provided by Majestic Kosher Caterers, in celebration of their 58th wedding anniversary. Sol Kramer, an associate and stalwart supporter, was there too with his wife Clara, a Holocaust educator and Hadassah life member.

Tom Beck, executive director of Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey, came in recognition of the close connection between the Hadassah members and the agency. “I am so glad he managed to come,” Fox said. JFS “has been very, very helpful to so many of our members as they have gotten older and more handicapped.” Beck sat with Ruth Bilenker, a JFS volunteer and life member of the chapter.

Debra Mazon of Emerson, who has just completed a term as Northern NJ Region president, attributes her deep involvement with the organization to her taking part in a young leadership mission to Israel a few years ago. For young women, as much as for those who joined a long time ago, the organization offers the rewards of intelligent companionship centered around worthwhile social action, she said.

Last month’s program had a final chapter: a stroll down Memory Lane. Encouraged by Hadassah member Jeanne Major, members came up to the microphone to relate favorite memories and to pay tribute to others. Major led the way by saying, “You can see the friendships in this room. Hadassah isn’t just about philanthropy; it’s an extension of family throughout the world.”

Gladys Halfgott of Union brought with her a striking pastel portrait of Golda Meir done for her as a gift by fellow member Miriam Rotmensz, who quietly acknowledged the applause from her wheelchair. Halfgott described the artist as “a real mensch” with extraordinary talent and generosity.

Absent but much in people’s thoughts was Irene Jaicer, possibly the only surviving member of the founding board of the organization.

Fox said she hopes to organize a trip to the city soon to visit the Hadassah archives and other sites of special interest. She made clear she isn’t planning to sit idly any more than her chapter’s members are.