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Descriptive Summary

Call No.: 72-130
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: Henrietta Szold, 1860-1945
Title: Papers, 1889-1960
Quantity: 1+1/2 file boxes
Abstract: Correspondence, diaries, articles, etc., of Henrietta Szold, Zionist leader.

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BIOGRAPHY

Henrietta Szold, Zionist leader, was born in Baltimore of Hungarian-Jewish parentage. She taught school at the Misses Adams School in Baltimore, and was the founder of a night school for Russian immigrants in Baltimore in 1889. From 1892-1915 HS was the secretary of the Jewish Publication Society of America. A trip to Palestine in 1909 was the turning point in her life. She became an enthusiastic Zionist, became the Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists and founder and first President of Hadassah, the organization dedicated to supporting health work in Palestine. During 1920-1933 HS divided her time between the United States and Palestine. In 1933 she settled in Palestine and directed the Youth Aliyah, the youth immigration movement from Germany to Palestine.

For full biographical accounts see Notable American Women, v.3, and folder #2.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection consists of selections of HS' correspondence, diaries, articles and speeches transcribed or copied from the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem for Irving Fineman, and used in his biography Woman of Valor: The Life of Henrietta Szold, (1961). The collection relates largely to HS' Zionist activities: Hadassah, the Zionist Organization of America and Youth Aliyah in Palestine.

CONTAINER LIST

• Box 1: 1-20
• Box 2: 21

INVENTORY

• 1. Photographs of HS

• 2. Szold family data, and articles about HS

• 3. Biography of HS: 2 chapters by Adele Szold Seltzer, ts., ca. 1939

• 4-18: Correspondence, Journal and reports by HS, arranged chronologically
  • 4. 1889, 1897, 1900 re foundation of night school for Russian immigrants; HS' views on orthodoxy, ts., cc.
  • 5. 1909, correspondence in re trip to Europe and Palestine, ms. photostat, ts., cc.
  • 6. 1909, Journal, ms. photostat.
  • 7. 1910, Journal, includes Irving Fineman's ms. notes and ts. copies.
  • 8. 1920, Journal, ms. photostat.
  • 9. 1922, correspondence re Hadassah's relationship with other American Zionist organizations, ts., cc.
  • 10. 1925-1930, correspondence
  • 11. 1931-1936, correspondence, ts., copies. Memo re immigration of German Jewish Youth to Palestine, 1933.
  • 12. 1934-1936, correspondence re Youth Aliyah, ts., cc. and ms.
  • 13. 1936, notes on meeting of Hadassah, U.S.A. with excerpts of speech by HS at Boston meeting, ms. and ts.
  • 14. 1937-1939, correspondence with Gisela Warburg et. al; report on Arab-Jewish relations, and on prostitution in Palestine.
  • 15. 1940-1941, correspondence re Youth Aliyah, ts. copies.
  • 16. 1942-1944, correspondence and diary notes. Report of Social Service Bureau for Immigrants.
  • 17. 1944-1945, correspondence re HS' last illness and death.
  • 18. 1959-1950, correspondence re HS.

• 19-20: Speeches and articles by HS chronologically arranged
  • 19. 1910, 1917, 1932-1934 and n.d., ts. copies. Also HS' Recent Jewish Progress in Palestine (1915)
  • 20. 1936-1943, ts. copies

• 21. Journal, Nov. 17, 1908-July 21,1909. Ts. copy.
  CLOSED TO RESEARCH UNTIL JAN.1, 1985.

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