Henrietta Szold (1860–1945)

Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She was raised by her rabbi father to be deeply committed to the Jewish people and Jewish scholarship. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries offered Jewish women limited opportunities, so Henrietta had to use her intelligence, organizational skills, and vision to create her own path in the world. Her first career was as a teacher of languages, mathematics and Jewish studies. She began writing for Jewish journals and in 1888, was invited to be one of nine members, the only woman, on the publications committee of the new Jewish Publication Society. Miss Szold then became an important leader in the growing Jewish Zionist movement, helping to found Hadassah and working for better medical care, education, and living conditions in Israel. She opened the country's first school of social work, which later became the School of Social Work of the Hebrew University. In 1933, she emigrated to Israel to direct Youth Aliyah, a worldwide movement to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. Late in life she founded Lemaan ha-Yeled, an institution dedicated to child welfare and research; after her death it was renamed Mosad Szold (in English, The Szold Foundation).