Planning for this year’s FVJN booth at Swedish Days (June 19 – 24) has begun!
This is one of our biggest fundraisers, and you can help out and have a lot of fun at the same time! Contact Mike at: Mikey@fvjn.org to volunteer at our booth!
Our FVJN Swedish Days committee members are:
Mike Yackley, chairperson
Dan Simon
Kimberly Fivelson
Dave Larson
Henrietta Szold: The Founder of Hadassah
Born in 1860, Henrietta entered the world on the eve of the Civil War. Eighty-five years later, in February of 1945, in the waning days of World War II, she died.
Henrietta Szold was born a fighter. She dedicated her life to fighting ignorance, injustice, anti-Semitism, and disease. She never stopped fighting the fears and hatreds that divide people and nations. She fought with all her strength to build a better world.
Well educated, Henrietta’s confidence, ability, and drive landed her a position as the first female editor of the Jewish Publication Society—then the premiere publisher of Jewish liturgical and secular texts.
Henrietta enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the training ground for the conservative rabbinate. Although women rabbis are commonplace today, in the early 1900s such a thing was unheard of. While the Seminary allowed her to take classes, it was on the condition that she promised not to pursue the rabbinate.
While living in Baltimore, she saw the suffering of Jewish immigrants who came to this country from Russia and Eastern Europe. Henrietta decided to help by organizing English language and American citizenship night classes. Her model of nighttime ESL schools continues to this day.
Fast-forward to 1909. Henrietta and her mother took a trip to pre-state Israel, where they witnessed the starvation and disease that afflicted the people of the region.
It was a seminal moment in Henrietta’s life. Upon her return to the U.S., she soon founded Hadassah, a volunteer women’s organization with the biblical mission of Aruhat Bat Ami: the Healing of the Daughter of my People.
Her new organization’s first mission was to send two nurses to Palestine to provide pasteurized milk to infants and new mothers, and to eradicate trachoma, an easily cured eye disease, that was robbing thousands of sight.
By 1918, Hadassah had sent an entire medical unit, composed of 45 doctors, nurses, dentists and sanitary workers, to bring American-style medical care to serve all, regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity.
From these early efforts developed the beginning of the Israeli healthcare system, which today includes some of the world’s leading research and treatment hospitals, and schools of medicine and nursing.
Today at 100 years old, with 300,000 members, Hadassah is the largest Jewish organization in America, and one of the largest women’s volunteer organizations in the world.
(adapted from www.hadassah.org)
Camp Gan Israel of Naperville 2012 Five-week camp from June 25-July 27. Give your child a rich and wholesome summer experience at the only Jewish day camp in the western suburbs.
Monday-Friday.
Gan Israel Program:
Ages 5-12 from 9:15 -3:30 pm
Mini Gan Israel:
Ages 3 & 4 From 9:15-1:00 pm
Location: Chabad Jewish Center-Naperville.
For more information visit www.CGINaperville.com or call the camp office at 630-344-9770
A family Day of Music, Fun, Learning and Memories!
June 10, 2012, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
St. Paul Woods, Oakton St., Morton Grove, IL
www.jewishfestival.org
The Greater Chicago Festival is one of the largest and longest running Jewish festivals in the US, and the largest Jewish event in the Chicago area.
Featured performers this year include: Steven Page, formerly of The Barenaked Ladies; Blue Fringe; Rabbi Joe Black; Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, Lucky Break Blue Grass Band, and many more!
At 7 pm on Friday, May 18, Uncounted will be shown free of charge at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva (UUSG), 110 S. 2nd St., Geneva. The film shares well-documented stories about the spine-chilling disregard for the right to vote in America. Beyond increasing the public’s awareness, the film inspires greater citizen involvement in fixing a broken electoral system. This is an important film to see as we approach the decisive election of 2012.
At 7 pm on Friday, June 15, Pricele$$ will be shown free of charge to the community at the UUSG. Pricele$$ shines a light on the corridors in our nation’s capitol to reveal how campaign money from deep-pocket special interests can influence both our electoral process and national policies like food and energy. In addition to time spent with seasoned lawmakers, lobbyists, and a few dauntless citizen watchdogs, the filmmakers visit farmers and an unusual group of Iraq War veterans with strong opinions about policies that have changed their lives.
