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The Story of Marian Greenberg:1 The Forgotten Hadassah Activist1 The Story of Marian Greenberg:1 The Forgotten Hadassah Activist2 Shira Koren, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel Abstract Marian Greenberg devoted the majority of her life, nearly sixty years, to volunteer work at Hadassah, where she worked closely with Henrietta Szold. She was the first chairperson of Youth Aliyah, the organization that saved thousands of Jewish adolescents from the Holocaust, and undertook other management roles, committing herself fully to Hadassah and to the State of Israel. Yet, while Szold received immense credit for her management of Hadassah and Youth Aliyah, Greenberg and other volunteers have been all but forgotten from history. Interestingly, in her books, correspondences and other writings, Greenberg herself ignores her own role in the projects she was involved in, and instead gives all the credit to Szold. This article tries to do justice to Greenberg's legacy by exploring her life's projects and by suggesting why she was overlooked. This explanation may also be applicable for the other female Hadassah volunteers who worked with Szold but were forgotten from history Hadassah and Youth Aliyah – Background Information Most Jews in Israel and in the United States of America have heard of Henrietta Szold, the founder and chair of Hadassah, the American Women's Zionist organization. But if Israelis or American Jews were asked who Marian Greenberg was, very few would recognize her name or be familiar with her work. In 1912 Henrietta Szold, the organization's first president, and the Daughters of Zion, a women's study group, established Hadassah in New York City. The goal was to promote the Zionist ideology through education, public health initiatives, and the training of nurses in Palestine. Hadassah chapters soon opened in Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston. At the founding meeting that coincided with the Jewish holiday of Purim, the group chose the name Hadassah, the Hebrew name of the biblical hero Esther. Hadassah established the first medical school in pre-state Israel, the country's first post-natal care clinics, the first hospital in Tel Aviv and the two Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem. In addition, Hadassah founded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Hadassah Medical School, the Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing, and the Hadassah College in Jerusalem. In 1934, Hadassah adopted the Youth Aliyah program, which became associated with its founder Henrietta Szold. This program rescued tens of thousands of children from the Holocaust and then became involved in Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Spring 2010 Volume 7 Number 1 ISSN 1209-9392 © 2010 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors. 1 The Story of Marian Greenberg:1 The Forgotten Hadassah Activist1 the rescue of Jewish youth around the world. The children were integrated into Israeli society. Hadassah is a major supporter and partner of the Jewish National Fund, which plants trees and implements various land reclamation programs in Israel. Hadassah advocates for the American Jewish community, addressing First Amendment issues, separation of church and state, and support for Israel. In the United States, Hadassah promotes health education, social activism and advocacy, volunteerism, Jewish education and research, and lobbies for Israel. Youth Aliyah (Aliyat Ha-Noar - Youth Immigration) is a Jewish organization that rescued 22,000 Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich and resettled them in Palestine. These children lived, worked, and studied in kibbutzim and youth villages. Youth Aliyah was founded in 1933 by Recha Freier, a rabbi's wife from Berlin, and was funded by the World Zionist Organization. Freier supervised the organization's activities in Germany, and Henrietta Szold in Jerusalem. Szold was originally skeptical of Freier's proposal that Jewish teenagers be sent to training programs in Palestine right after completing elementary school. She believed that Germany could offer better education for them. However, Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 convinced her otherwise. On March 31, 1936, German elementary schools denied access to Jewish children. After a brief period of training in Germany, Youth Aliyah members were placed in kibbutzim for two years to learn farming and Hebrew. Ein Harod was the first kibbutz to host such a group. Just before the outbreak of World War II, when immigration certificates to Palestine became difficult to obtain, Youth Aliyah activists in London devised an interim solution whereby groups of young people would receive training in countries outside the Third Reich until they could immigrate to Palestine. Great Britain accepted 10,000 children, some from Youth Aliyah groups. Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Spring 2010 Volume 7 Number 1 ISSN 1209-9392 © 2010 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors. 2 The Story of Marian Greenberg:1 The Forgotten Hadassah Activist1 After World War II, a Youth Aliyah office was opened in Paris. Emissaries were sent to camps in Europe to locate children survivors. Children's homes in Eastern Europe were moved to Western Europe, fearing that evacuation from Communist countries might be difficult later on. Soon after, Youth Aliyah became part of the Jewish Agency. Over the years, the organization has brought young people to Israel from North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Soviet Union and Ethiopia.3 Marian Greenberg - Early Years The massive projects undertaken by Hadassah and Youth Aliyah required great effort, coordination, and management, which had to be carried out by many highly, dedicated people. Henrietta Szold could not have executed these projects single- handedly. Marian Greenberg was one of these extraordinary persons who volunteered to bring these efforts to fruition. Marian Greenberg (1897-1987) was a member of Hadassah for sixty years, serving fifty (1927-1977) as a member of the Hadassah National Board. She worked closely with Henrietta Szold until Szold's death in 1945. She was the first chairperson of Youth Aliyah (1936-1941). Additionally, Greenberg served as national vice president of Hadassah, a delegate to five World Zionist Congresses, and twice as chairperson of national conventions of Hadassah. She was the national chairperson of the Hadassah- Hebrew University Medical Building Fund and edited the Hadassah newsletter. After she retired in 1976, she continued to volunteer within the community. The story of her life reveals less well-known aspects of the tremendous difficulties, conflicts, and efforts involved in saving young people from the Holocaust and bringing them to Palestine. It also tells about the incredible amounts of money raised for this purpose at the time of the Great Depression in the USA. It is a story of not only rare devotion and struggles, but also of reward and satisfaction. This is a story that is worth recounting, because Marian Greenberg deserves to be remembered. While Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal Spring 2010 Volume 7 Number 1 ISSN 1209-9392 © 2010 Women in Judaism, Inc. All material in the journal is subject to copyright; copyright is held by the journal except where otherwise indicated. There is to be no reproduction or distribution of contents by any means without prior permission. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors. 3 The Story of Marian Greenberg:1 The Forgotten Hadassah Activist1 unfolding Greenberg's life story one wonders why was she practically forgotten, despite her lifelong commitment to Hadassah and Youth Aliyah, while her colleague Henrietta Szold is so well remembered.4 Marian was the only child of Frederic Gerber, a carpenter and interior decorator of Prussian descent, and Regina Levy Gerber, who came to the USA from Germany. Frederic had five sisters, four of whom never married, so Marian had doting aunts. Aunt Clara, Regina’s older sister, taught Marian German, a language she made use of later in life working for Hadassah in Germany. Marian Gerber attended public schools in Philadelphia, where she was born and grew up. She was sent to a teachers' college in Philadelphia by her parents but refused to continue, claiming that she was being treated like a child. Instead, she studied history at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. When she learned that Jewish girls were excluded from the sororities, she and six other Jewish girls founded a Jewish sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, which became a national organization. This event might have affected her Jewish consciousness and might have been the precursor to her social activism. This is also the first record regarding her effective organizational skills. Marian Gerber graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University with honors in history. After graduation, she taught history in a Philadelphia public high school for several years, during which no record of any special public endeavor on her part exists. In 1922, at the age of 25, she married David Greenberg, a graduate of Columbia University. David and his younger brother James ran several children's clothing stores in the greater New York area – a business that was started by their parents. During the Depression, business was slow, so David left his brother in charge of the business, and traveled with his family to Germany and Austria for about a year (1930-1931). At that time, Americans could live very cheaply in Europe.

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