Rhoda Smolow

No leader knows exactly what to expect when taking the helm, as I did on January 1, 2020, of a large, vibrant organization like Hadassah. In the months that followed, our message and mission of healing became more relevant than ever. At Hadassah, we are powerful, together. The distance and isolation imposed on us by the COVID-19 pandemic strengthened our connection. Our breakthroughs in Israel brought us closer together in the United States. Hadassah’s hospitals played a leading role in the high-speed race against COVID-19: to stop the spread and to create a vaccine, new safety protocols and new treatments.

RHODA SMOLOW

NATIONAL PRESIDENT

“On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I want to thank you. You are simply a light unto all of us. We are standing on the verge of an unprecedented global health crisis,” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said to Hadassah staff. “Your work is what allows us to preserve the resilience of our state, the State of Israel.”

Our efforts in the global fight against COVID-19 helped far beyond Israel’s borders. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, helped raise awareness through a social media video, about an open-source ventilator created — with its support — by Prof. Yoav Mintz and his team at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. Groundbreaking new Hadassah research brought hope to people around the world with clinical breakthroughs in other areas, too, including a phase 2 trial at Hadassah Ein Kerem published in Oxford University’s peer-reviewed journal Brain on an innovative NG-01 stem cell treatment for multiple sclerosis patients, who showed marked improvement. At the same time, our Youth Aliyah villages serving at-risk children persevered during the pandemic. Hadassah’s Meir Shfeyah Youth Village prepared and sent meals to at-risk families, with many youth continuing their studies on Zoom. In 2020, 80 students graduated from Meir Shfeyah, despite the challenges. Through this unprecedented crisis, our hospitals have stood as a model for interfaith cooperation, as shown in The Washington Post and on the front page of The New York Times. Yet it’s a song that captures the early part of 2020 best — the haunting rendition of the Hebrew healing prayer “El Na Refa Na La,” performed at Hadassah Ein Kerem by Israeli musicians Yair Levi and Shai Sol, featuring Hadassah’s frontline doctors and nurses speaking in nearly a dozen languages. Hadassah is known for speaking out. In October, I sent an urgent appeal to the leadership of the World Zionist Organization just days before I was to give the welcoming address at the 2020 World Zionist Congress. We called for a new version of the proposed Agreement of Principles, one that addressed a harmful lack of diversity and pluralism. Others joined our push, resulting in a far more inclusive compromise agreement that better represents world Jewry in Israel and the diaspora. In a year when much of the world came to a standstill during a global crisis, Hadassah proved itself resilient, relevant and responsive. This would not have been possible without our amazing volunteers, donors and staff. I’m so grateful to all. With Pride, Passion and Purpose,