Herzl once asked, “When will we be like all other nations?”
“When a Jewish policeman arrests a Jewish prostitute.”
Herzl aspired and worked for the Jewish State to become like other national states. If the U.S. has Mother’s Day, then the Jewish State should have Mother’s Day too.
Mother’s Day in the Past and Today’s Family Day
Mother’s Day, now celebrated as Family Day, is observed on the 30th of Shevat in the Hebrew calendar (February 28, 2025). This date marks the passing of Henrietta Szold (1860–1945), the founder of Hadassah: the Women’s Zionist Organization. (Yes, the group is known for selling cookies to raise funds for Israel. Everyone has a mother or grandmother who was part of Hadassah.)
Szold came to Palestine/Eretz Israel with her mother in 1909, following a breakup with her partner. During her visit, she observed the region’s poor state of medical care. She returned to the U.S. to establish a Women’s Zionist Organization to improve and provide quality medical services for people of all religions in Eretz, Israel. At the end of the founding meeting of Hadassah, she declared, “It’s either Zionism or nothing; Zionism or the extinction of the Jewish people.”
She dreamt and made it happen.
If you’re wondering where the name “Hadassah” comes from, the answer is at the end of the article.
In 1933, with the rise of the Nazis, the Zionist framework Youth Aliyah was established to send boys and girls to Eretz, Israel to escape antisemitism in Europe and receive Zionist and moral education. This framework later expanded to other countries where Jews suffered from antisemitism or poverty, such as Morocco, Algeria, and Iraq. From the start, Szold was appointed to lead the project and was called the “Mother of the Children.”
In 1951, a girl from Haifa suggested that Mother’s Day be held on the anniversary of Henrietta Szold’s passing. She had died a few years earlier and was known as the “Mother of the Children” because she had no children of her own and dedicated her efforts to the children of Israel. She was the mother of all children.
One of the revolutionary ideas introduced by Hadassah was distributing breast milk to new mothers from door to door to encourage breastfeeding, thereby reducing infant mortality. Today, infant clinics in Israel are called Tipat Halav (Drop of Milk), named after this Hadassah initiative.
Szold has been commemorated in many places in Israel and in various ways: through Mother’s Day, streets in different cities, and even on the five Israeli Lira bills
In the 1980s, Israel’s Ministry of Education decided to change Mother’s Day to Family Day to emphasize the importance of family. (And let’s be honest, there was no way they would ever change it to Father’s Day!)
To my mother and to Orly, Happy Mother’s Day/Family Day.
Henrietta, there are those who continue your legacy!
Below Henrieta Sold on 5 Lira note. In the background, the famous Chagall Windows at Hadassah Hospital – Ein Karem Campus.
It was one of the hardest weeks.
I am heartbroken.
I hoped, prayed, waited and wanted to believe that they would return.
We will rise, build, flourish, grow and remember.
“Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope that is two-thousand years old
To be a free nation in our land…”
Answer: The Hadassah Organization was founded in 1912 at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in New York, near the Purim holiday that year. The Hebrew name of Queen Esther was Hadassah.