Organizations  /  Hadassah of Greater Buffalo

Buffalo Hadassah

Buffalo Hadassah was founded on November 27, 1920, at a meeting at Ada Holender Miller’s house in Buffalo. The impetus in part for the meeting was the meeting of the male only, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) national convention in Buffalo.  Although linked to the ZOA as a semi-autonomous companion female organization, national Hadassah guarded its independence from the ZOA, and formerly split with it entirely in 1933. During the 1920s, however, many of Hadassah’s local and national members, were drawn from married couples, whose husbands were ZOA members. At this meeting Ada Miller (formerly Ada G. Holender) was elected first president and Caroline (née Cohn) Kavinoky (husband Dr. Samuel) vice-president. At the meeting which established National Hadassah’s 103rd chapter, twenty-one women became charter members of Buffalo Hadassah. A month later, on December 22, a constitution was ratified.

Campaigns and fundraising began immediately and a year later, Buffalo had the third largest paid-up membership in the United States. One such campaign led to the formation of informal subgroups, and links with non-Hadassah members. For the Palestinian Supplies Bureau collections of linens, an Hadassah subgroup, the Sew and Sews, brought together not just Hadassah members, but Jewish women in other organizations with an interest in sewing and socializing together. In 1924, in part because Hadassah had grown so rapidly, and was active in both various campaigns and fundraising, Henrietta  Szold visited the city. She spoke on “The Place of Palestine in Modern Jewish Life,” and Hadassah Buffalo committed to raising $10,000. Just two years later, with the Z.O.A. and the Hadassah national conventions held in Buffalo, membership increased again and was further buoyed by the independent Hadassah convention in 1930.  So large was the organization locally, that the membership was split into subgroup along place of residence and existing networks (for example, members of a particular synagogue).  Once informal, these several distinctive sub groups blossomed under the broader Buffalo Chapter name as their own groups.  Buffalo was the first chapter in the country to separate its membership into groups and its “Buffalo Plan,” became the model for others across the country.

Although these separate groups included younger women, they were distinct from anther Hadassah group. Junior Hadassah was organized in 1921 with Dinah R. Rosenblatt as president and Leya Greenberg as secretary. It grew rapidly, like its older sister group, and by 1938, it was meeting monthly at the Hotel Statler with 125 members. Early on, Celia Slohm (known as Cele) emerged as a leader, rising to President of the Buffalo Junior Hadassah. Within a decade she was serving as President of National Junior Hadassah. Indeed Slohm would serve two terms from 1933 to 1935. During this period, she became an advisor to the Buffalo Chapter and the Upper NY State Region. (On May 7, 1984, at the Region Conference held in Buffalo, on the eve of her 85th birthday, she was honored for her outstanding support, service, counsel and years of dedication to Hadassah). Eventually, Junior Hadassah members transferred their membership as they aged, married and had children, and they moved in one of the Hadassah subgroups.

Other new sub-groups that operated within Hadassah, spoke to changing life styles of women. In 1935, an evening group known as “Business and Professional” or B&P formed for women who worked. Other groups formations tracked changing developments in Jewish Buffalo. The “Suburban” group formed in 1955, as the old “I, II, III” group names disappeared to make way for geographic terms: “North”, “Central “. Later “Intermediates” (post-Junior) and “Evening” emerged (also known as the “Young Marrieds”). From the mid 1950s, historical figures in the Hadassah movement and Israeli names replaced Buffalo place terms, with the creation of groups named Alice Seligsberg, Sabra, Founders, Henrietta Szold and Shalom. In 1957, a group formed with the name IMA (Hebrew: mother) for members who were former refugees, death camp survivors, Displaced Persons (DPs) and new immigrants.  IMA members were drawn mainly from Europe, especially Poland and Germany, as well as from Egypt following the Suez Crisis. This group took a special interest in Youth Aliyah and raised money to sponsor children in youth villages in Israel.  By 1991 they had sponsored over 50 children.  In 1966 Hadassah Associates, a group for men connected to Hadassah, started in Buffalo as part of new national Hadassah program to enable men to participate in fundraising for Hadassah. By the end of the 1960s, “B’not Israel” (Daughters of Israel) emerged as another new group for  younger women and the “Founders” group  became the Ada Miller group, after the death of the Buffalo Hadassah founder.