By Dani Hemmat, Special to JTNews
“Everything starts with one — one seed in a flower garden, one note of music in a grand symphony,” said Diane Sigal.
Sigal, president of the Northwest Region of Hadassah, presided over the chartering of the newest Hadassah group in the Pacific Northwest — the West Sound Group. Comprised of women mainly from Kitsap and Jefferson counties, the group was started by Vivian Morrison, a Kitsap resident and member of Bainbridge Island’s Congregation Kol Shalom.
Later in the week, however, Hadassah’s only paid staffers in the region, including director Sheila Abrahams, were laid off in the face of belt tightening and the Zionist women’s organization’s massive losses in financier Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme.
A quiet, petite woman with a gentle smile, Morrison took a thorough, professional approach to forming the West Sound chapter. She had grown up belonging to a labor Zionist youth organization, but had never been affiliated with Hadassah. When she decided to join, she assumed she would have to travel to Seattle to attend meetings. As she discussed her decision to join Hadassah with others in the community, she discovered a large group of women who also wanted to join, but without the Seattle commute.
So Morrison made the commitment to start a group where it was most needed — in her own backyard. She had already gathered enthusiasm from women at luncheons and Mah Jongg games, and soon opened up the idea to local congregations. The response was encouraging enough for her to take action.
The Hadassah women’s organization’s primary purpose is to raise money for the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel, which includes two hospitals, as well as for youth health and education programs. The national organization lost $90 million of its endowment in the Madoff’s scandal — $40 million of which had been invested — and laid off about a quarter of its staff last month, nearly 80 in total that included Abrahams as well as the Seattle-based youth director for Hadassah’s Young Judaea organization.
According to Seattle chapter president Carolyn Hathaway, the Seattle chapter is now functioning with an exclusively volunteer staff. She noted that the chapter’s various groups, including the new West Sound addition, have always been volunteer-run, and should therefore not expect to see any difference in their operations. She added that Hadassah’s primary goals — fund raising for Hadassah Hospital and providing a meaningful social network for Jewish women — will not change.
“We expect most of our activities to continue, but this may impact our ability to interact with the community as a whole,” Hathaway said.
The women who gathered on the Kitsap Peninsula exuded none of the grim news that has affected the national organization, however.
Gathering in Morrison’s woodsy home overlooking Hood Canal, the women in attendance treated her with both affection and deference. The chapter’s charter members say they are excited about the possibilities open to them now that they can participate in Hadassah on their home turf. Harriet Greenberg, a member of Bremerton’s Beth Hatikvah, used to belong to the Seattle-area chapter but soon found that the commute didn’t support her family’s lifestyle. Now she is thrilled to be a part of the organization again — even taking on the role of membership vice-president.
“I’m excited that it’s out here,” Greenberg said, “Young women need to be involved [in Hadassah].”
Sigal agreed.
“It’s not our grandmother’s Hadassah,” she said. “You go to a national convention and you see committed women in their 20s standing next to committed women in their 80s. I’ve been a member since 1974, but I grew up attending meetings with my mother. She used to say that ‘joining Hadassah keeps you young.’ Look around, there’s so much vitality in this group of women.”
The new group’s treasurer, Marga Griesbach, has been a Hadassah member for 53 years, and moved through the room with the ease of the younger women present. While Hadassah may give youth and vitality to its members, it seems they return the gift.
“Hadassah’s even on Facebook now,” beamed Sigal. “It’s always moving forward, adapting to the times.”
After the chartering ceremony, Sigal praised the West Sound Group.
“How could anyone in that room not feel the vitality coursing through it? This was a group of women of different ages, religious upbringings, educational backgrounds and stages in their lives, coming together for the common cause of ensuring the continuity of the extraordinary work of Hadassah. It was an honor to present the charter [to them],” she said.