By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
After spending most of her adult life as an active Hadassah member, Nancy Falchuk was thrilled to take on the position of National President of the organization in 2007. Now, this nurse from Massachusetts has turned her attention to “building a bridge to peace through health care” with the help of America’s largest Zionist organization.
While in town this week to speak with the Seattle chapter of Hadassah, Falchuk spoke with JTNews about her personal passion for Hadassah, how far the organization has come, and what the future may hold.
What brings you to Seattle?
[I’m here] to bring support from the national office to the wonderful Seattle chapter of Hadassah for what they’re doing here.
How long have you been active with Hadassah?
Since the ‘50s, when I was made a member by my mother. When I moved to a new community as a young person, it was a very comfortable reach for me to go [and] try to meet other Hadassah people because they usually were of like mind. They were young people, in those days, who just wanted to do something to educate themselves and to be part of a community. It wasn’t so much because of Israel or medicine or anything else, but more about getting to know a community and getting to know other people who cared about making a difference in the world. And it just evolved for me from there.
You mentioned that Hadassah used to attract younger people. Has the demographic of the organization changed in the last few decades?
I think that with young people today, we open our arms to them in different ways. Instead of expecting a young person to come in and be totally committed, taking a major job within the organization, now we take them at their interests and try to find where they can best play a role. It is your grandmother’s organization. It is your great grandmother’s organization. But it’s also your organization and your sister’s. We want young people to know that.
Since your background is in nursing, has the health care advancement component of Hadassah taken center stage for you?
As a nurse, I certainly understand a lot of the health care issues here and in Israel. For example, when I realized there were issues of nursing in Israel that I wanted to impact, someone suggested that I find other Jewish nurses [in the United States]. I thought I was the only one, because Jewish girls didn’t go into nursing. Turns out there are about 7,000 of us. So we put together the first professional organization of Jewish nurses. Then, in the last 15 years, we’ve lobbied for and created the first graduate program, the first clinical masters program, in Israel and in the Middle East.
What does the future look like for Hadassah?
When you look at the women, going back 96 years, who created what they did for Hadassah, it was through needs assessments. They didn’t just decide they wanted to build a school or do hospital work or health care. They actually looked at what was on the ground, what was needed, and then reacted to it. That’s still true. We still are in the business of building a nation through health care, and we’re still involved in education and children at risk. So those things are all ongoing. What the future will hold depends on changes on the ground in Israel as well as in America.
What’s the one thing you would like people who are perhaps not all that familiar with the organization to know about Hadassah?
If you believe that you can personally impact the lives of others, if you believe that you can take what’s important to you and bring it to the table, then there’s a place for you here and you should get to know us.