By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
When 15-year-old Israeli girl Adi Houja was injured in a suicide bombing in 2001, she thought she was going to die. The nuts and bolts that were soaked in rat poison and packed into the bomb severely injured her legs. Today she is alive, though she needs crutches to get around.
One of the reasons she survived the blast was the use of a special coagulant to stop her bleeding. The doctors at Hadassah Hospital had access to this experimental drug because of funds raised outside of Israel to help keep the hospital as one of the top medical facilities in the Middle East.
At Seattle Chapter Hadassah’s Gala for Giving fundraising event, to be held May 4 at the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel, money raised will be used for the next phase of the new Center for Emergency Medicine at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The honoree of this event will be longtime community benefactor and musician Bernice Rind.
Rind is a harp virtuoso who composed her first piece at the age of seven, and debuted as a child prodigy with the symphony orchestra in Los Angeles at age nine. Though she was offered several movie roles, she chose to stay in Seattle and focus on her Jewish studies. Judaism has a special role in Rind’s life: her family boasts 20 generations of rabbis!
With her late husband Marty Rind, she helped establish several local Jewish institutions, including Jewish Day School and the Jewish Community Center. She has also volunteered with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for over 40 years, and served as president of the Women’s Division.
A woman with tireless energy, she has sat on numerous boards as diverse as the Seattle Symphony, American Association of University Women, where she has been a member for 50 years, and of course Hadassah. In addition, she has won multiple awards from a wide variety of organizations.
When Rind was 15, she taught harp while a student at Cornish College of the Arts. Organizers hope her presence at the gala will raise money to enable Israeli girls injured in bombings the opportunity to shine in their own lives. Adi Houja can certainly appreciate that kind of generosity.
In addition to honoring Bernice Rind, author and talk show host Alan Keyes will be keynote speaker.
For more information on attending this event, please call 425-467-9099 or email [email protected].