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By THERESA WILLINGHAMThe local chapter of a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated organization goes about its advocacy work in obscurity.
CARROLLWOOD - It's nearly 100 years old, with over 300,000 members nationwide and was nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. The local chapter is over 70 years old, with more than 500 members in Tampa who are active in everything from health care to literacy, and deeply involved in community service.
One of Tampa's former mayors, Sandra Freedman, was a member, as was state Senator Helen Gordon Davis. Yet, the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America remains relatively unknown in Tampa, an oversight local members hope to change.
Hadassah is Hebrew for Esther, one of the Bible's heroines. The Tampa chapter is organized into three sections, said president Susan Lafer of Westchase, a hospice nurse. Tampa Ameet, the umbrella, has three spokes: the Young Women's Achot group, for ages 18-45; Brandon Chai, which is multigenerational; and New Tampa, also multigenerational.
"As a women's advocacy group our mission is to educate women in health issues and well-being," Lafer said. "We also provide Hebrew language courses, work to preserve First Amendment rights including stem cell research; and we're advocates for strong counterterrorism efforts."
Hadassah provides comprehensive support on women's health initiatives at both national and local levels, from the Women Take Heart cardiovascular education program, to the To Save a Life organ donation education program, and much more.
Nowhere is community involvement better illustrated than in the work of the Hadassah Medical Organization, or HMO, which has been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
HMO treats more than 700,000 patients annually; has cared for more than 2,500 terror victims in the last five years; constructed a new Center for Emergency Medicine which treats more than 100,000 patients in Jerusalem; sent child psychiatrists to Southeast Asia to help local professionals deal with tsunami trauma.
Locally, members celebrate holidays with residents of the Weinberg Village retirement home and the Project Return mental health facility. The New Tampa group is kicking off a school reading program called Read Right Now.
And local Hadassah groups support the organization's international projects.
Diane Ross, a Tampa Palms feng shui designer, recently chaired a fashion show that raised money for Hadassah's pediatric emergency facility in Jerusalem.
"The whole focus of it was a multigenerational experience," said Ross. "We named it L'dor Vador (from generation to generation) and put the focus on honoring generations that came before us and the generations of the future, our children. The most wonderful thing that happened was that I had so many women say they brought their daughters or their daughters-in-law."
While known as a Jewish women's organization, Hadassah has some non-Jews as members, along with 27,000 men.
"I joined Hadassah because I knew they did wonderful work," Ross said. "My own father was a physician and built his own hospital and sent medical supplies to Israel during the Six Day War."
Beyond that spirit of community building, says Ross, is the quality of medical science that Hadassah supports.
"From a humanitarian standpoint we're contributing to building medical facilities that are state of the art. Hadassah Medical Organization is at the forefront of stem cell research, and responsible for so many medical breakthroughs. If the Nobel Peace Prize committee deems us worthy of a nomination, there's something worthwhile going on here outside of building hospitals in Israel."
- For more information about Hadassah, contact Susan Lafer at (813) 926-3167.