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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 3,1983 - Page 7
Opinion
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO meets in Toronto
Women strive to^f^ dream of better Mfe in fc^
By
PATRICIA RUCKER
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO is a legendary organization.
Since 1917, its members have been renowned for their fund raising abilities and their steadfast support of Israel.
Its bazaars are major news events. Its hospital clinics, day care centres and youth villages dot the map of Israel.
Its members represent a reservoir of business acumen, administrative competence and leadership ability gained in 65 years of women working together.
As an expected 1,000 members from 300 chapters across Canada gather in Toronto at the end of this month for their 30th biennial convention, their leaders are asking them to ' 'redream the dream" — to re-evaluate what they have to give to the Jewish people and to rededicate themselves to the giving.
What is the dream? A glance over Canadian Hadassah-WIZO's accomplishments demonstrates a focus on issues that are top priority for women in the 1980s: day care centres and women's clubs; schools for disadvantaged children; medical and psychological research on leamii^ disabilities.
All these projects bring the dream of a better life for women and children in Israel closer to reality.
And Canadian Hadassah-WIZO has been working them for 65 years.
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO was bom out of the British victory over the Turks in Palestine -in the First World War. Many thousands of Palestinian Jews were starving and homeless, and urgent appeals for aid went out to Jews in Western Europe and North America.
A handful of Canadian women's Zionist organizations committed themselves to raise funds and gather supplies. The rescue work they did under the leadership of Lillian Freiman of Ottawa, who would become the first president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO, was invaluable.
Even more important to the Zionist cause was the structure that evolved from their efforts. Scattered groups of women joined together iife a national organization which became a powerful voice of support for the yishuv in the long years of the British mandate.
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Group becomes official representative of Youth Aliyah
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The value of a national network became even clearer when Recha Frier, the wife of a Berlin rabbi, realized in 1933 how serious the Nazi threat was. She decided to get Jewish children out of Germany into Palestine, and when the first group of 43 arrived in Haifa in February 1934, the saga of the Youth Aliyah movement had begun.
Within two months, Canadian Hadassah-WIZO became the official representative of Youth Aliyah in this country. As the focus of the project changed from the rescue of children of the Holocaust to aid to immigrant children from other countries of Jewish
distress, like Iran and Ethiopia, Canadian Hadassah-WIZO kept pace.
A very special opportunity came with the arrival in Israel of Dr. Reuven Feuerstein, a brilliant clinical psychologist and a war refugee from Romania.
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO decided to support him in his work with disadvantaged immigrant children — and reaped a harvest of benefits for children and adults everywhere.
Feuerstein realized that previously accepted Western techniques of assessing intelligence simply didn't work for the, immigrants Israel was getting from less developed, non-Western countries.
The Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) and the Instrument Enrichment (IE) techniques he developed to assess and develop the potential of these immigrants are now used around the world — ' icluding seven Toronto schools and five ^ar^.dian penetentiaries.
The willingness of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO to support controversial projects that it believes in, is demonstrated by its sponsorship of Feuerstein's most recent work — the use of surgical procedures developed in Germany to do restorative facial work on the Down's syndrome children brought to the Hadassah-WIZO research institute in Jerusalem.
While some experts in the field of Down's syndrome believe that society should be educated to accept these children as they are, Feuerstein finds these views Utopian.
He feels that, if they are physically indistinguishable from other children, they will be treated normally — thus improving their potential for development.
Other current Canadian Hadassah-WIZO projects reflect on ongoing concern for the welfare of Israeli women and children in an increasingly complex society.
There are now 24 legal aid bureaus in Israel, supported by the Canadian organization, which advise woinen on all legal matters, represent them before the courts and evaluate existing laws and legislation.
Even in more traditional projects, like the extensive medical research supported at the Asaf Harofe Hospital, there is sensitivity to women's needs.
A recent issue of Orah, the newsmagazine that goes out to 17,000 Hadassah-WIZO members each month, reported on a current project at the hospital — a study of patients with mitral valve prolapse (Barlow's syndrome) to distinguish those with the benign form fi-om those whose life is threatened, • Barlow's syndrome is much more prevalent among women than men, and, says Dr. Zwi Schlesinger, director of the heart institute, "those who complained of its symptoms were often incorrectly diagnosed as neurotics."
Projects that help the sick and the distressed are projects of the heart. But Hadassah-WIZO knows that support for Israel means supporting projects of the mind as well.
From the earliest days of the organization, its Women have taken Israel's case to the world, speaking out for the yishuv, for aliya, for Israel's right to statehood.
Lively Arab toddlers phiy at the Wadl Joz kindergarten established by Neri Bloomfield, a former national president of Hadassah-WIZO Canada.
Now, with the appearance of an increasingly sophisticated public relations campaign directed against Israel, Hadassah-WIZO women are educating themselves to match argument with argument.
In 36 communities across Canada, Hadassah-WIZO public affairs departments plan programs to reach Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike.
In Oshawa, Ont., CHW sponsored a public Holocaust remembrance program that was attended by many non-Jews; in Ottawa, representatives from local chapters formed a network to monitor and participate in a myriad of open-line programs. In Frederic-ton, Hadassah women set up a high school display on Israel's independence.
In large and small communities alike^ they reach out, on a neighbor-to-neighbor level, to fight bigotry and propaganda.
It is ah axiom of the women's movement that one cannot give to others without giving to oneself as well.
Hadassah-WIZO women are known as tireless, selfless workers. They have all too frequently been asked to pose for newspaper photographers as they grate mountains of potatoes for mountains of latkes to sell at the Hadassah bazaar.
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Full issue devoted to women's progress
in Israel, Canada
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Their recent membership ads tell a different story.
The need to serve is prominent. But, say the ads, "if you're looking for an environment in which you can take on challenges... display the skills you already have and learn new ones. ^. associate yourself with the Und
of women who think the way you do and are a action-oriented as you are.*'
Orah devoted a full issue to "the progress of women in Israel and Canada." It carried messages from Mirial Small, the Canadian national president, and Judy Erola, federal minister of state for the status of women, which called on women to actively seek positions of leadership in women's organizations and in the community at large.
Articles asked "are women in Israel really liberated?" and "is it kosher (in religious terms) to be a feminist?"
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A complex dream confronts women at conference
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The dream that Canadian Hadassah-WIZO women confront as they come together in Toronto for their conference is a complex one. They will hear from Israel's ambassador to Canada, YeshayahuAnug, and its ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Blum, an alumnus (class of 1936) of Youth Aliyah.
They will celebrate 50 years of Youth Aliyah with Reuven Feuerstein and Israeli star Mike Burstyn.
In workshops, they will discuss fund raising — of course — but also media coverage of Israel and the status of women.
And in a special personal development seminar, they will tackle issues ranging from women in literature to stress management,
"If you will it . . . it is no dream," said Theodor Herzl.
The women of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO have willed a great deal, and with a tough-minded determination, they have brought their dreams to reality.
As they "redream the dream'' at their 1983 convention, they are willing — for Israel and for themselves — a future of unlimited opportunity.
Flora MacDonald, when she was ndnlster of external afiahrs, addresses Hadassah-WIZO A patient hi the Canadtan Hadassah-WIZO kidney dhdyste department of the Assaf Harofe meeting. Mirial Small, centre, is the current national president. Hospital receives weavhig histructions from occupational therapist.