This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
“Henrietta Szold: Woman of Valor,” a new play by Sarah Blacher Cohen and Joanne Koch, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at the Williams Center for the Arts.
The production is part of Lafayette’s celebration of Women’s History Month.
Tickets are free and may be obtained by calling (610) 330-5009. The event is sponsored by Lafayette’s Hillel Society and Jewish Studies program.
Szold, born in 1860 in Baltimore, Md., came to prominence as the founder of Hadassah, a women’s organization that established clinics and hospitals for both Jews and Arabs in pre-state Palestine.
Prior to that, she headed Youth Aliyah, which rescued thousands of young people from Nazi Germany before its borders were sealed.
David Ben-Gurion called her “the most outstanding Jewish woman of the 20th century.”
With humor and passion, the play depicts Szold’s often-stormy relationships with various important men, including Louis Brandeis, Chaim Weizmann, Ben-Gurion, and Louis Ginzberg.
“She had to work with and rise above a number of influential men who put her down,” says Robert L. Cohn, professor and head of religion and Philip and Muriel Chair of Jewish Studies. “sIt’s a neat play that shows an important slice of American Jewish life and a woman ahead of her times.”