From the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

The glory days of women’s Zionist organizations

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Moving day is fast approaching. No time to sift through the photos and invitations and letters, “stuff” accumulated over the years. The best Thing to do, then, is just stash them all in boxes and start the winnowing process later, after all the unpacking has been completed. 

What to keep, what to give to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, what to discard – all these decisions require thought and the leisure to consider the items. Each is a memento of an event, happy or sad, a moment recalled or faded from memory. 

Just recently, after a downsizing move, my friend Alice Eichenbaum decided the time had come to open one of her boxes of “stuff.” Among the memorabilia, she found some photos and a sheet of paper, folded in half, on one side of which she had written the recipe for “Easy Fruit Cake.” Had she ever made the cake? Perhaps – maybe for a meeting or one of the many gatherings of friends at the Eichenbaum home on Savoy Street, in Providence. 

The inner side of the folded sheet told another story. It invited the recipient to a fashion show, a fundraising event sponsored by the Dvorah Dayan Club of Pioneer Women, a club to which Alice and I both belonged. 

The invitation was a relic of a bygone era when women’s Zionist organizations flourished – Pioneer Women, Hadassah, Mizrachi, WIZO – groups born in the first half of the 20th century, when the possibility of a Jewish state was still a dream. 

From the outset, each organization undertook the mission of weaving a strong social net for the builders of the Jewish homeland: nurseries, day-care centers, hospitals and clinics, schools and vocational training centers for women. 

After the State of Israel was declared, the main Zionist women’s organizations thrived, with growing numbers and additional chapters. We knew our mishpachahh, our extended Jewish family in Israel, needed our support. For them, we invested our time and energy. 

Many of us worked full time and had families. Others were full-time homemakers. It made no difference. We found time for meetings and study groups and fundraising. A bonus was the enduring friendships that developed. 

Along with the usual fundraising tools – donor luncheons, bridge parties, raffles – we called on our creativity for smaller events, like the fashion show. Dorothy Levy designed the clever invitation. It was photocopied on lime-green paper, lime green being the color du jour in the 1980s. The Sydneys offered their home. The committee donated and prepared the food. Estelle Schwartz at Act II provided the vintage fashions, modeled by our slimmer members and daughters. 

With no expenditures, we were able to send every nickel of the proceeds to support our sister organization in Israel, and, in addition, a great time was had by all. 

This was an event sponsored by the Dvorah Dayan Club, but each of the other women’s Zionist organizations also found creative ways, to engage with their agencies in Israel. We supported the Women’s Division and the  Career Womens Affiliate of the Jewish Federation of R.I. (now the Jewish Alliance). 

Our Zionist organizations gave us a personal connection to our mishpachah in Israel. The groups were an important part of our history in Rhode Island, which even simple artifacts, like the invitation, recall. 

Only one chapter of Hadassah remains in Rhode Island. The other organizations, like most of the women’s colleges, including my alma mater, are part of a bygone era. Gone, but not forgotten – and still appreciated.  

GERALDINE S. FOSTER is a past president of the R.I. Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any RIJHA article, contact the RIJHA office at info@rijha.org or 401-331-1360. The library and archives are open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.