Although we’re in the midst of Women’s History Month, the heroic Queen Esther is not featured as a woman worth mentioning. March is also the Hebrew month of Adar, during which Jews celebrate Purim, the holiday that celebrates Esther, who averted the first global genocide, thanks to God’s messenger, Mordechai. Evil Haman, Hitler’s ancient predecessor, planned to orchestrate it. Had he succeeded, Jews would not exist today.
Esther is the Persian version of the Hebrew Hadassah, just as Henrietta is the English version, and when it was a popular name some Jews adopted it. Baltimore-born Henrietta Szold was certainly a heroic woman who deserves but doesn’t receive mention either. The eldest of four daughters born in 1860 to Rabbi Benjamin and Sophie Szold, who emigrated to America in 1859 from Hungary, she was an educator and author, the first female editor of the Jewish Publication Society and an extraordinary social justice activist. The charitable organization that bears her name became the largest and most powerful Zionist group in the United States, fundraising and setting up hospitals, food banks, nursing schools and social work programs. Her leadership helped create much of the infrastructure that helped educate people and turn the dream of a Jewish state into a functional reality.
During the 1930s, Szold spearheaded Youth Aliyah, which saved 1,000 Jewish children. She went to Nazi Germany to lead them to Palestine, thus saving their lives and allowing them to eventually “build and be built,” both their land and their descendants. This was an opportunity the Nazis denied the 1,500,000 Jewish children they murdered. Henrietta/Hadassah also founded the eponymous medical center in Jerusalem and the charity organization that sustains two hospitals as well as medical and dental schools. These have and continue to save millions of people of all faiths in Israel. Hadassah’s state-of-the-art research facilities and connection to Hebrew University have saved and/or improved the lives of millions worldwide. At the same time both the hospital and the organization gave women, American and otherwise, purpose, direction and agency, especially in an era when professional women and female leaders were the exception rather than the rule.
Are either Queen Esther or Henrietta commemorated and celebrated as part of Women’s History Month? None of the lists of possible celebrants I’ve checked includes them.
Women’s History Month began in 1954 as a week of celebrating the achievements of American women. The United States proclaimed it a monthly celebration each March, beginning in 1987. Although first proposed in 1915, national Black History month was finally proclaimed and legalized in 1986. Each of these months was a much needed corrective for a nation that espoused “liberty for all” in its Pledge of Allegiance but still marginalized people who were not white males.
Jews in America have been marginalized since 1654, when 23 Sephardim sailed into New Amsterdam from Recife, Brazil, fleeing the Inquisition after the Spanish conquest.
Jews proved good, grateful and industrious citizens, who made tremendous contributions to the growth of the city, the Revolutionary and Civil wars and what ultimately became the United States of America.
Just as Jews proved good for America, America was good for the Jews, especially those fleeing pogroms and antisemitism.
Unfortunately, antisemitism has always existed here. Mostly, these were nonviolent, expressed in slurs, quotas and restrictions. Few Jews expected antisemitism to explode on college campuses, many of which had substantial Jewish populations. Highly educated administrators, students, professors and bystanders on these campuses expressed support for Hamas, despite or because of the sadistic atrocities they committed before and after Oct. 7, 2023.
One may argue that Jews don’t need a month devoted to Jewish history. Observant Jews recall their historical events daily in prayers. Each Shabbat and holiday is a commemoration of a specific event in biblical history. Less observant Jews may not have known, at least until Oct. 7 and especially the 8th, when they realized the extent of antisemitism in a world where so many celebrated the horrifically brutal attack on Jewish civilians. As for the Jews who join the protesters, they are either evil or completely ignorant of Jewish history and Holocaust history, when all Jews, regardless of their interest in anything Jewish, including converts to Christianity, were subject to annihilation.
The one positive thing that emerged from the horror of Oct. 7 is that some Jews have turned back to Judaism. Only after the day following the attack did Jews begin to understand the scope of antisemitism. These antisemites were aided and abetted by naive individuals who may never have read a history book, and some who never read anything other than their text messages. They want easy answers to complicated questions which social media is glad to provide, especially through those with nefarious intentions.
People fear what they do not know, and most of what people know about Jews is based on ancient and modern tropes that consist of lies, fantasies and conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, far too many Jews have also bought into these lies. Too many have been influenced by antisemitic clerics and media influencers via print, digital and social media. These students (and professors) as well as the broadcasters who are trading journalistic standards for lucre and fame, are proving patsies, or in more contemporary jargon,“useful idiots.” However, Jews constitute a very tiny percentage of the population and most people in America and the world have never met a Jew. They know little to nothing about Jews or Judaism. For many, all they’ve heard or been taught are negative, even demonic, views of Jews. Nor are they aware that Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., are the next targets of Islamists who seek to create an all-Islamic world.
What to do? The first step is education. Americans and all people who love freedom desperately need to gain a different perspective on Jews and Israel; learn of the myriad contributions by Jews that have made their lives safer, healthier, happier, and more physically and spiritually beautiful. They could, with little effort, learn a lot from a Jewish History Month, and become more thoughtful, compassionate and respectful toward the Jewish people as well as their culture.
If Jews, who have been commanded to “be a light unto the nations,” who have been pioneers of communication, don’t make establishing Jewish History Month a priority, who will? It took more than half a century for the idea of Black History Month to become a reality. Jewish History Month could begin to be realized today. It can begin next month, the month of our liberation, in synagogues, Jewish schools, book clubs or Rosh Chodesh clubs.
Realities often originate in dreams. What Mordechai proposed to his niece, Esther, was a dangerous, dreamy fantasy. As Theodore Herzl said, and both Hadassahs proved, “If you will it, it is not a dream.”
