Description:

Henrietta Szold 1937 TLS Re: Education of Resettled German Jews in Mandatory Palestine

A 1p typed letter in Hebrew signed by American Zionist activist Henrietta Szold (1860-1945) at bottom left, and also edited in her hand on the second line of the body of the letter near the left margin. Written in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine on March 29, 1937 on watermarked stationery with a bilingual letterhead reading in part, "The Jewish Agency for Palestine / Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews." Double hole-punched at right. Expected wear including even toning, flattened transmittal folds, and a partially rusted paper clip impression at top, else near fine. 8.375" x 10.625." Accompanied by a complete English translation, as well as a magazine cutting showing Szold and other Zionists. Provenance: Offered at a Judaica sale at R.M. Smythe & Co. in Autumn 1999.

Henrietta Szold was one of the most influential activists of the early twentieth-century Zionist movement. She was an original co-founding member of Hadassah, an organization that built hospitals, soup kitchens, and schools in Mandatory (or British-controlled) Palestine. After immigrating to Palestine in 1933, Szold headed the juvenile section of the Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews, and was broadly responsible for overseeing social services at The Jewish Agency for Palestine. After Youth Aliyah was founded in 1933 Berlin, Szold served as the organization's director in Jerusalem.

In this letter to David Oumanski, part of the Committee for Organizing Instructors in Tel-Aviv, Szold addresses several points that had been raised in a previous letter. Szold's letter is direct and professional, and demonstrates some of the traits that made her such a competent organizational leader.

Translated in part:

"…I am asking you to cease now the negotiations with Mr. Levin concerning supervision of pedagogic work in Youth Groups, until such time when I have a chance to discuss this problem with you…

As to Para 4 & 5, I have no remarks. I only wish to express my pleasure at the serious and efficient activity of the committee in basic pedagogic matters…

Mr. Beit and myself will be going next Wednesday to Emek [Y]Israel. Therefore, please come to Jerusalem on Tuesday, not Wednesday…"

Henrietta Szold was thus involved in two of the most important pre-war organizations that resettled Jews in Mandatory Palestine: The Jewish Agency for Palestine (today referred to as The Jewish Agency for Israel); and the Youth Aliyah. The Jewish Agency for Palestine--which had gone through several name changes and iterations since its antecedent organization's founding in 1908--was a Jewish advocacy group that promoted the immigration and resettlement of Jews in Palestine, called Aliyah. The group also managed schools, hospitals, and defense forces in there new Jewish settlement communities. From 1929 to 1948, The Jewish Agency for Palestine operated four central departments which regulated settlement life: Government; Security; Aliyah, or immigration; and Education.

In 1933 Berlin, a rabbi's wife named Recha Freier (1892-1984) founded Youth Aliyah, a program tasked with resettling European Jewish children and young people in Palestine. There was considerable urgency to evacuate as many Jewish youth as possible, since Anti-Semitic discrimination and persecution only worsened in Nazi Germany throughout the 1930s. These young Jewish refugees were taught Hebrew and practical life skills, like farming, in advance of their relocation to kibbutzim in Palestine. Accounts vary widely, but it is estimated that approximately 5,000 Jewish children and youth were resettled by Youth Aliyah before the war, and about an additional 15,000--mostly Holocaust survivors--assisted by the group after the war. Szold's reference in the letter to "Emek [Y]Israel"( also known as the Jezreel Valley, in modern day northern Israel) was a major resettlement colony in that period.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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