It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah

by Marlin Levin

Spanning two centuries, reaching virtually every corner of the globe, the epic story of the Hadassah organization is the inspiring and fascinating history of generations of determined women who worked to heal, enlighten, educate and save lives. It Takes a Dream…The Story of Hadassah, by Marlin Levin, is an abridged version of the massive updated history of Hadassah, which first made an appearance at the 1997 Hadassah convention in Chicago. Including a foreword by Elie Wiesel and a preface by former Israeli Prime Minister, the late Golda Meir, It Takes a Dream begins in the early days of the twentieth century, when the Jewish population of Jerusalem was enduring very difficult living conditions, and suffering disease and hardship. It was in this setting that the renowned and beloved founder of Hadassah, Henrietta Szold, became inspired to help improve the lives and health of Jerusalem’s Jews. Henrietta Szold was to become one of the most dedicated, inspirational and well-known Jewish women of the twentieth century, spawning the Hadassah organization, and creating a strong, unified body of women throughout the United States, and later, the world, committed to Zionism, Jewry and of course, Jerusalem. Author Marlin Levin tells the story of Hadassah in intricate detail, highlighting the ways in which the history of Hadassah is entwined in the history of Jerusalem. Through war, triumph, building and rebuilding, from Hadassah Hospital at Mount Scopus, to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem, from the early pioneering days of the State of Israel, to the 1990s, and a more global focus, the story of Hadassah is, too, the story of world Jewry, of Zionism, of Israel and of Jerusalem.

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1997