Functions and Operations Records in the Hadassah Archives

The Operations and Functions record group documents the growth and structural changes within Hadassah in the United States from the 1920s up to 2011. The majority of the materials in this record group consist of correspondence, biographical files of speakers, leadership training manuals and other materials, press and publicity materials, educational pamphlets and study guides, fact sheets designed to educate membership about Hadassah's political stances, campaign and programming materials for local and national meetings, and fundraising ephemera. Hadassah's main function within the United States was to provide services and aids to chapters and regions to drive membership and fundraising for Israel. Fundraising efforts often included life membership campaigns, bequests, naming rights, events, and public grants. Many fundraising and educational programs were designed at the national level, and distributed to local chapters for their own events. Materials relating to fundraising can mostly be found in Subgroup 4.

Besides fundraising, Hadassah's other function in the United States was to support its membership base. Subgroup 5 represents membership and community services, which were often produced by the Organization Department, and helped chapters grow as well as aid in restructuring when necessary. The Organization Department provided manuals and kits to teach chapters how to structure their leadership, which mirrored the national structure. To maintain membership, Hadassah provided resources to educate members on Judaism, women's health, Zionism, and other issues concerning World Jewry, such as the Soviet Jewry movement in the 1980s. These materials can be found in Subgroup 3. Subgroup 2 also presents ways Hadassah maintained and grew their membership, by producing materials that highlight Hadassah achievements in their fundraising efforts, as well as publicity materials for national and local news outlets.

In addition to publicity, materials in this record group also represent the different ways Hadassah attempted to increase membership. The executive and administrative branches of Hadassah, found in Subgroup 1, provided research and development services of programming as well as strategic planning to boost membership. Other ways include direct mailing campaigns, restructuring efforts, research and evaluation of different programs and campaigns, life membership campaigns, creative services to create ephemera to attract members and attendees to events, efforts to increase membership outside of the United States (Hadassah International, which can be found in Subgroup 6), and campaigns to reach out to special interest groups, including different ethnic groups, professional groups, youth, seniors, and singles. Subgroup 7 contains various other ways supported their members, including mission trips to Israel and other departmental material.

This record group demonstrates the scope of Hadassah's work in the United States and how the national leadership interacted with its local chapters. Although Hadassah's main goal was to fundraise for projects in Israel, Hadassah also functioned as a social and communal network for Jewish women in the United States. The documents in this record group demonstrate Hadassah's efforts to meet the needs of its membership base, by providing programing and political outreach that directly spoke these women.