Letters: Henrietta Szold

Written By Peter Sauter

  • Pirosecafo Gerusalemme

    August 18, 1935.

    My dear Gisela Warburg:-

    Though you were gracious and told me you expected no reply to your March 13 letter, I welcome the semi-leisure of this short Mediterranean passage to tell you how pleased I was to receive it and how heavily it lay on my conscience that I could not - absolutely could not - find a moment to respond to it. One of the points in your letter that gave me keen pleasure was your appreciation of my sister Adele. I think she has a rare mind. Her thoughts sweep round a wide horizon. She wrote me about your meeting in New York and wrote enthusiastically of your conversations. Mrs. Lindheim also reported to me on her contact with you. You see I have been keeping tabs on you! All the more shame that I did not connect with you direct.

    The months since Passover have been indescribably full. We all in both my offices - I now have a separate office for the Youth Aliyah work - have been slaving as though possessed by the demons of work. The Youth Immigration, as you know, is growing from day to day, and the Social Service organization suddenly sprang into favor with a more instructed public. No means, to be sure, and problems galore.

    But this and much more I am hoping to have the opportunity of discussing with you viva voce. From the moment the decision was made for me to go to the Conference at Amsterdam, I saw the European scene with you among those in the foreground. I go straight from Trieste to Lucerne, to the Zionist Congress; thence to Berlin for a week, and at the end of the first week of September to Amsterdam. Where am I going to run across you? Perhaps you will come to the Conference at Amsterdam? You know its purpose - to discuss the possibilities of the Youth Movement, its extension perhaps to the Polish youth and to the youth of other countries.

    At all events, if this reaches you, you will know how to trace me, and you will let me know how, when, and where we can meet. I look forward to seeing you eagerly.

    With much love,

    Affectionately, Henrietta Szold

  • Ruednitz of Bernau

    Preparatory camp

    Jewish youth Welfare

    August 23, 1935

    My dear Miss Szold,

    I cannot tell you how honestly glad I was to receive your dear letter that reached me here in Ruednitz, a preparatory camp for the Youth Aliyah which you will soon see.  - I already knew of your plans, of course, and had made mine long before your letter arrived. I will have the wonderful task, which I am already looking forward to unspeakably, of being your personal adjutant in Berlin. I have my little car here in Berlin and we will visit everything worth seeing. Then on the 8th or 9th I will  travel to Amsterdam with you, Greta Kitzinger and Werner Kuski. You must have met Werner in Lucerne by now.

    I've been in Ruednitz for almost three weeks now and will stay until September 2, so I've just completed a whole camp. I feel unspeakably happy out here. The work is varied and fascinating. You get to know 40 people as well as only possible, in a relatively short time, because the responsibility of deciding the fate of these young people at the end of these 4 weeks is enormous. These young people come from all parts of Germany, and although most of them are from the same unit, it is a very colorful conglomerate of the most diverse types, which are difficult to form into a real community. I enjoy this varied work immensely. I have my beloved gardening in the morning, where you get to know people well, then I give a Hebrew course and then there is always contact with people and the many problems associated with it. Oh, I'm so looking forward to showing you everything!

    When I come back from Amsterdam, I want to work in the youth welfare office for a few weeks and maybe also take part in a camp for guiding aids out here. - I have postponed my departure to Erez, which was originally scheduled for the end of September. The winter here looks so uncertain in every respect that I will never be able to allow myself to leave my parents here alone. I just really hope that they decide to go on a longer trip during the winter. Then I would carry out my plan immediately. I'm just very sorry that I'll miss the start of the course in Mishmar Haemek. But unfortunately you can't do everything, and I think there are plenty of opportunities to make good use of the time here, though unfortunately in Berlin and not in Hamburg. - Forgive me, dear Miss Szold, for having bored you for so long with my plans, especially as I will soon be able to discuss everything with you in detail, in person.

    So, [Hebrew: see you soon]

    In heartfelt joy looking forward to seeing you,

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • Friedritz 26. Sept. 1935

    My dear Miss Szold,

    Your last words yesterday, expressing that you expected me to give you a definite answer about my future plans tomorrow night at the station, have been weighing on me these last 24 hours.

    I have once again thought over everything sincerely and carefully. If now I must confess to you that the outcome is, that I cannot yet make up my mind, you will probably believe me to be the most undecided and un-independent creature you ever came across.

    I have been all in all two weeks at the Jugend-Hilfe Office with the interruption of the Congress-days in Amsterdam. I cannot help feeling that after so short a time an issue about my efficiency or inability in coping with the task of being a real help in the work, would be rash and unjustified. I simply cannot judge by now. So far I have but a superficial notion of the work dealt with at the office and an idea of the difficulties and problems. If I would give you a negative or positive answer by now, it would be but a guess and not based on experience.
    I reproach myself for not having started at the Jugend-Hilfe immediately after my return from Palestine. I only came to Berlin at the beginning of August. In that case I might have been in a position to see things clearer by now.

    All I can say now is that I should like to have the chance of working another one or two months at the Jugendhilfe after the leaders' camps before making up my mind definitely.

    I write this letter for fear that I shall not have the chance of a quiet talk with you to-morrow night at the station, when you will be surrounded by lots of people who will want to speak to you in the rush of the last moments.

    Should you have a spare moment in the course of the next week, I should love to hear from you whether you understand my attitude and agree.

    Anyhow sooner or later in the course of this coming Jewish year I shall be with you and I am looking forward to that moment more than I can express.

    Much love and [Hebrew phrase]

    Yours fondly and gratefully, Gisela.

  • Dear Gisela;-

    To my deep regret, I found it impossible to write even a line to you in reply to your note during my whole stay in Vienna. I have an unbelievably large slew of relatives there, and they and I had much to learn about one another after an interval of eight years. Besides, they are really charming, and I love them as well as their city, and in addition to all this the holidays took time, not to mention shopping, which had become an urgent necessity.

    Nevertheless I am sorry that you are going to receive what I hope you will understand to be reassuring lines so late. I understand your desire to hold off a little longer from a final decision. As a matter of fact, had I known, that, as you write, you had been in the office of the Jugendhilfe only two weeks, I should myself have advised a delay. I can't make out how I got the impression that you had been in the active work there for a considerable time. No matter! You are entirely right in postponing your decision. The Jugend-Aliyah is not a passing phase of the Zionist movement. The undertaking in one form or another has come to stay. The better you are acquainted with its ins and outs, the more useful you will be to its advancement. Vienna is getting ready to understand its need and its value. What you learn in Germany will redound to the benefit of Germany naturally, but also to the benefit of Poland, and Austria, and who knows what other country or countries. So be calm and follow your own instinct. Only don't decide to go to a Kibutz first when you do come to Palestine! On that point, I am sure of myself.

    I hope you will find time to let me have your impressions of and comments on the leaders' class - a most significant undertaking for us in Palestine. I should welcome the chance of learning about its progress unofficially as well as officially.

    Our two days on the Galilea have been delicious, even though I must squander them on an unbelievably large accumulation of letters that clamor for an answer. And Hans Beyth warns me that mountains of letters await me!

    Will you give my kindest regards to your sister Mrs. Hahn. I hope she will be in a position to carry out her intention of visiting Palestine. Perhaps then I shall succeed in doing what Lucerne, Amsterdam, and Berlin failed to grant me - get to know her.

    My fond love to you.

    Henrietta Szold

  • The Jewish Agency for Palestine Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews

    November 24, 1935.

    Miss Gisela Warburg Neue Rabenstrasse 24 Hambrug, Germany

    Dear Gisela:-

    On the whole I think Dr. Josephthal is not wrong. It would not be worth your while to stay on in Germany merely to help out in the office or in organizing groups. In the latter, the organizing of the groups, there is an important aspect, for which someone should qualify, the selection of the proper material. Since we are not able and shall not ever be able, for several obvious reasons, to absorb all the young people who ought to come over, we ought to be stringent in our choice. If all could be taken care of, we should be justified in disregarding the fitness of individuals for Palestine. As in the best of circumstances the numbers must be limited, we should take into consideration the value of lessening difficulties at this end. They are multiplying. In some places they are endangering the moral health of the group. But in order that you may be prepared to do such fine organization, you would have to have considerable experience at this end. In other words, Dr. Josephthal is right in this respect, too it would be valuable if you were to go back to Germany after a period of work here. To be sure, another factor enters into this piece of organization work I expatiated on, more means, for it involves, I am sure, a longer training in the preparation camps.

    Now as for the general political situation. To us working in the land, there exists no general political situation due to the Italo-Abyssinian conflict. Even the financial flurry has passed, so far as the ordinary lay apperception goes. But we all know how in a jiffy all that may change, and our little Palestine be drawn into a dire struggle with incalculable forces. I can understand your parents' apprehensions. That, however, is a situation in which I do not dare offer advice. It is a matter of feeling, therefore one in which feeling has the final word. Only this: if your parents are heavy-hearted, you will be heavy-hearted for their sakes - three unhappy beings, while if you postpone your coming to Palestine, you alone will be near-unhappy. Is this arithmetical argumentation of use in a matter of sentiment?
    You see that I cannot comply with your wish that I write encouraging words to your parents. For myself I can say that I feel no alarm at this moment. Common sense tells me that overnight there may be cause for serious alarm.

    What you write about the success of the camp is most interesting and surprising. On the other hand, what you write about Mr. Eisenstadt's ability is quite in accord with my, with everybody's estimate of him. Hence we are all sorry to have to yield him to Germany. However, I "gönn" him to you over there. Did I ever confess to you that when I left Germany (and ever since), I despised myself for abandoning our friends there? It was like leaving a dear sick child, whose physician gave no hope of recovery. Does one leave a child in such a state?

    My love to you and my regards to your parents and to Mrs. Hahn.

    I hope something or other will help you to a satisfactory and swift decision.

    With affectionate regards,

    Henrietta Szold

  • Berlin, Wansee,

    Herwarthstr. 7

    January 19, 1936

    Dear Miss Szold,

    I feel the need to tell you a little about myself again. You should know that I am not writing to you to get an answer from you (you cannot and should not take the time for that), but merely out of an urge to talk to you again.

    We have tried to follow your travels in America as closely as we can from newspaper reports. Did they give you a few breaks to catch your breath between all the receptions and speeches?

    With Georg's energetic help, Greta Kitzinger has finally decided to go to Palestine. She is leaving in mid-February and will probably stay there for 5-6 weeks. She has asked me if she can count on me to help her during this time. I have decided to stay here until she returns. Despite the fact that our new employee Edgar Freund (instead of Werner Kuski) is a trained teacher who has just completed his doctorate summa cum laude and really has a great deal of pedagogical and psychological knowledge and understanding, he could be God himself, but still the work in youth welfare is simply too much for one person. He is now concentrating particularly on the middle school, as it is really needed, on our Beth Chaluz, where he lives, and on the preparatory camps. As we currently have 2-3 camps all the time and he wants and needs to be at each one for at least 6 days, there is of course not enough time and energy for the office, which requires a whole person all the time. I have decided to stay here, even though my father has now overcome his political fears and finally gave me his permission to go. I simply feel too responsible for the youth welfare service to let them down now, even though it would have been too tempting for me to go with Greta. I am now definitely thinking of going to [Hebrew: ALIYAH] as soon as she returns.

    Since you left, the Nachalal I group, Ain Charod I and now Nachalal III (in Paris Nachalal II) have been prepared in Ruednitz. The next stats in Ruednitz are Tel Joseph I (the group must also be prepared in 2 parts). In Schwiebinchen was Naaneh, Ain Charod II and Kiryat Anavim. Next comes Kfar Jecheskil II. In Wintzel, the Schocken estate that is making its youth hostel available to us, was Beth Sera and is now Ramath David.

    The guides’ problem is still our sore point. The next generation has not yet been trained and the good ones have all left. We are still with the "faute de mieux" guard. But we hope that things will improve in the near future.

    My specialty in the office is transport. A lot of technical detail work and quite a lot of "zores", but as there are new difficulties with passports and transit visas every day, it's important and can't be done on a routine basis.

    Also, strangely enough, I am a specialist in all things Maccabi Hazair (Chever Hakwuzoth). This actually happened quite by chance, because I was out at the Teva camp and got in contact with the unit’s leaders. As this unit is otherwise unpopular in the office, I get all the things related to it and I don't care. So I have now done the confirmation for Kiryath Ashwun and will probably do it again for Ramath David.

    When Greta leaves, my field of activity will probably shift somewhat. I will have to take on more correspondence. I think the time will be very educational in every respect, if only because of the additional responsibility I will have to bear.

    Funnily enough, Eva Stern will be on vacation at the same time and my sister Lola will be stepping in for her. We are already looking forward to the business meetings together!

    Dear Miss Szold, this has turned into a very "technical" letter. I've come so far that I simply have nothing else on my mind!

    I wonder if you will come via Germany on your way back? How nice it would be!

    With all my heart

    Your grateful

    Gisela Warburg

  • Berlin, March 22, 1936

    My dear Miss Szold,

    The bearer of this letter is my cousin Eva Warburg, who is coming to Palestine for the first time.

    If I am sending these lines for you with her, even though I know how overburdened you are in every respect, it is firstly because I cannot imagine Palestine without you, and I would like to help Eva, whom I love very much, to meet you, even if only for a fleeting glimpse and acquaintance, and secondly because I am sure that you will enjoy this independent, ambitious person. She founded a non-Aryan kindergarten in Hamburg in 1933, which started with only 8 children and now has 45. She built it all up herself and runs it completely independently.

    If you can give her some advice, I would be very, very grateful.

    With reverence,

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • March 26, 1936

    Dear Gisela,

    I just received Greta Kitzinger's letter of March 17, in which she tells us about an upcoming surgery.

    Hopefully it is really only a minor surgery and everything is already fine again.

    The fact that she speaks so confidently about a trip to Palestine in the near future reassures us that it is really only a minor surgery.

    We are sending the greetings to you and Edgar Freund from all staff from here. We hope that there won’t be any serious problems in our common work.

    I feel nearly ashamed to write these short lines to you, when two dear letters from you are lying unanswered in my portfolio. Do not take it personally with me! I cannot describe, how my hectic life has been in the last months. I have no time to do anything human, anything that makes the life worth living.

    With heartfelt greetings,

    Yours, Henrietta Szold

  • Berlin, April 5, 1936

    My dear, revered Miss Szold,

    Thank you very much for your kind, warm lines of March 26, which made me very happy.

    I want to write to you straight away and tell you that Greta is doing really well again. She had a tumor in a lymph gland on her neck and, although the operation was not easy, she made a good recovery in 14 days in hospital. Unfortunately, not everything could be removed during the operation for cosmetic reasons.  The rest has to be removed by a very strenuous 2-3 week X-ray treatment, which Greta will now undergo in Muenschen, where she departed to yesterday. After the treatment she has to recover for at least 14 days. This means that she won't be able to come to Palestine before mid-May. I'm a bit worried that it might be already very hot, but she's so prepared and so looking forward to the trip that I don't want to advise her against it.

    It was very nice to be slowly weaned from Greta. I can still visit her in hospital and get her blessing.

    Thank you for the trust you have placed in me. I am aware every day that I cannot replace Greta in any way, but I am making a sincere effort to be a sub for her to the best of my ability. You must be patient with me.

    My "[Hebrew: Aliyah]" has to be now postponed a lot, but I am not sad because I know that what I am doing here is right and important.

    Dear Miss Szold, my letters must never be a burden on you to answer. I know so well what is weighing on you and I feel very, very close to you, even without hearing from you directly.

    Always your grateful

    Gisela Warburg

  • Near Stockholm

    July 27, 1936

    on board the "Kong Bele"

    Dear Miss Szold,

    From my vacation, which I will be spending on my brother's sailing boat on the east coast of Sweden, I finally want to write you a personal letter again, as I have been meaning to do for so long.

    I  think I never thanked you then for your kind, trusting words, which gave me courage and confidence to sub for Greta Kitzinger. Those were sometimes hard days, not because of the extra work, but because of the responsibility. But I am grateful to have had you, because I have learned a lot, especially through my mistakes and shortcomings. -- On August 1st I will have been in Youth Welfare for a year, with an interruption of 3 weeks last October, when I thought that my Aliyah would become reality. I almost can't believe it myself, this year has flown by so incredibly fast.

    I'm still hoping to get over (to Palestine) with Greta this fall. However, the situation has to calm down a little for my parents to let me go - if they don't let me go, under any circumstances, I'll be Greta's sub again.

    I'm embarrassed to keep talking about myself for so long. You will hardly believe how often and intensely I am thinking of you, especially on these difficult days for you. We are all following your advice closely and wish we could be at your side.

    I am enjoying this heavenly sailing trip in the Nordic fjords with an almost guilty conscience. We are doing nothing here but being intensely lazy, sunbathing, swimming and sleeping.

    When are you going on vacation? You need it so badly!

    Thinking of you with gratitude

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • Berlin, September 13, 1936

    Dear Miss Szold,

    Let me wish you [Hebrew: Happy New Year (Le Shana Tova)] from the bottom of my heart.

    Good wishes must have a particularly strong power this year in order to disperse the thick clouds that are currently gathering on the horizon and let the light shine again. If good thoughts really had power, then this year would have to bring you good and beautiful things, that's how intensely I wish it for you! Selfishly, I also wish for the fulfillment of the "[Hebrew: Next year in Jerusalem. (Ba Shana Abaa in Yerushalaim)."

    My vacation seems to have been a long time ago, that's how intensively the youth welfare services have been working on me again. First the transportation and now the transition of the prepared groups, which can no longer be covered by this small schedule and even 16-year-olds registered with us to Middle Hasharah. But I don't want to tell you any "tachless" (technical details) today.

    Greta should be with you soon, right? which makes me very happy for Greta, and then this really should be a "[Hebrew: great day]" letter!

    How I would have loved to come with Greta now! But the pile of work here, thank God, does not allow me to be sad about it.

    Dear Miss Szold, thank you for bringing me to this work, which really fulfills me. And I thank the Good Lord for you and your example that shines like a torch before us every day.

    With grateful love,

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • Berlin, December 14, 1936

    Dear Miss Szold, Your forthcoming birthday once again gives me an opportunity to write to you from the bottom of my heart to let you know that my thoughts are with you almost every day, even without the occasion of your birthday, I am thinking of you with love and wish you all good and beautiful things deeply from my heart today as I do every day. Every morning when I come back to the office and your portrait greets me, I am again grateful to God that you exist in this world and grateful to you for what you mean to me. May you continue to influence me like this in the coming year!

    Greta came back the day before yesterday and we are squeezing her like a lemon to tell us everything.

    I am so happy for her that she saw everything so thoroughly and was so completely welcome thanks to your personality. Now, of course, it's wonderful to have her here again.

    We are perhaps planning to go to London together over the Christmas holidays, Greta to visit her brother, me to visit my sister Anita.

    My plans for the future are still vague. The longer I'm in Youth Welfare, the harder it is for me to leave - and above all the greater the demands I make on myself until I allow myself to make aliyah.

    How I would love to see you again!

    Once again, I wish you all the best for the coming year,

    Your grateful

    Gisela Warburg

  • Hamburg Neue Rabenstr. 24 Oct. 24th, 1937.

    My dear Mrs Szold,

    I was so thrilled with your lovely letter from Paris that I cannot resist the temptation of answering you in spite of the danger, that you may not throw away this letter at once, or unjustifiably feel obliged to answer it one day.

    First of all I want to soothe your conscience — you should never have a conscience about me —. Besides your last letter I have four more, dated Aug. 18th, 1935, Oct. 11th, 1935, Nov 24th, 1935 and March, 1936. So now you see you have actually spoiled me!!!

    We are still quite numbed by the frightful news of uncle Felix's death.

    Although we all knew that he was very ill, it is hard to grasp this frightful loss. Apart from the irreplaceable loss for the whole Jewry, I feel the personal loss very strongly as I was deeply attached to him. However I feel so frightfully sorry for my dear Aunt Frieda. I have, however, come to the conclusion, that I can only act in his sense, by feeling his legacy as a responsibility and a duty and by trying in a very modest way to carry on his ideals.

    I have found in the Hamburg office more material than I expected and I am still ploughing my way through endless files. I am, however, happy for my parent's sake, that they have at least one child at home now during these trying weeks. (My brother is at present in New York.) — I presume, however, that I shall start off for London at the beginning of November. I am thrilled with the idea of a possible meeting with you.

    I have taken up my Hebrew lessons again. At present I am reading your pamphlet 'Kasidim ve'Yad,' which you gave me in Zurich. Had there been any room left for an enhanced admiration for you, it would have been brought about by your fantastic Hebrew style, which is quite a trial for me. Shall I ever learn it? I sometimes doubt it very much. Don't let them crush you with their affection. Please do indulge in some leisure hours with your family and friends and allow yourself some breathing intervals and a little bit of private life.

    Give my love to your dear sister Adele and remember me to Mrs. Pool and Mrs. Franklin.

    With Affection and devotion

    Yours truly,

    Gisela.

    My address in London will be: Cumberland House 17A Great Cumberland Place LONDON WI Tel. Ambassador 2007.

  • Berlin

    Wannsee

    2 May 1937

    Dear Miss Szold,

    Although I have long had the intention of finally writing to you again in private, I must confess that the reason for this letter is asking you for a favor.

    I would particularly like to recommend Gertrud Marx from Hamburg, who has been living in Beth Alpha Chefzibah for two years. Gertrud Marx is a doctor by profession, she had a very good practice in Hamburg - and at the same time has a very special interest and understanding for children. She has also worked (almost exclusively) in the children's home in Chefzibah. Her husband, who is also a doctor and was head of the Hamburg Zionist Association, divorced her over there to marry another girl he already knew from Hamburg. He came to Acre from the hospital and left his divorced wife with her lovely 12-year-old boy in Chefzibah, from where she wants to leave - partly because she feels quite lonely there, but also because she wants to convince her mother. She is a very serious, capable and brave person. She wrote to me that Hilde Hochwald had referred her to you and Mrs. Wrowsky. I would just like to recommend Gertrud Marx to you with these lines of mine, so that when she comes to you, you will already know something about her.

    So now you will probably not be coming to Europe after all to organize the Youth Aliyah in Poland. We met this news with mixed feelings. Worried by the imposition and the effort it would have meant for you, and overjoyed at the thought of being able to see you again.

    As you will know, I am still in Youth Welfare, it doesn't let you out of its claws so easily. I have become almost superstitious about saying anything about my Aliyah date out of fear that something might come in between again. But now I'm really hoping for the autumn. 

    However, I will probably be leaving the Youth Welfare service at the end of June. I've been promising my father for years that I would write his memoirs with him, and he's really pushing for it now. I think I'm quite inadequate for this task for many reasons, but I'll have to prove it so Dad believes me at last.

    I have now been in Geneva for a week with Uncle Felix and Aunt Frieda. I hadn't seen them for two years. Being together was incredibly nice and lovely.

    It is now exactly 2 years since you inspired me for the Youth Aliyah and showed me my way. I could not imagine my life without this content and support and I am deeply grateful to you every hour.

    How are you doing? Of course I don't expect an answer to this question, yes, to this letter, but I had to think this question out loud.

    Thank you for the warm welcome that you might be giving to Mrs. Gertrud Marx.

    With grateful love,

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • Hamburg Neue Rabenstr. 24 Sept. 30th 1937

    My dear Miss Szold,

    Ever since you left I felt the urge to tell you how much it meant to me to see you and how the example of your life stands before me like a torch light. I hardly dare to express these feelings—on the one hand, because I know how you hate these words and I hardly dare to say them before I have not jarred your influence by acting—on the other hand because the very thought of one more letter in your pile of unanswered personal letters makes me faint. So, please, promise me to destroy this letter at once and do not dream of answering ever!

    I shall give you a chronological report.— My motor-trip from Zurich via the Black Forest and along the Rhine to Holland was glorious. No puncture, no accident of any kind and wonderful weather.

    The material which I found in Amsterdam was overwhelming at first. I did not know where to begin and got frightfully depressed. After a while, however, (two weeks of intense reading and note-making) I had at least superficially gone through the whole material. I have now come home and am looking at all the files in the office, which I might need. The bulk here is still a larger one. I hope to have put aside by another fortnight what I shall need. Then I intend to work another week in Amster, dam to pack all my files and to settle with them in London for the winter. I have come to the conclusion that my part of the work can be got the preparation of the preparatory work, i.e. to get the material condensed and filed in such a way that more qualified people and father can start on the real job. I harbour the hope—and I pray that I am not being too optimistic about it—that if I work hard, I can have my part of the job done by spring. Needless to mention what then!!!

    I do hope you will have a satisfactory and not too strenuous stay in America. Give my love to your dear sister and yours for yourself.

    From yours devoted,

    Gisela.

  • Hotel Londres & New York
    15, Place du Havre
    (Gare St. Lazare)
    Paris

    October 14, 1937

    Dear Gisela:-

    In spite of the prohibition, I am writing in response to your letter of September 20. Emma forwarded it to me by air mail from Jerusalem. I do not sail until to-morrow, from Havre, so I can indulge in personal correspondence. At any rate, it was my intention to write to you during my transatlantic passage. I took with me all the letters you wrote me - December 14, 1935, January 19, 1936, September 13, 1936, December 14, 1936, May 2, 1937 and now, the last one, received here, September 20, 1937. I had determined to make a full confession of my sins as a correspondent. I refuse to believe that I left all of them unacknowledged. I could not have been such a monster. Yet not one of them is marked "Acknowledged, on such and such a date", as is my wont when I answer by hand. And to add to my crime, there was, in the meantime our close association at Zurich this summer. If I were a correspondent of the right sort, I should have started off the exchange of letters between us, on my return, by writing you at once how happy our renewed personal contact made me. Instead I raced up and down the Land, and plunged into preparations for the present trip, and again sank below the level of a social human being. Indeed, no one should permit himself to lead the life I have allowed myself to fall into, for as I have no contacts with friends through the written word, so I have none through the spoken word. Only sickness and death drag me out of the prison-cell of "work" to communion with friends.

    It is of course useless to attempt a response to all the letters I have enumerated. An analysis of them would lack all spontaneity. But I must confess, that I shrink even from reacting to your last letter just received, insofar as it is meant to convey your feelings towards me. I am always telling Emma, who loves me and in her affection exaggerates my character and intellectual values, that what I fear is that some time in the future, when I am no more, she will wonder why she attributed qualities to me she realizes I do not possess, and she may come to the conclusion that somehow it was I who humbugged her. I want her affection and I want yours, just because.....

    At this point I was called to the telephone - Greta Kitzinger called from Berlin.

    Your plan of work seems promising. I hope you will be able to carry it through, and carry it through by spring. I hope to be back in Jerusalem by the end of December, unless it should develop that on my return trip, I ought to make an Abstecher to England. Perhaps you will be there at the same time?! My stay there will in any case be very brief.

    It was not easy for me to leave Palestine on this American mission. It is the beginning of the year, and at this time there is much to be done to get the social service activities under way. The Youth Aliyah, with Hans Beyth and Emma Ehrlich at the helm, gives me less anxiety.

    My love to you and forgive me for being a rotten correspondent.

    Affectionately,

    Henrietta Szold

  • September 1, 1938

    [Photograph: RMS Queen Mary]

    Between Cherbourg and New York

    Dear Miss Szold,

    I am very concerned and have to say that you should know what motives compelled me to abandon the Youth Welfare service at this moment. I hope you know that if I did not feel responsibility to my parents and my duty to them, there would be no force in the world that could remove me from my position there.

    The situation is as follows: My sister Lola and her family are emigrating to England this week "for good", as my brother-in-law has been forced to sell his tube factory. My brother is also emigrating to America these days. My parents happen to be going to New York right now, as my father has some business matters there. With the war rhetoric raging at this time, they didn't want me to be the only one of the family to stay behind in Germany.

    Father was theoretically fully sympathetic to my anxiety that I would be a deserter if I left my ship as an officer at that moment, but exerted terrible moral pressure on me, claiming that my Mother with her nerves - and she is undoubtedly in a very poor condition - would not survive it if I were trapped alone in Germany. After many tears and struggles, I had to give in to this argument.

    I can't tell you, dear Miss Szold, what this decision cost me. I know that I am one of the few young people in Germany today who have no financial concerns, and that is not a virtue but a gift from God, thanks to my material safety I am still in full control of my nerves. Out of consideration for my mother, I must not put this at the service of our cause. - I hope to be back in Berlin in two months at the latest. My parents are going back at the beginning of November, but I almost expect that when the political horizon has lighten up a bit, they will let me leave to Berlin  before November.

    Incidentally, this material security and my nerves are also the main reason why I am still in Berlin and not yet in "Erez Israel". I know that I am needed more there because of the shortage of people. However, my mother's nerves in the last few months would probably have made my aliyah impossible. She would have been worried to death about me.

    So, as far as one can make any plans in advance, I want to stay at the Youth Welfare center at least until spring, especially since Hilde David will probably make an Aliyah at the end of the year.

    I would ask you to show this letter to Hans Beyth as well. Although we don't know each other, we have certain ideas and expectations of each other. I want him to know what prompted me to abandon my duty and act treacherously.

    It remains to be seen whether I can do something for Youth Aliyah in a different way over here during these weeks.

    I very much hope you are well. I think of you often.

    With deep admiration and gratitude

    Your Gisela Warburg

  • Jerusalem, October 6, 1938.

    Miss Gisela Warburg c/o Mrs. Felix M. Warburg 1109 Fifth Avenue New York, New York, U.S.A.

    Dear Gisela:-

    Are you surprised to have another letter from me after so short an interval? Promptly after I dispatched my former one to you, we had word from Berlin and from London that Miss Hilda David is leaving Berlin soon for Palestine. We are in despair. This is not the time for new, inexperienced forces to take hold. As a matter of fact, we were keenly aware of the absence of your guidance these last few weeks, weeks of strain and urgence.

    Now, am I writing to exercise pressure upon you to leave your parents and return to Berlin. I am not so bold and bad. But I do wish to say that if you do return to Germany, it is, in our opinion, you who must head the Jugendhilfe office, and that you must exercise additional self-denial with reference to your Palestinian plans. We must all strain every nerve to complete the Youth Aliyah movement from Germany within a measurable time. You cannot be spared from the helm if such a plan can be even approximately executed. I repeat, I cannot in conscience urge your return to Germany if your parents object. But if you return, you must, in our opinion, take upon your young shoulders, this great responsibility which I am outlining to you. You yourself in your letter to me state two reasons why you are in an exceptional position to be helpful. I add a third: your proved eminent fitness to do the big job that remains to be done, if the Youth Aliyah is not to remain a torso.

    Let me hear from you.

    My love to you,

    [Signed] Henrietta Szold

  • April 4, 1942

    Dearest Miss Szold,

    I always think of you but it seems to me that of late I have thought of you even more intensely. For six weeks I have been on the road for Hadassah – for the first not only Youth Aliyah, but as a ‘member of the National Board.’ I spoke at innumerable Donor-luncheons and it seems to me that every meeting we celebrated Hadassah’s 30th birthday. For an organization that may be a happy event, for a human being it is a milestone which you would like to forget. But Hadassah and I were born in the same year and so on the whole trip my age was daily rubbed in. Can you imagine that I resent to be reminded of it daily – although somehow I sometimes wonder whether it is perhaps more than a coincidence but a little bit of fate that we should have been born in the same year. Time and again – no daily – I thought of you – how this baby of yours has grown into such a powerful human being of an organization. Then all of a sudden then it struck me that you write me such detailed conscientious accounts of your inspection trips to the different Youth Aliyah settlements and that probably you would be equally interested in such a detailed account of my trip. I decided to make use of one of my leisure days here in Palm Beach, where I am concluding my trip with a 10 days’ vacation at Aunt Frieda’s. All this happened before I read Marvin Leventhal’s [Marvin Lowenthal’s] “Henrietta Szold Life and Letters.”

    I started it sometime yesterday and I could not put it away. I read until 3:30 in the morning and I was so moved that I cried. I don’t even know what made me cry. I think a terrific nostalgia and longing for you and Eretz Israel. You and Palestine were so painfully and tangibly alive – all of a sudden I realized I am living under a suppressed nostalgia. In one of your letters after the celebration of your 70th birthday party in this country you write, ‘I haven’t done an honest hour’s worth of work of thinking since I arrived here; it’s dinners and banquets and luncheons and teas and meetings until I feel like a bubble filled, not even with gas, but with that “inspirational” fluid I am expected to give out all the time. The worst of such a regime is that it unfits one for the real things.’

    That describes my state of mind to absolute perfection and at times I am scared what is becoming of me. I am living on past experience – in my old country and in Eretz Israel and it is getting thinner and thinner – not to the outside world – they think I am improving because I speak with greater ease – but I feel that there is no real refueling – and I don’t see how it can come before this wretched war is over and I can at last come to Palestine. Reading your letters I realize how I can refuel myself to a certain extent and make use of the time – that is by studying, and learning. I envy you for one thing – that is the rich Jewish background and tradition from which you spring and which I am so woefully missing. If only N.Y. would not be such a mad house in which you are for no good reason in a perpetual hectic rush and need three times the energy that you would need anywhere else to swim against the stream and lead your own life and study and learn.

    Before I read your book I thought that I had to tell you an enormous number of observations about my insight into American Jewry and their present attitude. But after having read it, I see I have little news – very little has changed in really. We seem to be the sickest people in a very sick world.

    However, this is the general situation at present among our people and not a pretty one:

    1)         Those who dance around the golden calf of negative assimilation tumble at present over themselves to be the most active (and to my mind the most pushy) in National Defense and Red Cross work. They think the Goyim will admire them so much in their patriotism, that they will forget that they are Jews, because they themselves would like to forget it.

    2)         They are delighted that the Jewish problem is at present merged into the larger issue and they would like to feel themselves that the Jewish problem will be solved automatically by a victory of the democracies. You have got to make them see that the problem will only start then.

    3)         They succumb to a new kind of isolationism, equally dangerous as the old one. ‘Now that USA are at war we have got to concentrate all our energies and funds right here.’ The fact that nobody has branded this isolationism more than the President does not convince them.

    4)         The German Jews – the influential well-to-do people ‘from the right side of the track’ don’t even come to meetings. National Defense and Red Cross are a wonderful excuse – they are too busy.

    In that respect I have lost the value for Hadassah which I had at first. I can no longer attract that section – as the Refugee who just arrived and was therefore a sensation – and the ‘glamorous’ name does not foil them any longer either. By now they know that in spite of my respectable name I am a Zionist! I am all the more sad about that fact for I am conceited enough and know that I can convince just the people from that background – if they only come out – for I know them so well. It is my background – I speak their language.

    5)         Perhaps no part of the country illustrates this more clearly than Texas, where we are definitely still on the ‘wrong side of the track,’ and where the backbone of Hadassah are still the good old Eastern European first generation stock – who do not know why they are Zionists. It is Zionism of the heart, which dies out and must be replaced by Brandeis Zionist – and that is intellectual Zionism via an American approach because the other side and the second generation has no Jewish heart left. To make that bridge, which by the way, we have successfully made in many parts of the country, you need one of two things: Either real solid education or Mrs. Schnickelfritz – the rich, influential social leader of the community has to catch the bug of Zionism. If she is a member of Hadassah the rest of the flock will follow like sheep. It will become, funny as that may sound, “kosher” for them. This again is not news to you.

    These general may sound more pessimistic than I would like them to sound. Hadassah is in spite of all these odds the strongest Jewish organization in most communities and the fact that you have nothing socially to gain by joining Hadassah is one of the great assets of the organization. You join for the sake of the cause, period!

    Now chronological. I started out on February 10th and travelled three days and four nights across this vast continent – straight to Seattle, Washington. It was the toughest community of all, which was probably good for everything else seemed easy after that.

    Hadassah is on the wrong side of the track. Its president is an efficient Council of Jewish Women ex-president. Unfortunately, she takes Hadassah’s lack of popularity personally, walks around with a chip on her shoulder and bites sometimes tactlessly. I had to appear before the Budget Committee of the Welfare Fund. You will know that we are in many of the larger cities totally, or with one or two projects in the Fund.

    As national policy we prefer not to be in the Fund -not because we do necessarily better financially – but because the strength of the organization lies in this healthy combination of education and fundraising. The ZOA and UPA are the best examples that you deprive the organization of its life breath if you take one away from the other. On the other hand, in some cities the Welfare Fund is as well organized and a real community effort that the ill feeling which Hadassah would cause were it not to play ball, would harm our name in the community, which isn’t worth it. – Unfortunately, in most cities the officers of these funds are the well-to-do, influential men in that community who are among the highest contributors. Many of them are Jews ‘by an unfortunate accident,’ belong to the reformed congregation for social reasons, the others don’t want them – but have no positive Judaism whatsoever. The Welfare Fund run like an efficient business – are raising more funds than in previous years – but their ways of raising them are often revolting. If you give to the Fund you won’t be ‘bothered’ again. Mr. Levi gave $800 and you certainly can’t give less and they are blackmailed into their donations. – The Budget Committee decides on the allocation of funds. That is another sad chapter. The ignorance and lack of education of these men is appalling, although I still admit it is hard to be well-informed on some 40 organizations, which they include in their appeal. Most of them spend hours just comparing what other communities of their size (equally ignorant) raise and allocate. Here is one point on which I disagree with the Zionists. The Council of Welfare Funds wanted to appoint a ‘neutral’ committee, which was to study all the organizations, their financial reports, and then was to advise the local Funds as to their distribution of funds. The Zionists fought such an advisory council bitterly. Their reason is that if a person has been ‘neutral’ all his life he certainly has no understanding of Zionism and we might do better if we send good representatives to represent us before the local Budget Committees. – I would rather see them well advised than yield to any pressure from any side. Back to Seattle – The Fund was on the point of dissolving. Jewish needs are secondary today, etc. I felt like pitying these men like individuals, who are deprived of the joy of being Jews but I resented the fact that they should be the leaders of the Jewish community. One of these men had previously said to one of the Hadassah ladies that he thought it was unfortunate and inappropriate to send an ‘enemy alien’ to the coast at this time. (For a change I fall once again under this category!) I tried to explain to him if he as a Jewish leader does not realize and keep alive the difference between a technical and a loyal ‘enemy alien’ and a real one – the Government does – how can he expect anything else from the man in the street whom he should educate.

    Portland, Oregon, was a relief after that. A good active membership and a very alive and favorably inclined Welfare Fund of which 4 men are Hadassah husbands. They are allowed but one fundraising activity outside of the Fund – their annual plum puddings. They have a Gentile clientele of 2,500 steady annual customers and around Xmas time the whole Hadassah membership works day and night at the baking machines, packing, delivery, which creates an excellent ‘chavra spirit’. There is a wonderfully peaceful spirit in that community. The reason is the personality of Rabbi Berkowitz just as Rabbi Koch is largely responsible for the deplorable state of affairs in Seattle. Rabbi Koch, by the way, has just been pensioned. They have interviewed a number of candidates to succeed him, to his and their disgust all the young, reformed Rabbis seem to be Zionists – so – so far – they have been unable to make up their minds. However – that a gradual change is taking place can be seen when you realize that at the recently held convention of reformed Rabbis, 2/3 voted in favor of a Jewish army!

    Next stop, Sacramento. Here the Y.A. chairman had used the proceeds of the Minyanim to buy Defense Bonds, which she intended to send to New York. I had to convince her with the tongues of an angel that she was not helping us that way – were we to sell the Defense Bonds it would not serve its purpose – were we to keep it 10 years it would not serve our budget. I suggested to her to raffle off the bond – that way it serves both purposes.

    Reno was next. All I had known about it was divorce – nobody had told me it was the center of gambling. So you could have seen the National Chairman of Youth Aliyah gamble from 10:30 a.m. until noon at a gambling joint filled to capacity at that hour, unable to live or die with stately stake of $1 – which I had allowed myself. – The chapter is a depressing still-born baby, founded by some Hadassah lady who got her divorce there. I wrote to the National Board that the only hope for the survival of that chapter would be a resolution on the part of the Board members to get their divorce there in succession. Else the chapter better die. They have 30 members who are also too busy playing Bingo, Reno or Tango (all different names for the same childish Domino-gamble) to do any work. Cultural standard pitiful. The Rabbi has to be a Schochet and owns the only kosher boarding-house house in town to make a living. I had Friday night dinner at his house – two young women from Brooklyn – in Reno on the usual business – and four strange traveling salesmen – 3 children, 2 of whom played ball in the dining-room during dinner. The Rabbi a Lithuanian Revisionist. –

    Four 5 days I stayed in San Francisco. Spoke at their dinner luncheon (200 against 450 last year). They had invited the consuls’ wives of the Allied Nations. That was a good idea – they all came. Spoke for the Juniors, the B & P’s and to about 25 ladies of Rabbi Reichart’s reformed congregation whom the charming Cantor Minder and his wife had invited for me. We had an interesting, ardent discussion about the Jewish army. Reichart had spoken from his pulpit about it the previous Friday and had said: ‘What is wrong with our American army that isn’t good enough for our Jewish boys?’ You can imagine my holy wrath at this unfair presentation. – I spoke to the Sunday schools – in Oakland, San Jose and Peninsula.

    Oakland was supposed to have the Regional Junior Hadassah Conference. On account of ‘war conditions’ they did not think it advisable to have it. They have not yet begun to know what war conditions are. If you think how abnormally normal life is being carried on in London under perpetual blackouts. On the coast, life comes to a standstill and they think the end has come when they have a blackout! -- I could only meet with the Executive Secretary of the Welfare Fund. The members of the Budget Committee were too busy with National Defense. – Thence via Stockton and Fresno – the latter a gem of a little chapter with excellent leadership – to Los Angeles where I stayed 9 days – visited from there San Diego, Long Beach and Pasadena.

    San Diego has tripled (does such a word exist?) its population. It is simply buzzing with defense work and the exhibition grounds have been turned into a naval school. The chapter is less ‘inspirational’ still going through childhood diseases only having been founded a year ago. In Long Beach they had invited all women’s organizations which gave me a chance to do some proselytizing. -

    Pasadena is a brand-new chapter founded by a Hadassah member who moved there from Los Angeles. It is going to be very good. – Los Angeles itself – when they saw that they could not get the ‘right’ private homes this year – gave a Y.A. luncheon at Earl Carroll’s. I am sure you know just as little as I did, what kind of an establishment that is! Although I discovered later that even my little cousins in the East knew that that is America’s ‘biggest night-club with the best floor shows!’ I had thought very naively up to the moment of my entrance like Radio City with its cupola ceiling and its terrace-like floors and large stage. The walls were covered with film stars. It dawned on me once I was inside – that during my visit two years ago I had danced there, which gave me a brainstorm when I got on my feet to say that I had then little expected to return as the major part of the floor show! Guests of honor were Franz Werfel and Irving Fineman. 1200 women had actually appeared. The price was $1.75, of which of 25 cents went to the food – only fruit salad and coffee – 50 cents towards renting of the space – and $1 towards Y.A., which I thought was an excellent arrangement. Some additional $4,000 was raised after my speech, though a very poor appeal for money. If that part had been handled better – we could have raised much more. But I hate that part anyway. Some of the ladies present were there who had refused to open their homes. After the meeting they were willing to, but that was unfortunately too late as my schedule for the rest of the trip could not be changed. – I spoke just at two private homes and at a Beverly Hills chapter luncheon.

    I stayed in a charming house with Dr. and Mrs. Max Adler from Chicago (their children are friends of mine). She is a sister of Julian Rosenwald. You may know her. –

    Next Denver donor luncheon – the highest figure of attendance ever had – 400 – A very beautiful spirit. $800 – Defense Stamps were sold during the meal. The Juniors at night – a pretty pathetic group. If only the Juniors would not try to pussyfoot members in by social attractions – it should be clear from the beginning that you do not join Junior Hadassah ‘to have a good time.’ We have nothing to offer on that line that they couldn’t and shouldn’t find elsewhere! – From there I was supposed to go to Dallas.

    The train schedule had been changed the previous day – nobody knew about – I missed the train consequently, and being an ‘enemy alien’ I am not allowed to fly. I tried everything to get an exemption from the U.S. Attorney in order not to have to let down Dallas – but in vain. I made up for it at the end of my Texas trip and went directly from Denver to Houston.

    I have already given you a general picture of our status in Texas. Unfortunately, the regional president is very poor. I spoke at a joint (Senior, B&P and Jr.) Board meeting and at a guest event of their annual dinner linen shower. A goodly crowd of about 300 people but none from the reformed circle. Next day I spoke for the Women’s Division of the United Jewish Appeal in the morning and at lunch to the Budget committee of the Welfare Fund. At night B&P and Juniors. I suppose you would hardly recognize Houston. It has the most gorgeous, huge residential section in a restricted park, which looks as if it had a few centuries of good southern tradition, while apparently it all sprang up within the last twenty years – built mostly by oil-kings. The fate of two refugee families from Hamburg is worth recording.

    One – an orthodox, middle-aged couple (his sister was my father’s secretary for many years (best stock of cultured people. Jewish culture, German culture and, above all ‘Herzensbildung’). (The sun was hot just now that I had to take a dip in the pool before continuing – so I hope you won’t mind if this letter gets a little wet!) They were told in Houston that the only way that they would be able to observe the Shabbat would be if they were their own bosses. So they were given a loan to start a little grocery store in a sort of shack. Their best and only good business hours are during the times when the department stores are closed – so they work daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. including Shabbat – they would be unable to make both ends meet were they to omit Shabbat. Socially they are absolutely isolated as most orthodox German Jews. I tried my utmost to have her employed as a full time teacher (they could not find a better one anywhere). Then they would observe the Shabbat and be at least ‘a king’ once a week! –

    The other people are a young couple. She used to be a member of the hockey club to which I belonged. I never knew she was Jewish. He is an oil-product salesman for Rudolf Sonneborn. A smart guy, who realized it was ‘the thing to do’ to join the reformed congregation to have the right standing in the community. One day the Rabbi called on this young woman and asked her to teach Sunday school. She confessed that she had had but very meagre religious lessons from the Protestant minister abroad. He told her not to worry if she were but two lessons ahead in the books that he was going to bring her, she would be well able to teach the kids. She accepted and she got so fascinated that she is not lighting Friday night candles, and fasted for the first time on Yom Kippur, etc.

    Unfortunately, not all are developing that way. Especially in Los Angeles I saw pathetic examples of escape and self-hatred among the well-to-do refugees, who if they fled last from France or Switzerland (and are by no means citizens of either country) pretend to be French or Swiss Christians. Now with the enemy alien regulations (curfew, etc.) the skeleton comes out of the cupboard! You can imagine how such specimen hurt me! –

    From Houston to Galveston I had been looking forward to meeting Rabbi Henry Cohen. He has the vision and tolerance of old age mixed with a youthful spirit. I spent two delightful hours with him. He asked me in the course of the conversation, ‘Why are Hadassah members not members of Council?’ I said, ‘Rabbi a good Jew answers a question by asking another one: ‘Why are Council members not members of Hadassah?’

    Rabbi Feigon is the very alive, well-read Zionist orthodox Rabbi of Galveston. A fine type – but I think more worlds separate his and Rabbi Cohen than Rabbi Cohen and his Gentile colleagues. East and West. Sometimes it seems strange to me that I fool myself to understand both.

    Next San Antonio, which fascinated me on account of its strong Mexican influence and its historic sights. The Alamo, The Missions, the Mexican food. Appalling contrasts between unbelievably rich and unbelievably poor. Mrs. Fred Oppenheimer, who is the ‘top of right side’ is a miracle on the National Youth Aliyah Committee. She had a tea for me in her house – and invited 50 – 18 appeared. She was more disgusted than I. Her husband – a retired doctor, built himself a Gothic Museum, filled with first class stuff that he collected on trips to Europe. Quite a surprise to find, of all places, in San Antonio. – We got the 18 women active – and I spoke at a large Hadassah evening meeting and at a luncheon. – Dallas again – the Hadassah members had been unable to make the ’right contacts’ for Youth Aliyah. Mrs. Oppenheimer from San Antonio arranged a meeting at one of her friends by telephone. So the day there, with three meetings altogether, was rather successful.

    Oklahoma City has a nice, lively growing chapter.

    In Kansas City, Chaim Weizmann converted a Mr. and Mrs. Fred Uhlman – German Jews, very influential, on his last visit. We followed her up. She not only is on the National Youth Aliyah Committee but she agreed to be the chairman for the donor luncheon and by now she is a staunch Zionist and get very annoyed with the attitude of her social friends. The donor luncheon – largest attendance ever had – over 400 – was a great success: Evening meeting with a very lively Junior and H&P group. After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Uhlman had invited 50 of their friends to hear me talk in their home.

    St. Louis – Women’s Division of the Welfare Fund. An utterly uninformed bunch of smug women, who are to solicit. They really have not yet grasped what it is all about. Budget Committee of the Welfare Fund – account of last year’s achievements and figures, plan for this year’s allocation. They are convinced they will collect less on account of higher taxes! –Evening with very uninspirational B & P’s and very socially minded Juniors. – Last step Indianapolis. A very fine – excellently attended donor luncheon – medium Juniors and B & P’s. ---

    A trip full of atmospheric contrasts finds its climactic contrast in Palm Beach, where for 10 days I do nothing but eat, sleep, read, bask in the sun and like a mole dig my way through a mountain of unanswered letters. Your botanic heart would go into ecstasy here. The vegetation is so unbelievably divine. Aunt Frieda and I notice little of the so-called Florida life. We live like hermits and love it. Although this rest is on Aunt Frieda’s part compulsory. She was laid up for almost three months this winter with a revolting heart and she still tires terribly easily and can stand very little. For someone who has always been so active as she never ill for a day, it is very hard to take. But she is learning to accept it. She is lying on a canopy chair next to me devouring – guess what – your book!

    16 pages and I could chat on for days. Please don’t dream of answering. Just confirm its arrival.

    I kiss you and hug you in devotion.

    Always yours gratefully,

    Gisela

  • Mrs. David de Sola Pool
    National President
    Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America
    1819 Broadway
    New York, New York, U. S. A.

    Dear Mrs. Pool:

    In the series of letters from you, extending from January to April of this year, which I had, it might appear to a casual observer, neglected shamelessly, there was one, a second one dated March 12, which seemed to me to require a place by itself. It deserves a place of its own because it describes a fine human being - Gisela Warburg - truly, sincerely, appreciatively, and lovingly. Further it deserves a place apart, because it conveys an affectionate regard for my needs.

    You should gather from the above paragraph that I agree with all you have written. About Gisela, her ability, her devotion, her humanity. If you gather my agreement with you in your estimate of her, you will not misunderstand what I am about to write. If Gisela decides to execute your plan of inducing her to come here, she must not come as my "assistant" in any, even the widest interpretation of the term. She must come to live in Palestine and do what her capable hands and active mind and warm heart find to do. If she wants to study International Administration, she should by all means do so. Doubtless such study will have a value in making still more effective her effective powers. But if she does not study what is supposed "to aid in the development of personnel capable of performing tasks of an administrative nature which Americans may be called upon to perform", she and her like can fill places here, provided they come here to live and act and permit themselves to be claimed by what is to be done and what they can do. If being an "assistant" to me turns out to be the task that has been waiting for such a personality as hers with the education she has been equipped with by opportunity, by living, and by working, then "assistant" to me she should be. In my opinion the time is past when "administrators" should be brought from abroad. It may be well if in Palestine, as elsewhere, physicians, and professors, and specialists in science and technical arts are invited to come. But not the personnel that does public work of the citizen.

    Is that un-modern, un-post-war? If it is treason to the new order we dream of, make the best of it!

    At all events I have nothing to suggest by way of preparation for her coming to live and act in Palestine.

    Did I, indeed, as you write, make frequent references to the need of finding the right kind of assistance in directing the Youth Aliyah? I cannot recall such references. As a matter of fact, I have had the most devoted assistance from Mr. Beyth and Emma Ehrlich. They both have carried a huge load of details on the one hand, and on the other hand have been most intelligent and wide-awake counsellors. There is room in Youth Aliyah for more such co-workers, and Gisela is eminently one such!

    One suggestion after all: Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew!

    Affectionately

    Henrietta Szold

Peter Sauter
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