Bernice Tannenbaum (6 November 1913 – 6 April 2015) was an activist with

Hadassah Hadassah () means myrtle in Hebrew. It is given as the Hebrew name of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. Hadassah may also refer to: * Hadassah (dancer) (1909–1992), Jerusalem-born American dancer and choreographer * Hadassah Lieberman (born 1948) ...

. She joined Hadassah in 1944. She was Hadassah's president from 1976 until 1980, and while president she began Hadassah's practice of periodically holding its annual convention in Israel, with the first such Jerusalem held gathering in 1978. She was chairwoman of the Hadassah Medical Organization from 1980 to 1984. In 1983 Tannenbaum established Hadassah International. She also lobbied against a statement equating Zionism with racism which was included in an annex to a report to be considered at the final conference of the

United Nations Decade for Women The United Nations Decade for Women was a period from 1975 to 1985 focused on the policies and issues that impact women, such as pay equity, gendered violence, land holding, and other human rights. It was adopted December 15, 1975, by the United ...

in 1985 in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had ...

. As stated in ''It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah'' (1997), by Marlin Levin, "Bernice asked resident RonaldReagan to publicly repudiate the U.N. resolution. He agreed and promised that the U.S. delegation would walk out of Nairobi if the Zionism-equals-racism resolution was included in the final conference declaration." Tannenbaum also convinced the United States Senate to condemn the conference resolution and demand its withdrawal. She also flew to Kenya with a draft of the Senate resolution, where Maureen Reagan, the daughter of

President Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and the head of the American delegation, repeated the president's promise to withdraw from the conference if the resolution was included in the final conference delegation. Kenya then brokered a compromise in which Zionism was omitted from the final conference report. In 2003 Tannenbaum was awarded Hadassah's highest honor, the

Henrietta Szold Henrietta Szold ( , ; December 21, 1860 – February 13, 1945) was a U.S. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandatory Palestine de ...

Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service.

References

External links

Guide to the Executive Functions Records in the Hadassah Archives
at the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and ...

at the

Center for Jewish History The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Mus ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tannenbaum, Bernice 1913 births 2015 deaths Jewish American activists American Zionists American centenarians Women centenarians Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America members 21st-century American Jews