She had no children, she was a diverse career woman with a significant contribution to Israeli social life, and the man with whom she found love, a common language, and tangential interests even though they didn’t have time to pour them into sandwich molds in the morning-showers in the evening-a bedtime story, informed her one day that he is in the process of starting a family – but not with her, but with a young girl he suddenly met and fell for him.
This is not Ruthie Brodeau – this is another admired woman and her name is Henrietta Sold. Her memorial day falls on L.B. in Shvet, which is the very day, and is the reason why our calendar has Family Day on this date (on this occasion, thanks to those who didn’t get wise even though Henrietta died after sunset – it would have caused us a mess with Mother’s Day celebrations on A. Adar A or Adar B. Blessed).
Henrietta Sold, photo: no
So what do you call Mother’s Day after a woman who had no children? This is one of the biggest paradoxes in the calendar of young Israel. But the bigger paradox is the attempt to close our eyes and control the culture of pretend equality on this day and call it family day. If we dive into the stories of the woman who indirectly caused this, we may better understand why this suppression of the parental woman’s permissible – even if she was non-parental – still exists in the face of the man and in the face of the washed-up definition “family day”. Besides, there is nothing more whole than a broken heart.
Gender blindness
Henrietta, who grew up in Baltimore and was the daughter of a rabbi, discovered from an early age a tremendous talent for reading and writing. The study of gender literature revealed to us a long time ago that the women who knew how to read and write around the 18th century were the daughters of educated people who picked up the language at home. Girls at that time did not acquire these skills elsewhere. Therefore, even when Henrietta began to publish articles – she did so under pen names. So much so that even today it is not certain that everything she ever published is in the archives, it is difficult to track down all the pseudonyms.
Henrietta, who had already given up on the possibility of becoming a mother, went after the narcissistic and educated man, although she disliked his arrogant, arrogant and exploitative style. She put her value fantasies on him, until all her happiness depended on him
Over the years, Henrietta became a talented and popular literary editor and writer among the Jewish communities in the United States, and she was not afraid to mobilize her work for the benefit of the Zionist idea. Over time, she became close to both the heads of the Zionist movement who appreciated her management talents as well as her sweeping writing talents and analytical ability.
In 1904, shortly after Herzl passed away, Henrietta began studying at the Schechter Institute in New York (JTS), a conservative seminary and a prestigious institution for the training of rabbis. She was the first woman to study there, and certainly the first journalist to write in advance about the rabbinic institution where she would study (“America is going to become the center of Jewish religious activity in the world and the chosen abode for Jewish education”), and was accepted on the condition that she would not require a real rabbinical certification (the Conservatives were somewhat orthodox at the time). She shone in the Beit Midrash, where she also met Prof. Levi Ginzburg, her disappointing lecturer on the history of the Jewish people. He was late for classes and missed meetings due to frequent illnesses and other occupations.
“Thanks to the mother who did not give birth, the nursing profession was regulated”, photo: Getty images
When she translated his writings, “Legends of the Jews”, from German to English, they formed a relationship, and Henrietta, who had already given up on the option of being a mother and starting a family like her other sisters, followed the narcissistic and educated man, even though she disliked his arrogant, arrogant and exploitative style. She put her value fantasies on him until all her happiness depended on him. Admittedly, the axis around which her life revolved was the Zionist matter, and Ginzburg showed no interest in it, but she thought it was a challenging gap in a good section. The relationship was built gradually over five years, at the end of which he told her that he had met the one and asked for her blessing.
Henrietta was hospitalized after she fell ill and was diagnosed with imaginary blindness. The doctors at the hospital operated on her eye before they realized it was emotional. As she was cleansed of the illusion, she recovered.
“Every ending is also a new beginning,” Salde concluded as she fully recovered from the concussion. This sentence is still written at the entrance to the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, giving hope for renewed growth.
A drop of milk and luck
When Henrietta stopped repressing – she became an empire. She expanded her maternal ambitions, recruited philanthropists in the US and founded the “Hadassa” organization. This Jewish partnership of fate initially gave birth to drug deliveries and ambulances, and later to the establishment of hospitals and clinics. I promised absurdity with an explanation, right?
Henrietta Sold with the children of Tehran, photo: none
The woman who never gave birth made sure that in Israel there would be a milk pasteurization institute, and inspired by it that mother and child care stations would be organized and become what we know as a “drop of milk”. Thanks to the mother who did not give birth, the nursing profession was regulated, because until then a nurse was not a professional but in the capacity of a doctor’s accidental assistant.
This war is not just iron swords, it is iron mothers. It is possible to make L. Bashvat a family day, but this is an unnecessary attempt to suppress a simple truth: as long as a woman is the procreator, there is no way for equal rights. As long as our hormonal composition is that of females, even if we have not given birth, there is no way for equality. A short survey reveals that most fathers manage to sleep at night when their children are recruited, compared to mothers who do not sleep a wink. And also women whose children are not at the front are more concerned about the state of the people. Like Henrietta. Because we take things to heart, and sometimes to the womb. Even if we didn’t use it. Once a year – it is allowed to salute the mothers of the nation. without repressing. simply.
I recommend reading the stunning biography “Leader Without Borders” by Deborah HaCohen, Am Oved Publishing, 2019.
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