Henrietta Szold

An American scholar and editor who becomes the first woman to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, on the condition that she not seek ordination. She founds Hadassah in 1912 after a visit to the land of Israel exposes her to conditions there, and builds it into a medical network serving Jews and Arabs alike, eventually the country's leading hospital system. From 1933 she directs Youth Aliyah, organizing the rescue and absorption of children from Nazi Europe and personally meeting arriving groups. She saves tens of thousands of children and establishes the model of the Diaspora women's organization as a serious institutional force.