On October 5, Hadassah women welcomed the Jewish New Year with an apple-themed picnic at the Big 4 Bridge. While the Belle of Louisville floated by, women enjoyed apples from Huber’s Orchard, honey from Israel and homemade apple cakes and turnovers.
In keeping with the theme, “Looking to the Future,” the women wrote down personal wishes for the coming year and discussed Hadassah projects that emphasize future successes.
Louisville Chapter President Michelle Elisburg spoke about the Youth Aliyah villages in Israel, which provide a safety net of services to immigrants and at-risk Israeli children from poor or abusive homes in Israel. Students in these villages learn the skills they need to succeed in modern-day Israel.
Elisburg also discussed a recent New York Times report of a study by Israeli and United States researchers on Ashkenazi Jewish women and the BRCA breast cancer gene. The conversation centered around Hadassah Medical Center’s oncologist Prof. Tamar Peretz and her feelings on the ethics and implications of routine screening for these harmful genes in women without a family history of cancer.
Photos of bras that the women decorated were uploaded to The UpLift Project, Hadassah’s community outreach campaign to promote breast cancer awareness. The actual bras were donated to the Lite 106.9 Bra Bridge event October 10-12. Bras were hung from one end of the bridge to the other in support of breast cancer awareness.
The event culminated with a Heart Healthy walk across the bridge. The women paused at the midway point to blow the shofar and welcome the New Year.
Hadassah is the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. For more information contact Michelle Elisburg, meehadassah@gmail.com.
