Ancient Jewish holidays take on added resonance in light of contemporary struggles. I feel this especially as we approach Purim and Passover. Both seem designed to illuminate our path today.

Purim is a blueprint for Jewish self-reliance and a testament to the power of women, a story that echoes across the millennia and gave us Queen Esther’s Hebrew name—Hadassah. Under the banner of her name, this organization became a trailblazer of women’s influence in the Zionist movement and in Jewish life. For the past 10 years, chapters around America have partnered with more than 150 synagogues to celebrate Hadassah Shabbat Zachor—on the Shabbat before Purim—and share their pride in Hadassah’s myriad accomplishments.

Passover, of course, is the foundational story of Jewish national independence, recalling how an exiled, enslaved people built a nation and culture that allowed the Jewish people to endure—and also influenced much of humanity’s religious and ethical legacy.

Though Moses was the leader who faced Pharaoh and led us to freedom, he was empowered by the women in his life: the midwives, Shifra and Puah, who defied orders to kill Jewish male babies; Yocheved, his birth mother, who hid him from the authorities; and Batya, Pharaoh’s daughter, who raised him. The Torah also recognizes Moses’ sister, Miriam, who led the Israelites in song after the Red Sea crossing, as a prophetess.

In the spirit of Purim’s self-defense and Passover’s liberation, the modern age brought us Zionism, the movement that began in Diaspora Jewish communities to support the rebirth of a Jewish state. Hadassah’s practical Zionism has been a pillar of Israel, building the emerging nation’s health care foundations, keeping the country at the forefront of medicine, pioneering education and nurturing immigrant, refugee and at-risk children.

When our founders began their work, American women didn’t have the right to vote. Hadassah’s advocacy and activism were accompanied by leadership training, seizing opportunities within the American Jewish community, the Zionist movement and the larger society to make an indelible impact. In just one example, Hadassah today claims a special status at the World Zionist Congress, whose elections are now open for its fall 2025 convening. 

We live in a paradox: For the Jewish people, the United States is the most welcoming society in history outside of Israel, but it has also gone through eras of antisemitism. What we are enduring now is the worst outbreak in nearly a century. We were alarmed by Charlottesville, by the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, by the soaring incidence of anti-Jewish hate crimes—yet none of this prepared us for the torrent of hate toward both Israel and the American Jewish community after October 7.

Guided by the example of our forebears who challenged Haman and Pharaoh, and the Hadassah women who came before us, our generation has risen to the occasion. As Israel has defended its borders and citizens, Hadassah has been defending the Jewish state in America’s corridors of power and internationally. Most notably, we launched our largest-ever global advocacy campaign, #EndTheSilence, gathering signatures from more than 130,000 people in 118 countries and demanding that the United Nations support an independent, unbiased investigation into Hamas’s weaponization of rape and gender violence on October 7 and beyond.

And in Israel, the Hadassah Medical Organization plays a vital role in treating and rehabilitating war victims, including at the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, thanks to the generosity and vision of Hadassah women and supporters.

To accomplish our goals, we need more women to join us. And as a result of our actions and our visibility, that’s exactly what is happening. More Jewish women, feeling in need of connection and support, are flocking to our ranks, in small communities as well as large ones. In troubled times, they find us—and we find the best in ourselves.

May we all have a joyous and empowering Purim and Passover!