January 30, 1933
The day Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg, Recha Freier establishes the Committee for the Assistance of Jewish Youth. The program, later renamed Youth Aliyah, rescues more than 11,000 Jewish children during World War II and becomes one of Hadassah’s signature programs while expanding worldwide to save Jewish children and bring them to Israel.
The idea for the program originated In 1932 when Freier, a German Zionist, sent Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, then serving as director of the Social Service Bureau of the Va’ad Leumi (National Council), a letter outlining a plan to bring Jewish youths from Germany to Mandatory Palestine to escape growing antisemitism. Szold, preoccupied with the social and financial problems in the Yishuv, was reluctant to take on new projects and rejected the proposal. Szold was especially worried about the inability of the Yishuv to provide for the many poor children already in Palestine.
Undeterred, Freier appealed to other Zionist leaders as well as the Histadrut labor union and found support for placements for some German boys. She set about to raise funds and began sending the first youths in October 1932.
With Szold still refusing to provide immigration certificates, Freier sets up her own organization January 30, 1933, so she can directly lobby the Mandatory government for the certificates.
The worsening of conditions in Germany and across Europe force Szold to commit Hadassah’s resources to the project, although the relationship between the two women remains damaged. When Freier arrives in the Land of Israel in March 1941, Szold tells her there is no position in Hadassah for her.
Only toward the end of her life does Freier receive recognition as the founder of Youth Aliyah. In 1981 she is awarded the Israel Prize. She dies April 2, 1984, in Jerusalem.
