American Zionist Leader Rose Luria Halprin Dies

January 8, 1978

Rose Luria Halprin, who served twice as the national President of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and held numerous leadership positions in the Jewish Agency during the British Mandate, dies at the age of 83 in New York.

Born into a Zionist, working-class family in New York in 1896, she received a Hebrew education as a child and became active in Zionist causes at a young age. Educated at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, Hunter College and Columbia University, she was married in 1914, settled in Brooklyn and had two children.

From 1932 to 1934, Halprin served her first term as national president of Hadassah. She then moved her family to Mandate Palestine to live in Jerusalem and serve as a liaison to the Hadassah Medical Organization during the construction of its Mount Scopus hospital, which is still active today. These years in Eretz Yisrael deeply affected her, solidifying her commitment to promoting Zionist causes.

In 1939, she returned with her family to New York. After seven years as a member of the Zionist General Council she was elected to the executive of the Jewish Agency and served in this capacity for 20 years. She served her second term as national president of Hadassah from 1947 to 1952.

Throughout her career, Halprin was outspoken in her belief that Israeli and American Jewry relied on each other, both promoting justice and equality in their respective societies, with Israel being the center of spiritual life for both.