Grammy was a founding trustee of the Long Beach Hadassah branch

Grammy was a founding trustee of the Long Beach Hadassah branch

• Nov 12, 2023
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I always remember how much our Aunt Joan was an avid supporter of Hadassah. Outside of her husbands and children, it was always her main thing, at least in my recollection. 

Now here's evidence from our recent Newspapers.com searches that the family association with the Jewish women's organization goes back further to Joan's mother Selma. It is a Brooklyn Daily Eagle article dated November 12, 1939 about the founding ceremony for a new Long Beach, L.I. chapter of Hadassah. 

Mrs. Walter Ruby is one of about 25 names listed as on the chapter board of trustees. This is about four months after her husband's untimely death.

Hadassah was founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold to rally American support for social services in Palestine, and later Israel, It quickly became established as the leading American women's Zionist organization.

Long Beach incorporated as a city in 1924 after a previous history as a resort destination. Walter Ruby moved his family there in 1931 at a time many Jews from the boroughs of New York were settling there. Up to sixty percent of the Long Beach population in the 30s and 40s was Jewish.

It makes perfect sense that our recently widowed grandmother would have been one of the Long Beach Jewish matrons who supported the installation of the new Hadassah chapter. And that Selma's daughter Joan Ruby Felenstein Meyer would carry on that torch throughout her life.