Summoned to Jerusalem: The Life of Henrietta Szold

by Joan Dash

biography of a jewish figure

Genres: Biography

348 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Joan Dash is a prizewinning author of biographies for young adults. Her early works, including A Life of One's Own: Three Gifted Women and the Men They Married, Summoned to Jerusalem: The Life of Henrietta Szold, and The Triumph of Discovery: Women Scientists Who Won the Nobel Prize, participate in the growing movement to bring to light the achievements of notable women in history. In The Triumph of Discovery, for example, Dash puts the spotlight on four women who have won the Nobel Prize since 1960; at the time of the book's creation, only ten Nobels had ever been awarded to women, including two to Marie Curie. Dash was praised for clearly elucidating the nature of these scientists' contributions, as well as placing their personal and professional life experiences in the context of their times. Perhaps most importantly, "the author communicates the excitement and satisfaction of a life in science," remarked Zena Sutherland in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and found it gave a good emotional and ideological portrait of Henrietta Szold. I preferred it to the more recent (and award-winning) biography by Hacohen, which I found a bit propagandistic. This one also suffers from some defects, characteristic maybe of its time. It probably goes too far into Szold's documented or hypothesized emotional life (particularly in her relationship with Professor Ginzberg) , though I prefer too much to too little. And the author indulges in group stereotypes - Russian Jews, American Jews, Arabs all get a bit pigeonholed. But all in all, I think it's the best Szold biography I've found.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joan Dash gives us a nice look at the contrast between the woman Henrietta Szold was and what she achieved. I struggled to find much likeable about Henrietta yet grew to admire the tremendous achievement she made on behalf of the very needy pioneers at the founding of Palestine.

The book was not a nice read as the author worked so very hard to show sympathy to Henrietta Szold's harsh personality and lack of appeal that she interfered with the story.

I recommend the book not because it is enjoyable but because there is a marked lack of good material to let you know what a remarkable accomplishment Henrietta Szold made not in spite of, but because of her weaknesses.