Lotta Levensohn

August 13, 1882–1972

In Brief

Lotta Levensohn helped found Hadassah and played a pivotal role in its history as an independent organization for Zionist women. A leader of the women’s study group that formed the basis for Hadassah’s early leadership, Levensohn served for many years as a director of the Hadassah. She also served as secretary to Jacob de Haas and Judah L. Magnes, the successive secretaries of the Federation of American Zionists. In 1923 she made Aliyah and began writing and translating Zionist literature, including her 1942 Outline of Zionist History and her English translation of Theodor Herzl’s Das Altneuland. She returned to the United States in the 1950s.

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Bibliography

Dushkin, Julia A. “Lotta Levensohn.” Typescript. Seligsberg/Jacobs Papers, Hadassah Archives, NYC.

Levensohn, Lotta. “The Beginnings of Hadassah.” Hadassah Magazine (April 1972): 22.

Schoolman, Bertha. “Three American Pioneers in Israel.” Hadassah Newsletter (January 1956): 4+.

UJE; Who’s Who in World Jewry (1965, 1972).

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