Freund-Rosenthal, Miriam Kottler
FREUND-ROSENTHAL, MIRIAM KOTTLER
FREUND-ROSENTHAL, MIRIAM KOTTLER (1907–1999), U.S. Hadassah leader. Born in New York City, she received her Ph.D. in American history from New York University, with a specialty in American Jewish history. She taught in the New York public high schools until 1944. From 1940, Freund-Rosenthal was a member of the National Board of Hadassah and held major positions in the organization. She was Youth Aliyah chairman (1953–56) and Hadassah national president from 1956 to 1960. She was instrumental in obtaining the services of Marc Chagall as creator of the twelve stained-glass windows in the synagogue at the Hadassah Medical Center.
Freund-Rosenthal edited the Hadassah Magazine from 1966 to 1971. She served as national education chairman, national vocational education chairman, national Youth Aliyah chairman, and national Zionist affairs chairman. Following her Hadassah presidency, she served as national Bond chairman, chairman for the Chagall exhibit, and chairman of the 1965 and 1977 national youth survey committee.
In appreciation for the work she did for Youth Aliyah to help North African Jewish children in Morocco, Youth Aliyah's Ohel Miriam in the synagogue in Ramat Hadassah Szold was named in her honor.
Freund-Rosenthal was also a founder of the Inter-Collegiate Zionist Youth Federation of America and a founding director of the Brandeis Youth Foundation. She was a national officer of the Jewish National Fund, as well as a national vice president of the Women's Division of Brandeis University. She also served as national associate chairman for the Women's Division of State of Israel Bonds. In 1991 she was elected an American regent of the International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization. She also served as national chairman of library projects, as Hadassah's national historian, and as Hadassah's United Nations non-government representative
She wrote Jewish Merchants in Colonial America (1939), Jewels for a Crown (1963), and In My Lifetime: Family, Community, Zion (1989), as well as articles on Zionism and American history. She also compiled and edited the book A Tapestry of Hadassah Memories (1994). Later in life she settled in Jerusalem.
[Gladys Rosen /
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]