c. 2003 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ June Walker knows how to draw a crowd for a cause. Decades ago while leading study groups for Hadassah, the nonprofit women’s Zionist group, she switched the next meeting’s subject matter from the Book of Job.

“Nobody wanted to study the Book of Job,” the Rockaway, N.J., resident recalled with a smile. “So I said, `How about we do a book group on `The Happy Hooker’? Forty-five people came. But when they got there, we discussed the role of feminism in American society.”

“I am shameless,” she said, still smiling. “I do whatever works.”

Walker, a 5-foot-tall, 69-year-old burst of energy, was installed Wednesday (July 16) as national president of Hadassah, a high-profile position involving frequent trips to Israel, persistent fund-raising and speeches.

“I would like women to be aware of themselves as American Jews and fully participate in the life of social issues in America … such as health, medicine and women’s rights, as well as support of our projects in Israel,” Walker said in an interview at a Manhattan hotel, where as the only nominee, she was elected Hadassah president Tuesday.

Hadassah, a 91-year-old women’s organization, has about 700 chapters nationwide and raises more than $100 million a year for health care and Zionist causes. Based in New York, the group runs the Hadassah College of Technology, the Hadassah Career Counseling Institute, two hospitals and 90 health clinics _ all in Israel. Hadassah also runs health seminars and programs across the United States.

Between $20 million and $30 million left by people in their wills to Hadassah each year comprises a large chunk of donations to the group, said spokeswoman Roberta Elliot.

Walker’s presidency comes after a half-century of volunteering at every rung of Hadassah. She started as a teenager in 1952 when her mother urged her to lead a study group. Later she sold homemade cakes to raise money for Israel and became more active in the group.

In recent decades, she chaired regional and national Hadassah committees. Since 1999, Walker has commuted from Rockaway to Manhattan as national treasurer, a volunteer job requiring about 60 hours a week.

Walker grew up in Queens, married Barrett Walker and graduated from Adelphi University with a chemistry degree in 1956. She worked as a chemist and moved to Rockaway in the mid-1960s.

She raised three children in Rockaway. Her family became rooted there while she managed Hadassah groups and committees in New Jersey.

Her presidency thrills fellow Hadassah volunteers in New Jersey.

“It’s a real kick to know the national president on a personal level and to watch someone you know shine,” said Lonye Rasch of Short Hills, a Hadassah volunteer for 25 years.

Carol Fein, who has known Walker almost 30 years, said Walker has remained accessible to New Jersey Hadassah chapters during her ascension through the ranks.

“If she can make an event, it goes on her calendar, whether it’s a $1 million fund-raiser or a small chapter that wants her to speak at a donors’ luncheon,” Fein said.

Walker has witnessed dramatic changes in the volunteer organization since the 1960s, when most members could give more time because they did not work outside the home.

“There was a time when a woman would give you an unlimited amount of time during the day,” Walker said. “If you take the average working woman (today), rather than give you her time to bake for a cake sale to raise money, she’ll write a check, because they have more money than time. We used to have it where they’d have more time than money.”

Membership is about 300,000, down from its 1960s peak of 325,000 but up from its lower point of 240,000 in the 1980s, she said. For the last 20 years, the group has renewed its focus on drawing younger women, as well as women over 60.

“We try to integrate the 60-year-olds as much as the 30-year-olds,” she said. “A woman who is 60 today is not an old person. She’s at her height of capability and potential. She’s not ready to go out to pasture.”

KRE END DIAMANT