By Michele Chabin
JERUSALEM–Not long after Israel declared statehood on May 14, 1948, Shoshana Dolgin-Be’er was attending the national convention of the junior division of Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America—today known as AMIT.
At the time, the 20-year-old was a member of the New York Junior Mizrachi Women chapter and worked as a secretary to the director of the Jewish National Fund.
Although the entire convention was magical, coming so soon after Israel’s Declaration of Independence, Dolgin-Be’er said, the highlight was hearing Bessie Gotsfeld, founder of MWOA/AMIT, deliver an impassioned speech about the importance of educating Israeli children and strengthening the fledgling Jewish state. “I’m not sure I understood the significance of this historic speech at the time, but I remember that everyone there was exalted that we had a country of our own,” she said. “We were in a state of euphoria.”
Raised in small Jewish communities in the United States, attending the New York event with hundreds of other young religious Zionist women “was more uplifting than anything I had ever experienced,” Dolgin-Be’er said.
She was particularly moved by Gotsfeld’s selflessness. “She was a modest, gentle, quiet person. She called her associates ‘co-workers’ and made them feel they were an integral part of everything AMIT was doing for the Jewish people,” Dolgin-Beer said.
Gotsfeld’s spirit and determination to help transform Israel into a modern, nurturing Jewish homeland motivated Dolgin-Be’er to co-found a Junior Mizrachi chapter when she moved to Los Angeles in 1950.
Dolgin-Be’er has been an active AMIT member for more than 70 years. She has celebrated and, while serving as the organization’s historian, recorded many of its milestones. In 1999, when she headed the Jerusalem chapter, she was honored as Woman of the Year at AMIT’s annual scholarship dinner. She has witnessed the organization and its schools grow into a large and respected network with thousands of passionate members all over the world.
Dolgin-Be’er’s leadership came naturally, having been raised in a family deeply involved in MWOA/AMIT. Dolgin-Beer’s mother, Rebecca Braver, founded a MWOA chapter in Kansas City, Missouri in 1938, where her family lived for a time. Her father, Rabbi Yehudah Braver, who was a rabbi in Akron, Ohio, from 1913-1923, and then in Kansas City, Missouri, for 21 years, was also an ardent member of the Mizrachi Men’s Organization.
In Los Angeles, the young activist discovered that religious Zionist women were yearning for ways to contribute to Jewish life in Israel and the diaspora. “We were all young marrieds and wanted to express our Yiddishkeit and support Eretz Yisrael,” Dolgin-Be’er said. “We didn’t have much money in those days, but we were active culturally and religiously.”
The group’s members also embraced projects to build Israeli society. “We knew what Bessie was doing, bringing young children, the remnants of the Shoah, to Eretz Yisrael and establishing homes for them. We wanted to help them and also help the women in Israel who most needed support,” Dolgin-Be’er said. “They needed housing and employment.”
Many of these young, idealistic Israeli women became the backbone of Israel’s religious Zionist education system.
In 1950, she and her husband, the late Rabbi Hyman Yeheskel Dolgin, an educator, visited Israel and got to see firsthand the impact that Mizrachi Women was having on the ground.
“We were invited to spend a Shabbat at Kfar Batya,” the organization’s first youth village. “The place appealed to us so much. It wasn’t very developed in terms of infrastructure, but the children, who were orphans, were being raised to love Torah and learn a vocation so they would be able to support themselves and contribute to Israel.”
One particular image from that weekend at Kfar Batya remains with Dolgin-Be’er until today.
“When we arrived, the children were polishing their shoes in anticipation of Shabbat. We weren’t an affluent organization, but Bessie believed in making Shabbat feel special.
“In the dining room there were white tablecloths and the children wore white shirts and blue pants or skirts. There were 10 children to a table with a madrich. They served the children their meals. They sang Shabbat songs, davened together. Bessie gave these children a home and raised them with Torah.”
Soon after the 1967 Six-Day War, Dolgin-Beer, her husband, and their four young children immigrated to Israel, a move she had anticipated for some time. While acclimating to their country and food shortages, she became a core member of MWOA/AMIT’s Jerusalem chapter, in which she remains active today.
“We were all women who found an outlet for our love of Yiddishkeit to support our schools,” she recalled. “We were very motivated to encourage bright children who needed to progress. It was wonderful to see the results of the hard work we invested.”
The women raised money to equip the library of the local AMIT school and sponsored much-needed scholarships to needy students. As the AMIT network grew, so did the group’s fundraising efforts.
Some of the chapter members also took it upon themselves to visit with new immigrants, especially from the former Soviet Union. “They didn’t speak Hebrew yet, but I could speak to them in Yiddish,” Dolgin-Be’er said. “I remember a boy who was very gifted in music. He had brought a keyboard with him. I persuaded someone to rent him a piano so he could develop his talent.”
New immigrants, even from North America, faced many challenges in Israel in the 1960s, she said, but the friendships the members of MWOA/AMIT formed was like a built-in support system.
“We didn’t have large apartments, but people were very hospitable. Welcoming guests was very important. As olim ourselves, we realized how vital it was to help people feel welcome and that they had a purpose for moving to Israel.”
Realizing from the start that the organization was making history, Dolgin-Be’er took it upon herself to collect decades’ worth of MWOA/AMIT documents.
They include photos and articles of Bessie Gotsfeld and photos of Kfar Batya, including one of former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt visiting the youth village and another of the village’s first class of students.
She also collected the organization’s internal publications—including AMIT magazines—a “songster,” calendars, and a wealth of historic newspaper clippings related to the organization.
During a moving ceremony in 2000, Dolgin-Be’er was present when AMIT donated these documents to Bar-Ilan University’s Jona Kirschenbaum Archives for the Research of Religious Zionism.
Shirley Schein, who serves on AMIT’s executive board in Israel, is grateful for these documents and Dolgin-Be’er’s efforts to preserve them. “The documents give you a sense of history, to see what these hard-working women have done,” said Schein. Many young people “don’t have a clue.”
Although Dolgin-Be’er is thrilled to see younger members of AMIT taking up the work she and others have been doing for decades, she bemoans their reliance on social media. “I’m very worried about it. People don’t talk to one another the way they used to,” she said.
While she sometimes reminisces about the past, Dolgin-Be’er’s sights are focused on the future.
“A lot of our children are winning prizes, distinguishing themselves in the army and at university. They need our continued support.”
Dolgin-Be’er hopes she will be able to attend the 100th anniversary in 2025. “The organization has been such an integral part of my life. I can’t imagine my life without it.”
