By Erica Sherman
On a frigid Saturday night, there was no hotter place to warm up than Brooklyn Hadassah’s Young Women Young Leaders’ (YWYL) sizzling Saturday Night Salsa event, held at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 7th Avenue in Park Slope. Hadassah, you say? And Salsa? And young women? That’s right folks. Organized by YWYL members Rachel Cannon, Amy Chamberlain, Shannon Dressler, Karen Monat, Rita Roitman, and Lisa Solo – all hip ‘n happening gals under 40-years-of-age – with assistance from Brooklyn Region President Roni Schwartz, the steamy soiree featured more than three free Salsa and Latin dance instruction with teacher José Luis Leone. Ladies and gents from the far reaches of all five boroughs, and beyond, came out to cha-cha, meet ‘n’ greet, and learn more about the myriad advocacy activities of Hadassah, the largest women’s Zionist organization in the United States. During a brief intermission, Monat, a lawyer at Hadassah House in Manhattan, spoke to the more than 75 attendees about Hadassah’s commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, its unwavering support of our First Amendment right of freedom of speech, a woman’s right to choose, stem cell research, and the pioneering medical advances made at Hadassah’s two Israeli hospitals, all of which have earned the organization a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, one of the two Jerusalem-based facilities, is currently treating Israel’s ailing Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, felled by a massive hemorrhagic stroke on January 4. While Hadassah “promotes the unity of the Jewish people,” the organization maintains a strict non-denominational status, freely inviting women of all ages and from all backgrounds, ethnicities and religious orientations to join. For more information about Hadassah and its YWYL group, call the Brooklyn Region office at 718-382-6454, log onto www.brooklyn.hadassah.org, or visit the national website www.hadassah.org.
