Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, will officially launch its Centennial celebrations tonight on the site of Hadassah’s first Tel Aviv hospital.

Established in March 1912 by Henrietta Szold after a seminal visit to pre-state Israel, the organization reached out to American Jewish women to send personnel and funds to modernize health care in Israel. Hadassah created Tipat Halav, Israel’s mother and child clinics, and built western hospitals around the country.