Hadassah Names Judith T. Alperin Chief Development Officer

Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, has announced that Judith T. Alperin has been named Chief Development Officer. Alperin, who will lead a team of 50 philanthropy professionals around the country, will report to Chief Executive Officer Naomi Adler and will be a member of Hadassah’s executive leadership team. The position was effective November 3.

In addition to overseeing Hadassah’s US fundraising group, Alperin will partner with Alder to solicit and steward major gifts. Alperin will also work closely with the heads of the Hadassah Offices in Israel and Hadassah International, the organization’s global fundraising arm, to raise funds to support the work of the Hadassah Medical Organization, Hadassah’s medical center in Jerusalem. Another special area of focus will be raising funds for Hadassah’s Youth Aliyah villages, which provide wraparound services for at-risk Israeli teenagers and for young immigrants from places in the world where it is no longer safe to be a Jew.

Alperin comes to Hadassah after almost seven years as CEO of the Jewish Federation Foundation, and JCC of Greater New Haven. During her tenure, she completed the integration of the Federation and New Haven’s JCC into a single $10 million operation with a staff of 250. In 2021, the Federation adopted a strategic plan based on the results of a community review, visioning and planning process led by Alperin.

Said CEO Adler, “We are extremely lucky to have Judy as our new chief development officer. A prodigious fundraiser and a dynamic leader, she understands what it takes to sustain the work Hadassah does to support Israel, fight antisemitism, advocate for women’s health care and help raise the money our hospitals in Israel need to care for more than one million patients every year and to develop medical treatments that save lives.”

“I am delighted to be joining Hadassah,” said Alperin. “As chief development officer, I will be able to use everything I have learned in previous roles in the service of a mission to which I am personally, as well as professionally, committed. And in Naomi Adler, I will have a fundraising partner whose vision and passion inspires everyone she meets.”

Alperin earned a BS in political science from Rutgers University and is an Executive Leadership Fellow with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. She was selected for the first cohort of the Jewish Federation of North America’s Fundraising University (2012-2014). An accomplished baker and entrepreneur, she built and ran Sweetiepies, a dessert business, before becoming a philanthropy professional.