Amelia Greenwald Back in U.S.; Founder of Warsaw Nurses Training School

Miss Amelia Greenwald, founder of the Training School for Jewish Nurses in Warsaw, who returned to the United States this week, in an interview with the representative of the “Jewish Daily Bulletin,” outlined the work of the training school. Miss Greenwald described the hardships encountered in founding this school which was opened in July 1923, and which, in October 1925, graduated sixteen Polish Jewish girls who had earned their diplomas as nurses. Miss Greenwald was decorated by the Polish Government for her work in establishing the school.

“There is no force in Poland which will act as an agency for good as will this group of girls who are going into homes, spreading knowledge and raising the standards of the people,” Miss Greenwald declared. “Through their work they will command the interest and the cooperation of every group in Poland. They will educate all to a better understanding and once their purpose is understood, it is my belief that they will be met more than half way by all who have the interests of Poland at heart.”

Before Miss Greenwald left Poland she gave public demonstrations of what the nurses could accomplish. She opened health stations in three already existing clinics. At one of these stattions, within a short time, one thousand children were enrolled. To these children the nurses are teaching hygiene and sanitation. The nurses will visit the homes and instruct the mothers in methods of child care and hygiene and will also do preventative tuberculosis work. “It is my ambition,” Miss Greenwald said, “to place one of these stations in every section of Warsaw and the provinces.”

“The Joint Distribution Committee made all this work possible,” she continued, “not only by financing it but also by means of letters of encouragement from the members. The feeling that American Jewry was watching our school, eager to see it succeed, heartened the Jews of Warsaw and aided them to fresh efforts.

“We estimate that it costs $1,000 to train one nurse. The J. D. C. could have given this sum to a needy family as relief and in a few months they would have been just as badly off as before. Instead, the organization has given Polish Jewish girls an occupation which makes them independent and allows them to contribute toward the maintenance of their families. To my mind this method of relief is real social work through which the J. D. C. is bettering the situation of the Jews in Poland not temporarily, but permanently,” she declared.