Schächter, Regina

Regina Schächter was born on 28.3.1896 in Berlin and died in 1988 in Jerusalem. Between 1917 and 1921 she was head secretary at the Berlin Central Verein. Between 1921–1925 she volunteered as a mentor at Dr Sigfrid Lehman's ‘Yiddisher Volksheim’ youth institute for Jewish refugees from east Europe after the First World War. She continued to volunteer and it was only 10 years later, at the age of 33, that she began to study at the Verein Jugendheim (Easter 1929 – October 1929), encouraged to do so by Siddy Wronsky, and graduated with honours. Between 1925 and 1927 she worked as a welfare worker at the Jewish community in Berlin with Ostjuden, and until 1935 she headed the Jüdische Alterhilfe. Regina was a Zionist, influenced by Martin Buber's ideas, and between 1925 and 1929 she worked as the head secretary of the German Association of Zionist Women (‘Bund zionistischer Frauen Deutschlands’), participating in the 1927 Zionist congress. She accompanied the first youth group moving from the German ‘Yiddisher Volksheim’ to the Ben Shemen youth institute in Palestine and also helped transfer the ‘Ahava’ children's institute, founded by Beate Berger, to Palestine in 1934. There, she once again met up with Siddy Wronsky and also Henrietta Szold, who prepared her to work as a professional social worker by improving her Hebrew skills and understanding of the unique conditions in Palestine. Following a return to Berlin, in 1935 she emigrated for good. Afterwards, she began working at the welfare office of the city of Ramat Gan together with Hava Danziger (later to be Magnes). They founded many important services such as children's day-care for working mothers and a warehouse of clothes for the needy. She expanded her work into other neighbourhoods surrounding Ramat-Gan, an act which almost caused her dismissal due to political objectification by the Jewish National Council (‘Va'ad Leumi’). After the end of World War II, Regina was nominated as the first national supervisor of the social work services in the Yishuv, continuing in her position after 1948 and heading the department of organization and supervision at the ministry of welfare until her retirement in 1962. In 1950, she participated in the international social work congress in Paris. Following the independence war, Regina began with social activism in favour of the Arab refugees. She initiated the first social work training programme for Arab social workers and was involved in the Paul Baerwald school in Versailles.