Rose I. Bender’s work as a Zionist leader reached its high point when she became the first female executive director of the Zionist Organization of Philadelphia in 1945. Bender was a descendant of the Gaon of Vilna and was trained in the Talmudic tradition by her family. Interested in Zionism from an early age, she organized the first Young Judea Club in America while still in high school and served as its first president. Bender taught Hebrew and Sunday school before beginning work for Hadassah in 1927, eventually becoming the organization’s national chair of fundraising. She was a delegate to the 1939 and 1946 World Zionist Congresses.