A newsletter from the Hadassah Foundation | |
Girls at a recent QueenB hack-a-thon. Scroll down to Grantee News to learn more.(On Ziv/Courtesy of QueenB) | 25 Years of Standing Up for Women & Girls | The Hadassah Foundation is turning 25 this year, and we are not just reflecting on the successes we've had, but doubling down on our support for women and girls. In this issue of our newsletter, meet our new grant recipients and learn about the vital work they are doing to meet needs on the ground and bring more women to the decision-making tables at a time of great challenges in Israel and the United States. |
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The Hadassah Foundation's Visionary Partner grant of $130,000, paid over five years, goes to an organization that has a strong track record as a previous grant recipient. |
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2024 Visionary Partner is Israel Women's Network | One of Israel's oldest feminist organizations, Israel Women’s Network (IWN) advances women’s equality through policy advocacy, public awareness campaigns, litigation, and a hotline providing free legal assistance in four languages. “The Israel Women’s Network addresses a broad spectrum of issues affecting women and girls, which makes it perfectly positioned to respond to the immediate challenges that have emerged as a result of the Hamas attacks and ongoing war,” says Joanna Golden, the Hadassah Foundation board member who chairs the Visionary Partner grants committee. |
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Israel Core Grants Awarded |
Women's Spirit received Israel's 2024 President's Volunteer Award in recognition of its work during the current war. Above, its leaders accept the award from President Isaac Herzog. (Photo courtesy of Women's Spirit) |
Meet the four newest recipients of Core Israel grants, each receiving three-year grants of $80,000. These grants focus on three areas of greatest need since October 7: gender-based violence; the impact of trauma and displacement on women and children; and the need for women to have greater representation in critical decision-making regarding the war, its immediate aftermath and national recovery. | Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, the national umbrella organization for Israel’s rape crisis centers, advocates for laws, amendments, rights, services, and policies to benefit survivors of sexual violence. | Eden Association provides trauma-informed care to women and girls in the Gaza envelope region. | The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center of Bar-IIan University promotes the status and rights of women in matters of family law and works to end gender discrimination and inequality in Israel through advocacy and legislative change. | Women's Spirit promotes the financial independence of women survivors of physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse in Israel. | The Hadassah Foundation will award two Core grants for U.S.-based organizations later this year and is no longer accepting applications. In the coming weeks we will be publishing a request for proposals for Spark grants, for emerging and startup organizations. |
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Photo courtesy of Itach Ma'aki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice | The Jewish Women’s Collective Response Fund, a new effort led by the Hadassah Foundation and Elluminate, awarded five grants of $25,000 each to support, elevate and empower Israeli women amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (The grants are in addition to the Hadassah Foundation’s regular grantmaking for 2024.) The Fund — representing the commitment of a total 11 Jewish women’s organizations throughout the country — awarded grants in May to the Adva Center, Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, Itach Ma'aki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice, the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center, and WePower. |
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The Hadassah Foundation is delighted to welcome five accomplished women to our board of directors, counterclockwise from top left: Dr. Olga Brawman-Mintzer of Charleston, SC; Stacey Aviva Flint of Longmont, CO; Kathy Hershfield of Boston; and Lida Sharlin of Sunny Isles Beach, FL. Also new to the board, but not pictured, is Avra Gordis of New York City. Board members of the Hadassah Foundation serve up to three two-year terms, and when they step down, they join the Foundation’s community of more than 70 board alumnae. | | |
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"Over the past 25 years we’ve helped build and nourish a powerful network of Israeli and Jewish feminist organizations," says Hadassah Foundation Treasurer Roni Schwartz in the May-June issue of Hadassah Magazine. "Our responsibility now is to help them succeed by ensuring they get the resources they need to take on today’s enormous challenges.” The article notes that the Foundation's mission of advancing gender equity in Israel and the U.S. "has taken on new urgency since October 7." |
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Participants at QueenB's Jerusalem hack-a-thon. (On Ziv/Courtesy of QueenB) |
Forum Dvorah, the only Israeli organization focusing on gender equality in key decision-making positions in the fields of national security and foreign policy, recently published Women Warriors, a website that tells the stories of Israeli women who have fought and died in the current war and throughout Israel's history. | Israel Women's Network, the Hadassah Foundation's newest Visionary Partner (see above), recently launched the Alice Shalvi Women's Rights Response Center, a volunteer-staffed call center providing assistance to inquiries about women's rights during wartime. The organization's new videos explaining specific rights available to women reservists and soldiers as well as spouses of reservists and soldiers, have generated more than 400,000 views on YouTube. Learn more about IWN's recent accomplishments here. | Jewish Women International celebrated a major victory last month when the Supreme Court upheld a federal law prohibiting individuals subject to final domestic violence protective orders from possessing, receiving, shipping, or transporting firearms or ammunition. JWI, which works to protect women's safety, build access to long-term economic security, and lift and mentor women leaders, led a faith-based amicus brief in support of upholding this vital law. "This ruling is a powerful affirmation that the United States prioritizes the safety and well-being of victims and survivors of domestic violence over the desires of adjudicated abusers to possess guns," said JWI CEO Meredith Jacobs. | QueenB, which teaches Israeli girls of all backgrounds to code and creates a community of female students in the fields of computer science and engineering, brought together more than 600 girls at three "hackathons" in June, where participants got expert feedback on the web apps they have developed. The apps addressed a range of topics, from film and fitness to online bullying and environmental issues. |
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Grantees in the Headlines | | |
Honoring the 25th Anniversary of the Hadassah Foundation | Mark your calendar for Monday, December 9, 2024 in New York City to join us for an empowering experience of learning and networking with leaders addressing issues paramount to women and girls in Israel and the US Jewish community. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks and months. | |
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About the Hadassah Foundation
The Hadassah Foundation is a leader in advancing gender equity in Israel and the United States through collective giving, relationship building, and education.
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Hadassah Foundation | 40 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005 | | | | |
