On October 13, The Hadassah Foundation and the Jewish Women’s Funding Network held an educational briefing on the State of Israel through a Gender Lens to learn from Hamutal Gouri and Anat Saragusti about Israel’s most pressing social and political issues and their ongoing impact on women and girls.
Hamutal Gouri is a cultural critic, lecturer, consultant, and storyteller for social change. She holds a BA in English Literature and Inter-disciplinary Studies, and an MA (Cum Laude) in Cultural Studies from the Hebrew University.
Hamutal served as Executive Director of the Dafna Fund, Israel’s first and only feminist fund. She continues to serve as a consultant to foundations as an expert on funding with a gender lens. Her areas of expertise include organizational, program, resource, and leadership development; gender audits and mainstreaming; diversity, inclusion, and intersectional approach to social transformation. She teaches a course on Gender, Leadership and Action in Civil Society Organizations in the MA track in non-profit management at the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew U. A passionate storyteller and performer, she develops training modules and materials on storytelling for social transformation and writes a blog, in Hebrew and English at consult4good.wordpress.com
A seasoned facilitator and trainer, Hamutal holds a Diploma in Group Facilitation from the Megid Institute at Hebrew University, and in Team Facilitation and Management from the Martin Buber Institute at Hebrew University.
Hamutal is an active member of Women Wage Peace, a grassroots movement calling for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, a board member of the Jerusalem Pre-Military Leadership Program (Mechina), a member of the Israeli Board of Overseers of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, and a member of the Sapir College Board of Trustees.
Anat Saragusti is a film-maker, book editor and a freelance journalist and writer and currently in charge of the freedom of the press at the Union of Journalists in Israel. She writes op-eds in major newspapers and websites in Israel and invited to panels, mainly on issues of press freedom, state security, women participation in decision making processes, Arab-Jewish shared society and other current affairs.
Anat is a laureate of the 2016 “Unsung Hero” Drum Major for Justice Award for “exceptional global leadership, commitment to the elevation of humankind through advocacy and awareness and for personifying the spirit of Dr. King’s core philosophies.” Anat was a senior staff member at the weekly news magazine Ha’olam Hazeh (Lit. This World), where she was prominent in covering major events in Israel and mainly the Occupied Palestinian Territories – OPT.
With the closing of Ha’olam Hazeh (1993), Anat joined the group that established TV Channel 2 News Company and was appointed as its reporter in Gaza. She was later promoted and became the chief editor of the evening news bulletin and the weekly Friday magazine. Concurrently, she studied Law and attained a master’s degree from Tel Aviv University.
She was the executive director of Agenda, a non-profit organization working to re-prioritize and reframe social change issues within the Israeli public debate and media.
A long time women activist, Anat led adoption of 1325 in Israel. She is considered an expert of UNSCR 1325 in the Israeli context. She is a leading figure in the Israeli Women Journalists Forum.
Anat is a long-time member of Women Wage Peace, a member of the 100 member Central Committee and an active and leading participant in some of the movement’s key professional committees.