The Hadassah Foundation is thrilled to announce that it has made $515,000 in grants in 2018! We are proud that since 2000, we have awarded approximately $8.3 million to nearly 100 nonprofit organizations in Israel and the United States that are advancing the cause of women and girls.
The following organizations are receiving grants in 2018:
ISRAEL
Legal Aid
- The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center at Bar Ilan University, $5,000: Provides legal counsel to women seeking a divorce. It works proactively to improve policy and practice by educating future family lawyers to safeguard women’s rights and advocating for changes in Israeli family law.
- Center for Women’s Justice, $5,000: Pursues precedent-setting litigation and legal advocacy on behalf of women who have suffered unjust treatment, discrimination, or whose basic human rights have been infringed upon when seeking a divorce.
- Itach-Maaki—Women Lawyers for Social Justice, $20,000: Public interest law organization working on behalf of low-income Israeli women. Itach–Maaki helps women to file employment-related lawsuits and form peer support groups and educates the public about issues affecting women. They received $5,000 in general operating support, and $15,000 for the Itach-Maaki Community, which enhances and enlarges the community of women lawyers dedicated to advancing the socio-economic rights of Arab-Israeli and Haredi women.
- Tmura–The Israeli Center for Equality, $20,000–Females comprise only 2% of the prisoner population in Israel, and as a result, the unique needs of women in, and as they leave prison, are overlooked. With Foundation funding, Tmura will provide female ex-convicts with training about their rights, teach them how to regain financial control of their lives, and access government benefits.
Policy Education and Coalition Building
- Adva, $10,000: For the Negev Forum of Women Business Leaders, which aims to increase the economic power of Bedouin and Jewish businesswomen from more than 20 Negev communities, who will receive training and mentoring so they can plan and implement civic initiatives that increase women’s economic opportunities.
- The Israel Women’s Network, $24,000: The Israel Women’s Network (IWN), in cooperation with nine other Israeli feminist organizations, is working to preserve the economic well-being of mothers with young children during divorce proceedings.
- New Israel Fund, Shatil, $15,000: For the Advancing the Rights of Women in Public Housing program, which aims to protect the rights of single mothers in public housing—an estimated 77% of the families in public housing are headed by single women—and expand eligibility criteria so that more such families can get housing support.
- Yedid, $8,000: For the Single Mothers for Change program, which strives to provide greater economic security for low-income single mothers. Working with a network of more than 800 low-income single female parents, YEDID will educate and advocate for public policies to improve the economic security of single parents and their children, focusing specifically on Israel’s child-support law.
Workplace Discrimination
- The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, $25,000: For an initiative to train and organize the ombudsmen at Israeli companies and organizations so they can better handle workplace sexual harassment complaints.
- Merchavim, $15,000: For the Arab Teacher Integration in Jewish Schools Initiative, which places Arab Israelis trained as teachers—the vast majority of whom are female—in Jewish Israeli schools. This program aims to reduce the high level of unemployment of female teachers in the Arab sector, address a shortage of teachers in Jewish Israeli schools, and promote intergroup relations.
Asset Building
- Economic Empowerment for Women, $5,000: For the promotion of asset development among low-income women who manage microenterprises, based on the U.S. model of the Individual Development Account.
- Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, $15,000: The Taub Center received funds to write a report that will focus on the differences in women’s and men’s retirement income in Israel in comparison to other countries, and how this issue, alongside growing life expectancy, may impact the well-being of elderly women in Israel.
- Yozmot Atid, $20,000: Yozmot Atid received funds for a microfinance and business development project that will enable 50 women living near or at the poverty level to create small businesses through microloans provided by Leumi Bank and through individual business coaching.
Business Training & Entrepreneurship
- Microfy, $13,000: Microfy received support for a women’s business forum for nascent business owners from South Tel Aviv.
- Jasmine, $25,000: Jasmine received support for its “Zinuk” program, which helps Jewish and Arab Israeli women who own or run small businesses that are between 2 and 6 years old to expand their operations and increase their profits.
Vocational Training and Job Placement
- ITWorks, $25,000: ITWorks received funds for its high-tech vocational training and placement program for 60 low-income single mothers.
- Tishreen, $25,000: Tishreen received support for a job readiness program for Arab Israeli women from the Southern Triangle region.
- Turning the Tables, $20,000: Turning the Tables received funds for the Yotsrot Atid program, which provides Israeli women exiting prostitution with vocational training, work experience, and employment in the fashion trades.
Leadership Development
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ANU, $25,000: ANU received funds to provide strategic and technological tools to the members of the Women’s Activist Forum, to help them run more effective social and advocacy campaigns.
- WEPOWER, $25,000: WEPOWER received funds for a program that encourages women completing their first five-year term as city council members to run for a second term, since, traditionally, half of such women do not run for second term.
UNITED STATES
Leadership Development
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Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, $30,000: The JCH received funds for the Women’s POP (Positions of Power) Fellowship, which will engage a group of college-age women from the Russian-speaking Jewish emigre community in New York and focuses on civics, activism, and politics, all through the lens of Jewish values.
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Jewish Community Center of Chicago, $20,000: The JCC received support for its Seed613 program, which provides teenage girls with entrepreneurial tools and knowledge to develop a socially responsible venture that will impact the Jewish community.
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Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, $22,000: The JUF received support for the Research Training Internship (RTI), which enables teen girls to generate new knowledge about the lives and experiences of Jewish teen girls.
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jGirls, $25,000: jGirls received a grant for its online magazine written and edited by Jewish female teens which amplifies the voices of young Jewish women.
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Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy at Bar-Ilan University, $32,000: LVJA, an online school for Jewish Studies, received a grant to design and pilot an online course, Leadership Lab, a gender-sensitive, co-ed online course for 12- and 13-year olds that will develop age-appropriate leadership competencies and texts that will feature female leaders.
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Moving Traditions, $36,000: Moving Traditions received a grant for Zazot, a new fellowship program for Jewish girls in grades 10-12, which will provide them with skills, mentorship, and hands-on leadership experience on issues they care about that affect the lives of women and girls.