At a time when governments in both Israel and the U.S. are spurning women for top leadership roles and slashing funding for gender-based violence programs, Hadassah Foundation grant recipients are speaking out and pushing forward. Scroll down for recent news articles that mention our grantees, along with a curated collection of reporting on women and gender equity in Israel and the U.S. Please note that the Hadassah Foundation does not endorse every view expressed in the articles below.
Grantees in the Headlines
A Jewish Nonprofit Was Training Men to Prevent Sexual Abuse. Then the Funding Disappeared
Forward, June 11
The U.S. Department of Justice is refusing to release more than $200 million in funds allocated by Congress to help prevent violence against women, including the “culturally specific” grants that funded work educating Jewish men — including helping Orthodox leaders in Philadelphia reduce the stigma around reporting domestic violence and training members of ZBT, a Jewish fraternity, on sexual consent. This news article reports on how the revoked funding is affecting Jewish Women International (JWI), a Hadassah Foundation grantee whose mission includes preventing gender-based violence.
A Visionary grant recipient, JWI works to empower women and girls – of every race, culture, ability, gender identity, and sexual orientation – by ensuring and protecting their safety, building access to long-term economic security, and lifting and mentoring women leaders.
Netanyahu Would Rather Be Surrounded by Underqualified Men Than Capable Women
Haaretz, June 9
Israel’s prime minister recently claimed that there were not enough suitable women candidates to consider as heads for National Security Council. But, as this op-ed notes, “Netanyahu is mistaken: one need only take a look at the website of [Hadassah Foundation grantee] Forum Dvorah … to find a wealth of female experts with relevant experience. It is clear that Netanyahu – who has more access to information than an ordinary citizen – did not even try.”
A Core grant recipient, Forum Dvorah is the only organization in Israel focusing on gender equality in key decision-making positions in national security and foreign policy.
Women and Gender in the U.S.
Engaging Men and Boys in Jewish Life: What We Know, What We Don’t Know and What We Can Do
eJewishPhilanthropy, May 26
Representatives of three large Jewish foundations applaud efforts to bring more women into Jewish leadership, but argue that it is also important to address declining rates of male participation in other Jewish spaces. “We need to pay more attention to boys and men within our own ecosystems and work to address unintended gender disparities within our own organizations and programming,” they write. “Even if the problem is accidental, the solution must be intentional. There may be some interventions that are meant to attract one gender over another, which can be beneficial. But if an activity, community or fellowship is supposed to cater to everyone but routinely attracts very few men, we should ask ourselves why this imbalance persists and whether we can do anything about it.”
We Need a Word for What’s Happening to Jewish Women
Ms. Magazine, March 27
“To some, I am a member of a group that is responsible for societal deterioration,” writes Jewish author Leora Tannenbaum. “To others, I’m a repository of anger about Israel’s actions in Gaza. Whatever the impetus, when anti-Semitism—which historian Susannah Heschel describes as always present as ‘a reservoir of possibility waiting to be activated’—fuses with misogyny, the result is a combustible force.”
Women and Gender in Israel
Bennett’s Challenge Is to Draw in the Women Who May Decide Israel’s Election
Haaretz, June 12
Journalist Noa Landau argues that center-right candidate Naftali Bennet’s best chance of defeating the right-wing Likud-Religious Zionist Party bloc is to appeal to national-religious women. These women, Landau writes, “have borne the unprecedented burden of endless reserve duty, having affected family, children and workplaces.” They are “right-wing, exhausted and mad as hell … For these women, the left is not a viable option, but their anger could lead them to another political address. Bennett offers them the opportunity to remain emotionally within religious Zionism without [Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel] Smotrich.”
Women Dominate Israeli Medical Schools but Vanish from Surgery and Top-Paying Roles
Ynet, June 10
A report, prepared at the request of Knesset Member Pnina Tamano-Shata when she chaired the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, shows that despite women’s strong presence in medical education, their representation declines as they advance through the profession. It also found that female doctors earn about 13 percent less than male doctors.
Women’s Rights Activist Moran Katzenstein Joins Democrats, Golan Vows to Advance Gender Equality
The Jerusalem Post, May 4
The left-wing Democrats Party, which recently added the founder of the feminist organization Bonot Alternativa to its list, has, according to the article, made gender equity central to its platform. Party leader Yair Golan recently vowed that a government led by him after the upcoming elections would anchor gender equality into the country’s Basic Laws. He also said that the party would promote civil marriage and cancel the recently passed law that expanded the powers of rabbinical courts.