The Hadassah Foundation’s Israeli grant recipients are ensuring women’s issues get much-needed attention in the crowded media landscape. These visionary organizations are providing research and data on critical challenges, such as Israel’s ongoing gender wage gap and rising femicide rate; calling for opening more combat roles to women, and making headlines for an art exhibit about women soldiers.

Scroll down for recent news articles about our Israeli grantees, along with a curated collection of reporting on women and gender equity in Israel. (Find recent articles about women and girls in the U.S. Jewish community here.) Please note that the Hadassah Foundation does not endorse every view expressed in the articles below.

Grantees in the News

Israel Ranks Among Worst OECD Countries for Gender Pay Gap, Report Finds
i24 News, December 8

A new report by the Adva Center finds that despite significant advances in women’s education over the past two decades, Israel’s wage gap between men and women has changed very little. The latest figures, from 2022, show that the average pay gap for full-time workers stands at 20.8%, placing Israel fourth among the OECD countries with the largest disparities—behind South Korea, Japan, and Estonia. Hebrew speakers can download the full report here.

Adva Center is a think tank focusing on innovative research on social inequalities with a special emphasis on gender and infrastructure support for women’s and feminist organizations, policy advocacy at governmental and municipal levels, public education, and community engagement. The Hadassah Foundation grant supports Adva’s gender-related work.

 

 

‘We Need to Be Seen’: Female Soldiers’ Trauma Overlooked Despite Historic Mobilization
Jerusalem Report, December 2 

As part of a larger article about how Israeli women soldiers experience trauma, the article discusses Eden Association‘s Women Tell War testimony project and exhibit. “The mere acknowledgment that they have a story, and that their story is important and deserves to be heard, opened a door to healing and to continued treatment,” Adi Weiss, director of the project, told the Jerusalem Report.
The exhibit was also featured in this Jewish News Service piece.

Based in the Gaza Envelope region of Israel, the Eden Association specializes in complex post-trauma therapy for women, in creating trauma-oriented spaces, and in providing support to women and girls undergoing personal change.

 

The Debate Over Women in Combat Was Settled on the Battlefield
Jerusalem Report, December 2

Col. (res.) Adv. Pnina Sharvit Baruch, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and chair of Forum Dvorah, argues that “the time has come for the [Israel Defense Forces] to open all combat positions to women, based not on ideology but on evidence, fairness, and the lessons of experience.” She also dispels “outdated” claims made by opponents that women need to be protected from harm, that their presence threatens units’ cohesion, and that women lack interest in combat roles. Women’s status in the army has broader consequences, she writes, noting that “Combat service remains a gateway to leadership in Israel’s public, business, and political spheres. Excluding women from these military units excludes them from the networks that shape the country’s elite and narrows the perspectives informing national security policy.”

The only organization in Israel focusing on gender equality in key decision-making positions in national security and foreign policy, Forum Dvorah manages a network of over 200 leading women in these fields and supports the next generation of leadership among young women.

 

Over 300 Women in Israel Killed in the Past Decade – More Than Half From the Arab Community
Haaretz, November 25

Data from Israel Women’s Network (IWN), which maintains the only database on femicide in Israel, shows that 35 Israeli women were murdered in 2024 – the highest figure in the past 10 years. And the rate in 2025 is 48 percent higher compared to the corresponding period last year. This piece in Times of Israel goes into even more detail, highlighting the work IWN does on this issue. It also argues that expanding electronic surveillance for domestic abusers and limiting access to guns would save women’s lives.

Israel Women’s Network (IWN) has been advancing gender equality and women’s rights in Israel for more than 40 years. Alongside its efforts to eradicate gender-based violence and to promote gender equality awareness and education in Israeli society, the IWN promotes gender equality in the workplace, in public spaces, and in government allocations of resources.

 

Other Recommended Articles

Women in the IDF

• IDF Declares Trial of Women Combat Engineers in Elite Yahalom Unit a Success (Times of Israel)
• Haaretz articles about
  • An Israeli documentary on combat PTSD from the perspective of women soldiers
  • A video installation at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art featuring testimonies of women “spotters” who surveilled Gaza
• From Harlots to Heroines: October 7 Opens New Chapter for Women Soldiers in Israeli Cinema (Jerusalem Report)
• As Women Join Combat Units, Military Kit Must Be Redesigned to Fit Them (Jerusalem Report)

Women’s Health

• “I Want to See Drugs that Make Sense”: Why Women’s Health should be Taken Seriously by Tech Investors (Calcalist)
• When Recovery Begins: How One Israeli Organization Is Redefining Life After Cancer (Jerusalem Post)

LGBTQ Community

 Israeli LGBTQ Groups See Budgets Slashed as Community Faces Growing Challenges (eJewish Philanthropy)