News Coverage Featuring Hadassah Foundation Grant Recipients

Scroll down for recent articles by and about the Hadassah Foundation’s Israeli and U.S.-based grantees. Please note that the Hadassah Foundation does not endorse every view expressed in the articles below.

 

Want to Eradicate Crime in Arab Society? Put Women at the Decision-making Table
Haaretz, February 3 
In this op-ed, Hanan Alsanah, the co-executive director of grant recipient Itach Ma’aki, laments the sidelining of women leaders, most recently in Arab political decision-making. “This is a recurring pattern – at Trump’s Board of Peace, at the peace conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, at the recent meeting of the Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens held in Rahat. Time and again, the images show tables of national and public decision-making with an almost entirely male majority. What is troubling here goes far beyond the question of the numerical representation of women; it reflects a much deeper problem: a failure to understand how vital women’s voices are to any genuine effort to address crime.”

Itach Ma’aki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice is an Israeli advocacy organization working to advance the status of women in Israeli public and private life. From workplaces to local municipalities to governmental bodies and the home, it is committed to furthering women’s legal rights, socio-economic advancement, and representation.

 

Adequate Representation of Women in the Israeli Civil Service — From ‘Law in the Books’ to ‘Law in Practice’: New Governmental Guidelines Following the Israeli Court’s Ruling on Best Practices
iConnect, January 31
A law professor details the Israeli government’s new nomination guidelines, which were drafted to improve the gender balance among CEOs of government ministries. The High Court required the government to draft these guidelines after ruling, in a case brought by Hadassah Foundation grant recipients Israel Women’s Network and Forum Dvorah, that the government had not met its legal duty to ensure adequate female representation in the highest positions of the executive branch.

Israel Women’s Network (IWN) has been advancing gender equality and women’s rights in Israel for 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.

 

Global Jewry Awards Inaugural Prizes for Collaborations to Mem Global, Jewtina y Co.
eJewish Philanthropy, January 29
The Global Jewry Prize for Emerging Collaboration was presented to Jewtina y Co. for its partnership with Lazos Internacional on a program connecting Latin Jewish young adults from the U.S. with peers in Lazos’ young adult network in Chile. Through the initiative, the two groups will discuss “how migration patterns, language, assimilation pressures and national contexts shape Jewish identity differently across the Americas, while examining what it means to create modern Latin Jewish culture together.” The prize provides seed funding for the new partnership.

Jewtina y Co. addresses the unique challenges experienced by Latino Jews in North America and creates spaces where multifaceted identities are celebrated, affirmed, and integrated into the larger Jewish ecosystem. Its grant supports “Voces en Vivo: Not Your Mama’s Jewtinidad,” a multi-city storytelling and performance initiative that will uplift the voices and lived experiences of Latin-Jewish women and nonbinary individuals throughout the U.S.

 

Forum Dvorah Demands Clear Support for Women in Combat as IDF Gender Debate Escalates
Jerusalem Post, January 14
Following a series of events and politicians’ remarks critiquing the role of women in the Israel Defense Forces, Forum Dvorah called on Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir to speak up, arguing that any claim that women are problematic as combat fighters “is a cynical political stunt.”

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

 

 

France, Germany and Israel: Prostitution as a Touchstone for Gender Politics
iConnect, January 9
Noting that the sex industry is “a physical manifestation of gender-based power dynamics,” this piece, by one of the leaders of the Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution, explains how different government approaches to prostitution impact women. The Task Force recently helped pass legislation in Israel that punishes consumers of prostitution while assisting the women and girls who are trafficked.

Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution engages the Israeli government, legal community, enforcement agencies, media, and the public in systemic efforts to eradicate sex trafficking and prostitution in Israel and to ensure victims’ access to services. 

 

Young Jewish Women Are Feeling Increasingly Isolated
JNS, December 19, 2025
In this op-ed, Jewish Women International CEO Meredith Jacobs shares findings from its recent survey of Jewish-American women ages 20 to 34, which examines how young Jewish women are absorbing the outright denial of sexual violence, coupled with misinformation after Oct. 7, and how those false narratives are affecting their mental health and their willingness to seek help.

Based in the U.S., 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.