Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta Announces 2017 Grantee Partners

Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta (JWFA) has issued its 2017 grant allocations to twenty organizations that expand opportunities for Jewish women and girls. The grantee partners, located both domestically and internationally, share JWFA’s mission to promote social change through a gender lens. JWFA is comprised of over 120 Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds who use the power of collective giving to find long-term solutions to issues that impact women and girls in the Jewish community.

The group awarded the following 2017 grants to national and international projects (JWFA also announced local grants):

National projects:

• jGirls Magazine – jGirls is an online magazine written by and for self-identifying Jewish teenage girls across all affiliations. jGirls users are empowered with leadership skills, self-esteem, sense of identity, and engagement and status within the Jewish community, while building a pipeline to a future cohort of bold, committed Jewish female leaders.
• Leadership Development Curriculum, Yeshivat Maharat – Yeshivat Maharat, the first yeshiva to ordain women as Orthodox clergy, uses a two-pronged approach to leadership development, first grounding students in the theory of leadership and then giving them opportunities to apply leadership skills to the types of challenges they will encounter as future community leaders.

International projects:

• Securing the Rights of Single Mothers, Association for Civil Rights in Israel – ACRI will work to advance the rights of mothers in the welfare system by anchoring guidelines for custody hearings in legislation, institutionalizing a fair due process, regulating the powers of authorities in such hearings, and raising awareness about the issues mothers face when confronting the welfare system.
• Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution, ATZUM – Justice Works – TFHT aims to eradicate human trafficking into and within Israel by promoting the passage of new legislation to criminalize the purchase of sexual services and protect the prostituted person.
• Harnessing the Power of the Masses to Advance Civil Action to Safeguard Women’s Rights, Center for Women’s Justice – CWJ will mobilize Israel’s legal community and grassroots activists in support of its trailblazing litigation and legal actions to effect systemic responses to get abuse and other infractions on women’s rights and freedoms.
• Pilot Entrepreneurship Program for Religious Women, Jerusalem College of Technology – JCT is piloting an Entrepreneurship Program that will engage religious women in business classes, creative thinking workshops, coding events, mentoring, and hackathons, thereby increasing their earning potential and business acumen.
• Alma Community Center for Young Women’s Leadership, Jewish Agency for Israel – This brand new Jerusalem center will provide tools and support to at-risk teenage girls to enable them to find their own voice, set their own goals, and build a future of commitment, action, investment, and perseverance.
• Addressing the Needs of Mothers and Women at Work, Jewish Women’s Funding Network – This is a collaborative grant with funding from Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta, in addition to 14 other Jewish women’s foundations from around the U.S. and Israel. The program supports collaborative and effective efforts for women’s rights and gender equality in Israel with a focus on labor rights.
• Cracking the Glass Ceiling, Kol Israel Haverim – Through participation in this five-year program, low-income junior high and high school girls receive the tools they need to expand their opportunities in STEM fields. The program utilizes role modeling, empowerment workshops, and training in partnership with high-tech and bio-tech companies throughout Israel.
• Latet Atid – Latet Atid supports economic empowerment and independence for women from diverse sectors of Israeli society so that they can transform their lives and break the cycle of poverty by establishing micro-businesses. The program provides low-income women with a comprehensive set of tools to advance their business plans, including high-level mentoring and micro-loans.
• Care Leavers Project, Makkom – Makkom brings together law students and women who have aged out of Israel’s foster care system (“care leavers”) to write and promote legislation concerning foster care and to promote leadership, self-empowerment, and social responsibility.
• Sharsheret, The Society for Advancement of Education – Sharsheret works with both younger and older high school girls in Israel, vis-à-vis a mentoring framework, to strengthen their sense of self, advance their emotional well-being, and build their leadership skills.
• The Gender Index, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute: Center for Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere – The Gender Index is an innovative monitoring and tracking tool that tracks the trajectory of gender inequality over time in a wide range of domains. It targets decision-makers and policy-shapers and is designed to provide detailed and extensive data on the state of women in Israeli society to inform policy decisions.
• College for Women in Politics, WePower – WePower addresses the disproportionate distribution of political power in Israel by helping women access the skills and knowledge they need to run and be elected in council or mayoral positions. Increasing the number of women in high level decision-making positions throughout the country impacts gender equality at all levels of Israeli society.
• Breaking the Bind, Women’s Spirit Financial Independence for Women Victims of Violence – Breaking the Bind advocates change in fundamental Israeli policies and laws that undermine, destabilize, and weaken women’s financial security and personal safety, especially survivors of violence. It sheds light on the invisible violence women suffer after they are no longer considered victims, as well as the pain and setbacks caused by systemic injustice and outdated laws.

In addition to its grant-making, JWFA works strategically with local partners to host periodic seminars, discussions, and trainings on relevant subjects that broaden the scope of its work.