More than 120 participants from across all sectors and movements of the Jewish communal world gathered in New York last week for  the second annual Summit of the SafetyRespectEquity Coalition. The Coalition, which represents more than 100 diversse Jewish organizations, funders, individuals and experts, was launched 18 months ago as a convener, resource and clearinghouse.

Discussions focused on how critically important safety, respect, and equity are to ensuring a vibrant, inclusive future for the Jewish community and at the same time continuing to ground their work in the broader national context.

Presenters included Pamela Shifman, CEO of the NoVo Foundation, and Jennifer Klein, Chief Strategy & Policy Officer at Time’sUp, who shared their experiences working to advance the rights of women and girls nationally.

Additionally, the Coalition has announced a total of more than $1.2 million awarded to 15 grantees working to advance women’s leadership and address sexual harassment and gender inequity in Jewish organizations.

“These grants will advance the SRE Coalition’s overall goal of working toward organizational change and culture shift by galvanizing Jewish leaders to prioritize these issues in their institutions,” says Lisa Eisen, President of the U.S. Jewish Portfolio at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, speaking on behalf of the SRE Coalition’s Leadership Group. “We are excited about the diversity and innovation they reflect, each proposing broad impact and a commitment to document and disseminate lessons learned to others in the field.”

The organizations awarded capacity-building grants represent geographic and programmatic distribution and include:

• The Jewish Education Project
• Foundation for Jewish Camp / Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools
• Jewish Community Centers Association of North America
• Jewish Women International
• Leading Edge
• Moving Traditions
• Sacred Spaces
• Shalom Bayit (a project of the Tides Center)
• The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America
• Slingshot Fund
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Footsteps
• Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
• Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
• Ramah Camping Movement

Of the 15 grants, [the last] four focus on building capacity within their organizations, and other eleven focus on broader initiatives that build capacity across several organizations within the Jewish communal world.

For more information on the mission of these organizations and proposed partnerships and project plans, please visit: safetyrespectequity.org/capacity-building-fund-grantees/

This post has been updated to include additional grantees.