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Elluminate E-News December 2023
In 2023, Elluminate welcomed its fifth cohort into The Collective, our signature leadership advancement program. The Collective now has 50 bold and courageous Jewish Entrepreneurial Women Executive Leaders (JEWELs) working for social change with a gender and Jewish lens — and all of them connected, supported, and strengthened. As a catalyst for gender justice and social innovation, we are proud to advance and amplify the efforts of these Jewish women leaders.
It has also been a year since we rebranded and changed our name to Elluminate as we continue to build our global network of Jewish changemakers — leaders, advocates, philanthropists — devoted to tackling and devising solutions to intractable social issues. We are grateful for how this network has shown up during the current crisis in Israel to support, comfort, and care for each other. For many of us outside of Israel, this crisis has also impacted our relationships with non-Jewish partners and colleagues.
We also care about the humanitarian crisis.
Under new leadership, and with new challenges ahead, we are ensuring that we light the path toward women’s empowerment and equality as our top priorities.
As the New Year approaches, we thank you for your generous support and engagement with Elluminate and ask you to consider making a generous tax-deductible gift to help us strengthen and deepen our work.
Warmly,
Melanie Roth Gorelick
CEO Elluminate
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Standing in Solidarity with Israeli Women
Responding to the brutal terror attacks by Hamas terrorists, Elluminate has stood with Israel and Israeli women.
Our efforts included calling on the international community to recognize, condemn and take action against the horrific gender-based violence that took place in Israel on October 7th, adding our name to numerous sign-on letters to the UN and international community, attending roundtable meetings with an Israeli Feminist delegation meeting with US leaders, cosponsoring the rally at the UN for immediate release of hostages, and co- sponsoring the Hear Our Voices program at the UN. To watch a recording of the program, click here.
Elluminate organized several briefings by prominent Israeli women leaders and published an op-ed piece:
- An in-person briefing with Moran Zer Katzenstein, founder of the Israeli activist organization, Bonot Alternativa/Women Building an Alternative, which is organizing a grassroots women’s movement to ensure equality in response to war efforts and rebuilding civil society,
- A special Crown Jewel Conversation featuring Orit Sulitzeanu, Executive Director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, who discussed the gender-based violence of October 7 and its enduring impact.
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An eJewish Philanthropy op-ed piece — It’s a Crucial Time for Supporting Female Israeli Leadership — by Melanie Roth Gorelick, Elluminate CEO, advanced recognition of the critical role that Israeli women, including Elluminate’s Collective members, are playing in wartime and in maintaining and rebuilding civil society. To read the op-ed click here.
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Upcoming Crown JEWEL Conversations
Each month, Elluminate hosts a webcast to highlight one member of The Collective, our signature leadership advancement program for Jewish women leaders who focus on today’s intractable issues and offer innovative solutions. Please join us for our next Conversation featuring Nina Goodwin, Chief Executive Officer of GoodWeave International, working against child labor in South Asia. To see the calendar of webcasts and to register click here.
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SPOTLIGHT: December Crown JEWEL Conversation with Shahanna McKinney-Baldon
Our December Crown JEWEL Conversation featured Shahanna McKinney-Baldon, M.Ed, Founding Executive Director at Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity and Racial Justice Collaborative. Edot invests in the leadership of Midwest Jews of Color (JOCs) and increases access to Jewish community life for Jews of Color and diverse Jewish families in the region.
Shahanna spoke about her work lifting up JOC leadership, supporting JOC-run small businesses, and helping Jewish community organizations to serve a more diverse constituency. She shared how her background informs her work, coming from a large Midwest US African American and Ashkenazi family with Seminole, Cherokee, Blackfoot, and Sephardi roots. Shahanna, who also holds several appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke about campus antisemitism and the need for conversations on antisemitism to be linked to other conversations on intersectionality and diversity.
To learn more about Shahanna, watch the video of her Crown JEWEL Conversation, or share it click here.
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Elluminate Highlights of 2023
Elluminate has created a unique and dedicated space for Jewish Women leaders to strengthen their collective voice and be supported, while they tackle the most challenging emergent issues in the world today.
In November, Elluminate’s Convening brought together more than 200 members of our network to be in community and solidarity after the attack on Israel on October 7. We engaged with women experts at the governmental, policy, and grassroots levels on Israel, Reproductive Rights Policy, Feminist Philanthropy & Building Movements for Impact, and Fighting Antisemitism in our Educational Institutions. Click here to read the recap, or watch the video below.
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Elluminate welcomed its fifth Cohort of the Collective. To learn about these ten social entrepreneurs, click here.
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Elluminate’s leadership advancement program for Jewish Entrepreneurial Women Executive Leaders (JEWELs) is in full swing for cohorts 3, 4, and 5. You can learn about the JEWELs on our monthly webcasts.
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Elluminate launched a new program Jewish Women in the Leadership Suite, through a generous grant from SRE Network (Safety, Respect, Equity).
- This year’s Elluminate’s Visionary Circle (VC), made up of 45 Elluminate leaders, has begun with philanthropic education sessions on Feminist Leadership, Gender Lens and Social Action. Featured speakers included Ruth Messinger, social justice consultant; Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Hermann, SAJ; Susan Weidman Schneider, Lilith Magazine; and Bess Rothenberg, Ford Foundation. The VC will select cohort 6 of the Collective.
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Elluminate ran a special webinar on The Future of Women’s Rights: A gendered response to emerging crisis in Israel on July 25th.
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Elluminate welcomed its new CEO and President.
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