Elluminate E-News Summer 2024



Message from our CEO 

As I write this summer newsletter message, I am marking my one-year anniversary as Elluminate’s “new’ish” CEO. I am immensely proud and privileged to be part of our amazing organization, supporting and advancing Jewish women’s leadership for those working for social change. 

Looking back over this first year as CEO, I am so struck by the many strides we have taken together as an organization and a community to meet our very challenging times with purpose, intention and vision. Notably, we pivoted to support our Israeli fellows during wartime and those in the US confronting antisemitism in their issue-based coalitional work, turned out in force to express solidarity with our Israeli sisters at our record-breaking annual luncheon, and selected ten amazing, dynamic and inspiring entrepreneurial Jewish women leaders to be in the 6th Cohort of our growing Collective. For a visual overview of the year, we invite you to view our FY24 slide show. 

The new cohort represents the diversity of global Jewish women entrepreneurs, including women from Africa, Israel and the US. They represent women leading in the Orthodox and Reform worlds, Israeli women redefining civil society, and women advocating for repro rights, battling human trafficking, mobilizing on campus against antisemitism, and more. 

Women’s leadership and empowerment are becoming central to our public discourse, and Elluminate is effectively elevating the voices of women leaders and showcasing their causes of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world and pursuing justice and equity. Our aim is to spread the word and provide a prominent platform for our global Jewish women’s leadership network. Recently, we spoke to A&E staff about women’s leadership and introduced them to some of our fellows working on LGBTQ rights, child marriage, and women running for office in Israel. 

As you enjoy the summer, we are preparing for another strong and impactful year for Elluminate. We hope you will join us at our annual Convening in New York on November 21, which will focus on tackling emergent issues from a gender and Jewish lens. With a national presidential election, and the ERA on the ballot in New York, there will be a lot to talk about the future of women’s leadership in America and around the world.  

Warmly,

Melanie Roth Gorelick

Elluminate CEO

Elluminate Names Collective Cohort 6

Elluminate in July announced ten Jewish entrepreneurial women executives and leaders in the US, Israel, and elsewhere around the world as members of The Collective, our signature leadership program. 

The Collective promotes, strengthens and advances Jewish women’s leadership in the nonprofit world, empowering members to envision and create needed change through a Jewish and gender lens. Fellows are Jewish women nonprofit CEOs leading organizations tackling some of society’s most pressing and also emerging issues. 

Ifat Baron is Founder and Executive Director of itworks, leading a pioneering nonprofit organization that focuses on bridging employment gaps and fostering diversity in Israel’s high-tech sector.

Lori Cohen is CEO of Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT), a leading policy, advocacy and educational organization whose mission is to end child sex trafficking and exploitation.

Cheryl Cook is CEO of Avodah, developing Jewish social justice leaders in the United States. Under her leadership, Avodah has built out innovative leadership development models, invested in racial and economic justice, and developed a values-driven culture. 

Julia Jassey is Co-Founder and CEO of Jewish on Campus, the leading voice for Jewish students in the United States, combating antisemitism, engaging in grassroots activism, and advocating for the Jewish community.  

Moran Zer Katzenstein is the visionary Founder of Bonot Alternativa, a leading activist NGO in Israel dedicated to advancing women’s rights and gender equality, championing the integration of women into all levels of public decision-making, and combating the threat of democracy backsliding  and its implications for women in Israeli society.

Julie F. Kay is Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), a new nonprofit that supports licensed providers to make legal, affordable telemedicine abortion care available anywhere in the US.

Shoshana McKinney Kirya-Ziraba is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Tikvah Chadasha Uganda, which engages Jewish communities in the United States and Uganda to work for gender justice, disability access and educational opportunity as human rights.

Daphne Lazar Price, Executive Director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (Jofa), leads its mission to expand women’s rights and opportunities within the framework of halakha, to build a vibrant and equitable Orthodox community.

Tamar Shwartz is CEO of Women’s Spirit, an organization promoting the economic independence of women survivors of physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse in Israel — while striving to effect social change from a feminist perspective and with a commitment to gender equality and social justice.

Rabbi Mary Zamore is Executive Director of Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN), a partner organization of the Reform Movement, representing Reform female, nonbinary, genderfluid rabbis and advocating for their values and voices.

Read our complete announcement and meet these exceptional leaders here.

Visionary Circle Recognition

Elluminate held a summer gathering in July of its 45 Visionary Circle members to thank them for all their hard work, passion and dedication to recommending members of Cohort 6 of our Collective to the Elluminate Board. Over the last six months, they reviewed and met many worthy candidates from around the world working on an array of topics and had to make difficult decisions on who to select. A great time was had by all at our gathering.



ERA Briefing

On June 24, Elluminate held a critical program, NYS ERA Briefing: Your Life, Your Rights, featuring Marcy Syms, Co-Founder, and Ting Ting Cheng, Director, ERA Project at Columbia Law School. In November, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) will be on the ballot and has the possibility of being enshrined into the New York State constitution.  

As we see a roll back of women’s rights nationally, the state ERA would positively affect every facet of women’s lives — from the workplace, to health care, to domestic violence protections, to services for homeless women, and more. The briefing reviewed the history of the ERA, and the possibility of the passage of the amendment leading toward state and national adoption.  

Crown JEWEL Conversations

In July, Elluminate Immediate Past President Rachel Weinstein lead a conversation with Kerry Brodie, Founder and Executive Director of Emma’s Torch and collective member. Kerry described how Emma’s Torch is providing culinary training and job placement to refugees, asylees and survivors of human trafficking to help these individuals find community and economic security in a new country. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

Stay tuned for our 2024-25 calendar and the announcement of our next one!

News From the Field

Idit Klein, President and CEO of Keshet, wrote a JTA opinion piece during Pride Month in June urging LGBTQ+ Jews not to abandon queer spaces despite the rupturing of some alliances in the aftermath of October 7. “LGBTQ+ Jews have an unshakeable spirit and clarity about the power of being fully ourselves,” she wrote. “Our resilience in the face of fear and uncertainty, and our clear-eyed commitment to what it takes to make change, will guide us to a better time and help us shape a more just world.”

Michelle Horovitz, Co-Founder at Appetite for Change, announced the July publication of Appetite for Change, Soulful Recipes from a North Minneapolis Kitchen, described as “filled with soul food classics that feature light twists and local touches, showing how multiple cultures can come together within one plate” — reflecting the ethos and mission of the organization.

Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, Co-Founder and Director of Chochmat Nashim, authored a piece in The Times of Israel on August 1, describing her visit to the Druze community in Majdal Shams, where 12 children were killed by a rocket launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the people and emotions she found there. “Leaving was hard. I felt attached to the people I had met, the community I had discovered, and I knew it would be some time before we could return.”

Shahanna McKinney-Baldon, Founding Executive Director at Edot, The Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity and Racial Justice Collaborative, was instrumental in securing a grave marker for Gladys Mae Sellers, a pioneering Milwaukee singer who gained fame in New York’s Yiddish theater scene of the 1920s and ‘30s and became the first African-American woman cantor. "I, too, am a Black woman from Milwaukee who sings Jewish liturgical music," Shahanna told OnMilwaukee. "I am dedicating myself to stewarding a reconnection of her story with the story of Black Milwaukee." The dedication on August 6 included remarks from Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, Founder and President of MASK - Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings. 

Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, Founder and President of MASK - Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings, Elluminate leadership attended the screening of the film Rabbi on the Block, featuring Collective member Rabbi Tamar Manasseh. Tamar shared a thoughtful update on what is happening in Chicago, including in her community.

Karyn Gershon, CEO of Project Kesher, shares an eJewish Philanthropy article from June spotlighting efforts by Project Kesher Israel to secure recognition in Israel for same sex couples from Russia and Ukraine. The process involves virtual weddings in an unlikely place, Utah, but is a path toward securing rights for same sex couples who are new emigres in Israel.

Convening Save the Date November 21

Please consider making a generous gift to support Elluminate’s work and programming during this critical and challenging time.

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