Hadassah Foundation Board Member Negar Treister with Shalom Task Force CEO Keshet Starr and I Was Supposed to Have a Baby CEO Aimee Baron at "Roots of Resilience," a program in Brooklyn on November 3. (Shulamit Photo & Video) | | |
Greetings!
As the days grow colder and the light fades a little earlier, your recent support of the Hadassah Foundation is shining brighter than ever. Because of your support, our grantmaking and field-building efforts continue to grow, leading the way to a better future for all who identify as women and girls in Israel and the U.S. Jewish community.
In this issue of "The Gender Lens," we are pleased to update you on our latest initiatives:
- Milestones to Momentum: 2025 Year in Review
- Announcing 2025 Core U.S. Grant Recipients
- Program Highlights from "Roots of Resilience"
- Updates from Our Grant Recipients: Economic Abuse, Girls in Tech, Orthodox Women Rabbis
- Grantees in the Headlines: Media Coverage in Israel and the U.S.
We hope that this newsletter brings you hope and conveys how much we can accomplish when we come together.
As always, if you have questions or would like to discuss the work of the Hadassah Foundation, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at hadassahfoundation@hadassah.org.
Sincerely,
Ellen Soffar Steinberg, Chair
Stephanie Blumenkranz, Director
P.S. Inspired by what you read? Please consider making a gift at hadassahfoundation.org/donate.
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FROM MILESTONES TO MOMENTUM: 2025 Year in Review | Participants in Moving Traditions' jGirls+ program (Yuliya Levit for Moving Traditions) | This year, on the heels of our 25th anniversary celebration, we are awarding over $800,000 in grants, almost doubling our grantmaking over the last five years. Eight of this year's 12 grant recipients are new to the Hadassah Foundation -- expanding our approach to achieving long-term social change for women and girls. Learn more in our 2025 Year in Review. |
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MEET OUR NEWEST GRANT RECIPIENTS: 2025 Core U.S. | Attendees at Jewtina & Co's inaugural Latin-Jewish Film Festival in Los Angeles in June. (Cinthiyia Silverstein forJewtina y Co.) | |
The Hadassah Foundation is pleased to announce $320,000 in grants to four women-led U.S.-based organizations that are making the Jewish community more equitable and inclusive. These grant recipients are promoting the leadership of women and girls and working to remove obstacles that inhibit their ability to thrive.
Core grants, which are paid out over three years, support leading organizations and programs that promote gender equity. The following organizations have been awarded these $80,000 grants:
| Jewtina y. Co. nurtures the Latin-Jewish community, identity, leadership, and resiliency. It creates spaces for Latin-Jews to engage in vital conversations around race, gender justice, antisemitism, leadership, and collective healing. The Hadassah Foundation’s grant supports "VOCES EN VIVO: Not Your Mama’s Jewtinidad!", a storytelling and performance initiative created to uplift the voices and experiences of Latin-Jewish women and nonbinary individuals. | Organization for the Resolution of Agunot seeks to eliminate abuse from the Jewish divorce process by advocating for the timely and unconditional issuance of a get, or a Jewish divorce. It pursues its mission through three main strategies: advocacy on behalf of agunot (women denied a Jewish divorce), early intervention, and prevention. | Sacred Spaces equips Jewish institutions with the tools, training, and guidance to prevent and respond to abuse, creating safer, more accountable communities. Working within schools, camps, synagogues, and other types of institutions spanning Jewish life, Sacred Spaces aims to build a future where abuse prevention and response are prioritized across the Jewish communal landscape, safety is an expected standard, and institutions are prepared to protect, respond, and support with integrity and accountability. | |
Shalom Task Force combats and prevents domestic violence and fosters healthy and safe relationships. The Hadassah Foundation grant supports the organization’s Purple Fellowship and Future Community Leaders Youth leadership initiatives, which empower Jewish high school students to prevent intimate partner violence, promote gender equity, and lead with values to drive systemic change in Jewish life.
Earlier this year, the Hadassah Foundation awarded five Core grants to organizations in Israel. Learn more about those grants here.
MEET ALL OUR GRANT RECIPIENTS
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ROOTS OF RESILIENCE: Cultivating Jewish Women's Leadership | Shira Berkovits of Sacred Spaces leads a breakout group discussion. (Shulamit Photo & Video) | Last month, three Hadassah Foundation grant recipients were front and center in a conversation about cultivating Jewish women's leadership from safety and strength. Leaders of Shalom Task Force, Sacred Spaces, and I Was Supposed to Have a Baby participated in a panel discussion followed by interactive breakout sessions with the audience. Read highlights here. |
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Arab and Jewish girls at a QueenB hack-a-thon in Tel Aviv. (Courtesy of QueenB) | |
WOMEN'S SPIRIT led a conference at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva to mobilize international action and awareness about economic abuse, a form of abuse in which men exert financial control over their partners. Based in Israel, Women's Spirit is an international leader in this emerging field. The event, which presented innovative initiatives and global strategies to eradicate economic abuse, also featured Hadassah Foundation grant recipient JEWISH WOMEN INTERNATIONAL and called on the UN to designate November 26 as International Day for the Elimination of Economic Abuse. Learn more.
| QUEENB was featured on Israel's Channel 13 as a national model for increasing the representation of women in Israel’s overwhelmingly male tech sector. The news segment reported that only one in three Israeli students currently completing university STEM tracks are female, while showing how QueenB’s hands-on tech education and inspiring mentorship are changing the situation on the ground. Learn more. | MAHARAT has ordained its 100th Orthodox woman rabbi. At its 13th Annual Semikha Ceremony, the yeshiva graduated 25 new rabbis, its largest class ever. The new rabbis come from the United States, Israel, France, and the U.K. Based in New York, Maharat is the first institution to ordain Orthodox women as rabbis. Learn more. |
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GRANTEES IN THE HEADLINES | |
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About the Hadassah Foundation
The Hadassah Foundation is a leader in advancing gender equity in Israel and the United States through collective giving, relationship building, and education.
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| Hadassah Foundation | 40 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005 | | | | |
