THE JEWISH WOMEN’S FOUNDATION OF NEW YORK NAMES TEN JEWISH WOMEN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS TO ITS 2021 COLLECTIVE
Each Receives Long-Term Funding, Mentorship, and a Support Network to
Grow and Deepen Impact and Leadership
New York – April 29, 2021 – Ten Jewish women social entrepreneurs – addressing challenges as varied as contemporary racism, the climate crisis, and next-generation empowerment, and making impact across multiple continents and within diverse communities – were named today to the 2021 Collective of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York (JWFNY).
The Collective is a global incubator for Jewish women change makers using a Jewish and gender lens to address critical societal needs and issues, both existing and emerging, and each with the innovation and determination to make meaningful systemic change and inspire others. The ten women joining the Collective represent its third cohort since JWFNY established the initiative in 2019.
Each member of the Collective will receive three years of capacity building and general operating support; professional development funding; and immersive study of leadership and organizational growth with a customized curriculum facilitated by Ruth Messinger, Past President and current Global Ambassador of the American Jewish World Service; Jamie Allen Black, CEO of JWFNY; and Rachel Siegel, Director of Strategic Programs at JWFNY.
In addition, they will access a formal and dynamic network of Jewish women visionaries and philanthropists for idea exchanges, support, and collaboration, and a prominent platform to raise awareness of their work, issue areas, and impact.
“The Collective is about the leader – how she sees a problem and identifies a solution and how she takes that solution and partners with others to ensure social change,” said Jamie Allen Black, CEO of JWFNY. “Each woman is as impressive and powerful as the next, and JWFNY is privileged to partner with them, elevate them, and provide them with opportunities to advance and amplify their work in the social justice arena. The needs they are addressing are expanding and even more critical especially after the realities of the past year.”
The ten were named and honored during a JWFNY streaming event, “Be-JEWEL-ed,” the title of which reflects the Foundation’s name for members of the Collective – JEWELs, Jewish Entrepreneurial Women Executives and Leaders. The event, online for a second year due to the continuing pandemic, can be viewed on the JWFNY website.
“Now is the time for us to double down on our support of visionary leaders with creative approaches and innovative solutions to the societal ills that plague us,” said Rachel Weinstein, President of JWFNY.
“The Jewish women social entrepreneurs who make up our third cohort, like those in the first two, are social justice warriors, relentless in their pursuit of a more equitable and inclusive society here in the US and around the world. They are the ones who have been doing the heavy lifting addressing urgent needs throughout the pandemic and they will be the ones to help us build a better future as we emerge from this crisis.”
The ten members of JWFNY’s 2021 Collective were selected from a pool of more than 300 social entrepreneurs after a rigorous vetting and interview process by JWFNY’s visionary philanthropists and activists. JWFNY focused on identifying extraordinary women leading organizations to create social and economic change in a broad range of populations and geographies.
JWFNY’s 2021 Collective includes:
- Shlomit Bukaya, Executive Director, Association of Ethiopian Jews, Ramla, Israel. Bukaya, who arrived in Israel from Ethiopia at the age of five, is an attorney-activist leading an organization addressing systemic and cultural discrimination and racism to improve educational, social and economic opportunities for Ethiopian Israelis.
- Karyn Grossman Gershon, Executive Director, Project Kesher, New York. Gershon leads efforts to advance civil society in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and Russian-speaking communities in Israel by empowering women leaders, supporting intergenerational Jewish life, advancing gender equity, and promoting public health and wellness.
- Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, Co-Founder and Director, Chochmat Nashim, Beit Shemesh, Israel. Keats Jaskoll, a writer and activist, elevates the voices of religious women and their advocates in Israel – in such realms as policy making, community activism, and public and religious discourse – to counter the rise of religious extremism and the growing erasure of women in the Orthodox community.
- Sarah Levin, Executive Director, JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, San Francisco. Levin leads domestic and international efforts to end the marginalization of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews with roots in the Middle East and North Africa, and pursues acknowledgement, justice, and redress for these members of the Jewish community.
- Analucía Lopezrevoredo, Founder and Executive Director, Jewtina y Co., San Francisco. A Peruvian-Chilean-Quechua-American Jewtina and anti-oppression activist, Dr. Lopezrevoredo founded the organization to raise awareness of Latin-Jewish heritage, multiculturalism, and intersectional justice, and to give Latin Jews from around the world a channel through which to engage in critical dialogues and develop community leadership skills.
- Elizabeth Mandel, Founder and Executive Director, jGirls Magazine, New York. An accomplished documentary filmmaker, writer, editor, and community activist, Mandel is cultivating the next generation of bold, committed Jewish female leaders by giving Jewish teenage girls a platform to cultivate, amplify, and share their voices with the world and each other.
- Shahanna McKinney-Baldon, Founding Executive Director, Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative, Madison, WI. McKinney Baldon, a longtime educator and Jewish diversity advocate, works to ameliorate the effects of contemporary American racism on Jewish community life in the Midwest by increasing access for Jewish People of Color (JOCs), growing Jewish diversity work, and developing and centering JOC leadership.
- Lara Mendel, Co-Founder and Executive Director, The Mosaic Project, Oakland, CA. Mendel, committed to cross-cultural communication and the power of diversity, is bringing together students from markedly different communities and creating programming to address issues of difference, build self esteem, inspire acceptance and inclusion, and create equitable learning communities.
- Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder and CEO, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, New York. A social change and justice advocate, Rabbi Rosenn leads a national organization mobilizing the American Jewish community to confront the climate crisis with spiritual audacity, bold political action, and a religious and moral voice.
- Esty Shushan, Founder and CEO, Nivcharot, Petach Tikva, Israel. An ultra-Orthodox lecturer, media personality, writer, and activist, Shushan founded the first Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) feminist organization in Israel to advance –through education, leadership development, and advocacy – the status and rights of ultra-Orthodox women and the inclusion of their voices in the political process.