Building a Global Network of Jewish Women Leaders
Driving Equity and Social Change

PROGRAM

Monday, April 27, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Registration and Breakfast

Stepping Into Leadership: Setting the Tone For Our Time

Welcome & Opening
Linda Yarden, President, Elluminate
Melanie Roth Gorelick, CEO, Elluminate
Dr. Sara Shapiro-Plevan, Chief Program Officer, Elluminate

Opening Conversation: Jewish Women’s Leadership and the Path Forward
Heather Booth, National Outreach Director, Battleground Alliance
Ruth Messinger, Dean and Educator, Elluminate Collective

Framing Conversation: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Leadership
Jewish women are at the forefront of movements advancing justice and shaping a more equitable world. This conversation will explore where their collective voice, leadership, and influence are most needed now—and the responsibility and opportunity to help shape what comes next.

Moderated by Melanie Roth Gorelick, CEO, Elluminate

Featuring:
• Yavilah McCoy, CEO, Dimensions Inc.
• Moran Zer Katzenstein, CEO and Founder, Bonot Alternativa
• Rabbi Mary Zamore, CEO, Women’s Rabbinic Network
• Rabba Daphne Lazar Price, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

Leadership Action Groups: From Insight to Action, Dr. Sara Shapiro-Plevan, Chief Program Officer, Elluminate 

Participants will reflect on and analyze framing conversations, and suggest strategic direction and possible collaborations, as well as prospective partners for advancing women’s leadership across the network.

Impromptu Networking: Weaving Our Network
A facilitated welcome designed to connect across the network, meet new colleagues and deepen connections, and identify opportunities for giving and receiving as the network evolves a collaborative spirit.

Affinity Group Lunches & Network Mapping Experiences
During lunch, affinity groups will be available for gathering by interest and identity across the Network. Gather with like-minded colleagues for lunch, conversation and to identify shared interests and priorities.

Visit the halls to participate in a variety of interactive Network mapping experiences.

Re-Gather & Opening Reflection: Collective Impact
Dr. Sara Shapiro-Plevan, Chief Program Officer, Elluminate

Framing Conversation: Creating an Equitable, Just, and Inclusive World Through a Gender Lens

Creating a more just and equitable Jewish community requires intentional leadership and a deep commitment to belonging. This conversation will explore where Jewish women’s leadership, voice, and influence are most needed to shape more inclusive communities—within Jewish life and beyond—and how centering belonging can drive meaningful change.

Moderated by Eva Stern, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Elluminate

Featuring:
• Ela Alon, Co-CEO, Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice
• Maryam Chishti, Co-Executive Director, The LUNAR Collective
• SooJi Min-Maranda, Nonprofit Executive
• Jodi Bromberg, Principal, Bromberg Consulting

Leadership Action Groups: Small Group Discussion
Participants will reflect on and analyze framing conversations, and suggest strategic direction and possible collaborations, as well as prospective partners for advancing women’s leadership across the Network.

Break

Workshops (Concurrent Sessions)

Participants will choose one of the following:

Workshop 1: From Noise to Clarity: Leading Yourself in Complex Times, facilitated by Dr. Mazal (Mazi) Avidov Shaul, Former CEO, WePower, Lecturer, Author & Coach

Suggested description: In times of uncertainty and constant noise, accessing inner clarity and taking meaningful action is a critical leadership skill. This interactive workshop invites participants to reflect, reconnect with their inner compass, and identify a clear “next right step” aligned with their values and current reality. Through guided reflection and peer dialogue, participants will strengthen their ability to navigate complexity with focus and intention.

Workshop 2: Expanding the Circle: Practical Tools for Inclusive Dialogue and Shared Leadership, facilitated by Dr. Ramona Tenorio, Executive Director, Tiyuv

Difference can be a source of leadership intelligence—if it’s engaged well. This interactive workshop introduces evaluative thinking to help leaders surface diverse perspectives, identify missing voices, and make meaning from complexity. Participants will leave with practical tools to strengthen trust, navigate disagreement, and move toward shared direction.

Workshop 3: Don’t Just Venn, Vent!, facilitated by Elizabeth Mandel, Vice President of Feminist Programs, Moving Traditions

Identity is complicated. We are not just one thing. We feel connected to different groups of people and are in the midst of exploring what we believe and what we know to be true about ourselves. This session introduces a simple but powerful technique that helps us hold and better express all that feels complicated and all that is real as we dig deeper into this weekend’s exploration of identity. You will learn how Vent diagrams are different from Venn Diagrams, and how they can help us move from better knowing ourselves to being better prepared to make change around us.

Workshop 4: Caring for the Whole: How a Values-Driven Organization Means Everyone Thrives, facilitated by Cheryl R. Cook, CEO, Avodah; Idit Klein,Vice President for Public Engagement, New Israel Fund; and Lani Santo, CEO, Footsteps

In this session, participants will develop strategies to create values driven work cultures, where employees can show up as their best selves at work. Join seasoned leaders, Cheryl Cook, Idit Klein, Lani Santo, to workshop live challenges and gain greater ease and confidence about how to move forward to build thriving workplace cultures.

Closing Reception

Tuesday, April 28, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

 Affinity Group Breakfasts
During breakfast, affinity groups will be available for gathering by interest and identity across the Network. Gather with like-minded colleagues for lunch, conversation and to identify shared interests and priorities.

Registration and Breakfast
Visit the halls to participate in a variety of interactive Network mapping experiences.

 Framing Conversation: Social Change through Collective Impact: Advancing Equity and Justice
Jewish women are leading transformative work across the social change landscape, advancing human rights, civil rights, shared society, and efforts to reduce violence and strengthen democracy. This panel will explore where Jewish women’s leadership, perspective, and voice are most needed—and how a network can help shape influence, drive change, and make a meaningful difference.

Moderated by Rachel Siegel, Director of Jewish Women’s Leadership, Elluminate and Liron Peleg-Hadomi, Elluminate Israel Representative

Featuring:
• Michal Gera Margaliot, Executive Director, The Union of Journalists in Israel
• Kimberly Novod, Founder and Executive Director, Saul’s Light Foundation
• Moria Rodal Silfen, CEO, ATZUM – Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution
• Fraidy Reiss, Founder and Executive Director, Unchained At Last
• Dyonna Ginsburg, CEO, OLAM

Break

Framing Conversation: Social Justice and Human Rights: Gender Justice, Women’s Safety and Security
Advancing gender justice—centered on dignity, bodily autonomy, and ending all forms of gender-based violence—is at the heart of this conversation. This session will explore how Jewish women are driving systemic change across sectors—and where their collective voice and leadership can accelerate progress and shape meaningful solutions.

Moderated by Nancy K. Kaufman

Featuring
• Tamar Shwartz, CEO, Women’s Spirit – Financial Independence for Women Survivors of Abuse
• Dina Shalev, Executive Director, Lada’at – Choose Well
• Ronie Nof Malc, Executive Director, Women and Their Bodies
• Keshet Starr, CEO, Shalom Task Force
•Julie F. Kay, CEO and Founder, Reproductive Futures

Leadership Action Groups:  Small Group Discussion

Participants will reflect on and analyze framing conversations, and suggest strategic direction and possible collaborations, as well as prospective partners for advancing women’s leadership across the Network.

Lunch by Geographic Hub
Participants will gather by geographic grouping to connect, build relationships, and explore local and regional opportunities for collaboration.

Elluminate Roundtable: U.S. – Israel Women’s Leadership Lunch (Invite Only)

Seeding the Network: Planting for Future Growth
Building on earlier framing conversations, participants will break into small groups to synthesize insights and shape a strategic direction for Network collaboration, partnerships and collective impact.

In these groups, participants will:
• Reflect on key themes and emerging ideas
• Identify strategies for collective focus
• Explore opportunities for collaboration and partnership

Each group will report back to the full group, sharing key recommendations to help inform the Network’s strategic direction.

Presentations and Gallery Walk:  Each action group will share key findings and reflections prior to time for a gallery walk through artifacts and visuals created by each group. 

Break

Launch Celebration: Building the Future of the Network

Welcome

• Linda Yarden, President, Elluminate

Activating the Network: Priorities, Possibility, and the Path Forward
Defining the path forward—activating a network to elevate Jewish women’s power, voice, and influence within the Jewish community and society at large.

• Melanie Roth Gorelick, CEO, Elluminate
• Sara Shapiro-Plevan, Chief Program Officer, Elluminate

Voices of the Network: Building Together
A series of reflections from leaders across the community on what they have observed, what this moment makes possible, and what we can build together.

Featuring:
• Ruth Messinger, Dean and Educator, Elluminate Collective
• Orit Sulitzeanu, Executive Director, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel
• Idit Klein, Vice President for Public Engagement, New Israel Fund
• Dr. Analucia Lopezrevoredo, CEO, Jewtina y Co.

A Blessing for the Network and the Work Ahead

• Rabba Sara Hurwitz, President and Co-Founder, Yeshiva Maharat
• Rabbi Benay Lappe, Founder and Rosh Yeshiva, SVARA
• Rabba Daphne Lazar Price, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
• Rabbi Mary Zamore, Executive Director, Women’s Rabbinic Network

Closing Reception
Join us in celebrating the launch of the Network and the community built over the Summit

Our thanks to the Barbara Hope Foundation for making this Summit possible.