The Forward
By Masha Leon–

“My Jewish faith is represented by my values and love of education,” said Joy Hirsch, professor and neuroscientist at Yale University’s School of Medicine, Hirsch was one of three remarkable women honored at the Jewish Women’s Foundation Benefit Luncheon, held on March 14 at The Plaza. “I come from a small community in Oregon,” Hirsch said, responding to moderator NYC-Arts host Paula Zahn’s query about the “impact of Judaism on her persona.” “My parents were farmers… probably the only Jewish farming family in Oregon.” Also onstage was Roberta Kaplan, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. On March 27 she appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, defending Edith Windsor in challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of the Marriage Act .Nazee Moinian, “fluent in French, English, Farsi and Arabic” was onstage, as well. Her multiple talents were listed in the program under the title “Consultant on Iranian Politics.”

Hirsch, one of the developers of the diagnostic marvel the MRI, has made pioneering breakthroughs in understanding the workings of the human brain. “I feel strongly about mentoring young women through their science careers…. brains are beautiful, and a smart woman is really an important person,” she said, When Zahn asked Kaplan if arguing before the Supreme Court was a realistic goal,” Kaplan — whose credentials include “New York super lawyer and one of the 500 leading litigators in the United States,” responded lightheartedly: “I was very lucky.” And as for her Judaic commitment, Kaplan replied: “In my bat mitzvah in Temple Emau-El in Cleveland, Ohio, my Torah portion was Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof [Deuteronomy: 16:20: Justice, justice, thou shalt pursue].” The coincidence elicited lots of chuckles.

Read the entire article here: http://forward.com/articles/174687/amy-winehouse-foundation-gala-and-jewish-womens-fo/#ixzz2QG1nrusS

Many JWFNY friends from Sharsharet attended the premiere showing. I encourage everyone to see this film and help bring attention to strives that have been made in this field as well as awareness of how much more we need to do and learn.

By, Madeleine Grant, President of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York

On Monday, February 25th, 15 women elected officials gathered at City Hall to demand New York City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn to allow a vote on a bill that would require New York City employers with more than five employees to provide at least five paid sick days a year to their employees. The lead sponsor of the bill, New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, voiced the sentiment of so many women supporters of the bill when she shouted at the demonstration: “We are here because we’re women, women who are active in the workforce.”

Included among the 15 women elected officials was Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), who stated, “The facts are enough to make you sick: America is the only industrialized nation in the world that fails to guarantee paid sick leave.”

Of the one million workers in New York City who are not even provided with one paid sick day, more than half of them are women with children. This is due to the fact that women are over-represented in low-wage jobs—jobs where employers are less likely to offer their employees paid sick days, and where the women are less likely to voice any protest about it. Women are also overwhelmingly more likely to act as the primary caregiver for their families, responsible for doctor’s appointments and follow-up care. According to Time to Care NY, 49% of working mothers report that they must stay home from work when a child is sick, but when they do so, half of them are not paid for every day they miss work.

Framing paid sick days as a “women’s issue”, supporters of the bill hoped that Quinn would bring the bill to a vote, but in spite of its strong support from these 15 elected officials, as well as so many women in the work place, Quinn still refuses to allow the bill to come to a vote. Recognizing that the goal of the bill is laudable, Quinn, nevertheless, feels that the economic environment cannot justify such legislation.

What does this have to do with Judaism?

Since the beginning of time, social justice has been a standing priority for Jewish people of all backgrounds, and one of the main principals of Jewish social justice has always been worker’s rights. Paid sick leave has become a critical component of workers’ rights, and as Jewish people, and Jewish women in particular, we understand the need to educate the public on this issue and take action.

At the heart of Jewish tradition and religion lies the importance of honest, hard work and maintaining healthy families. The Torah instructs that “you must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is in need and urgently depends on it,” (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). JWFNY grantee Uri L’Tzedick interprets this as the Torah’s reminder of the extent to which workers who earn a low wage depend on their daily wages for their very existence, and that to deny them their wages is unjust. The Torah also instructs us to take care of our health, reminding us that “you shall indeed guard your souls, because our bodies and souls belong to God,” (Deuteronomy 4:15).

Rabbi Jill Jacobs of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America explains in a My Jewish Learning article how the Talmud connects these teachings of the Torah to show how paying wages to those who depend on them goes hand in hand with the importance of guarding our bodies and souls. According to the Talmud, “A hired laborer must not starve himself or undergo privations, because he diminishes his value as a workman to his employer,” (Talmud, Demai VI 4, 26B). Employers and employees have a common interest in workers’ health and a mutual obligation to ensure the strength of the labor force.
When workers are treated fairly and with dignity, their families and communities are more likely to thrive as well. A mother should not be made to choose between her children’s health and her job. These are principals that our ancestors taught and lived, to create a fair employment system, and we should continue to uphold these core concepts in today’s evolving world.

What Now?

As women and Jews, we strongly encourage Speaker Christine Quinn to allow the paid sick days bill to come to a vote. We also applaud the great work of our grantees who have organized the Jewish community around this issue. This past fall, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) sent a letter to Speaker Quinn in support of the New York City Paid Sick Time Act that was signed by more than 40 prominent Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal New York rabbis. In addition, JWFNY grantee Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community (AWP) has been advocating throughout the year to improve parental leave and work flexibility policies within their Better Work, Better Life Campaign.

At JWFNY we are committed to continue organizing the Jewish community around this issue through our grantmaking and advocacy efforts in order to bring the paid sick day bill to a vote.

By, Lauren Wachtler, JWFNY Advocacy Committee Chair &
Stephanie Harz, Project Coordinator

The Jerusalem Report
By Judith Cantor–

IT’S LATE December, and hundreds of women and a handful of men are crowded into an auditorium in central Tel Aviv to listen as the heads of most of the main political parties solemnly professed their commitment to equality for women.

When Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the opposition Kadima party, former deputy prime minister and former IDF Chief of Staff, notes that women now head the three major parties, the audience interrupts him. “We want a prime minister, too,” the crowd calls, quite pleased with themselves as they use the feminine form…

And the growth of sophisticated feminist NGOs has also played a role. But, without a doubt, the increased prominence of women and women’s issues in these elections can be attributed to a deliberate, strategic effort by a cohesive group of savvy women, supported by American funds. In an unprecedented effort, 13 Jewish women’s funds in the US joined with three funds in Israel to award a collaborative grant to a new partnership of seven prominent women’s organizations in Israel.

This is not the first time that Israeli feminist organizations have formed alliances. Most recently, feminist groups ran a successful campaign against raising the mandatory retirement age for women (see “Fair and equal,” The Jerusalem Report, September 2011). But these were ad hoc collaborations. This time, the US-based Jewish Women’s Collaborative International Fund has awarded a two-year, $150,000 grant to Itach-Maaki, the lead organization of the new “Bringing Women to the Fore: A Feminist Partnership,” known in Hebrew as “Shutafot” and intended to be a long-term cooperative effort of eight leading women’s organizations in Israel…

While feminist philanthropy in the US has been developing for decades, it is only over the past 15 years that a Jewish women’s philanthropic movement has been growing. Today, there are some 20 Jewish Women’s Foundations throughout the US, and the movement is expanding as women, many of whom are involved with their local Jewish federations, seek to play a more central and hands-on role in the decisions regarding funding allocations and the issues they address. However, each Jewish Women’s Foundation is separately incorporated.

The Collaborate International Fund, established in early 2012, grew out of the decision by several feminist professionals to increase communication among them, including a monthly conference call. “We began to perceive ourselves as a group, and to think about the effect we could have if we would pool our resources,” says Rebecca Garrison, Associate Director, Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York. Garrison co-leads the collaborative with Jennifer Elvey Schnepper, Assistant Director of Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.

Read the entire article here: http://www.jwfny.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Jerusalem-Report-Counting-Women-1.28.13.pdf

In Governor Cuomo’s 2013 State of the State Address he says, “New York has fallen behind in its role as a progressive leader on women’s rights.” JWFNY’s Advocacy Committee knows the Governor is right. Advocating to improve discriminatory policies that affect women in the workplace, the JWFNY Advocacy Committee speaks out within the Jewish community as well as the community at large. Committee members have been attending advocacy related events, signing related petitions and discussing these issues with leaders in the field.

One of the goals of the Advocacy Committee is to display to the Jewish community that the issues affecting women in the workplace are critical and in need of prompt attention. Furthermore, over the past year, the main theme of JWFNY’s grantmaking has been economic security for women. The Advocacy Committee’s objective has been to further leverage these grants by providing women with continued support in their occupations and increased opportunities for growth. This is why JWFNY is proud to highlight the Governor’s 10-Point Women’s Equality Act, which he says, “will bring New York back to its rightful place as a leader on women’s equality.”

Point 1. Shatter the Glass Ceiling: Achieve Pay Equity

The first point of the 10-Point Act, to Achieve Pay Equity, speaks to the heart of JWFNY’s current advocacy work: eliminating wage discrimination based on gender. The Advocacy Committee continues to find that it is all too common for women in the workplace to be paid and treated unequally because of their gender, and women continue to earn only 84 percent of what men earn. To achieve pay equity the Governor proposes to:

• Provide women who are found by court to have been victims of wage discrimination with increased additional damages. Currently individuals are entitled to the wages they would have earned had they been paid on an equal basis, plus attorney’s fees and statutory interests. The plaintiff is also entitled to receive liquidated damages that equal 100 percent of the back wages due. The Governor is going to increase the entitlement of liquidated damages to 300 percent of the back wages.

• Redefine the broad exceptions that are currently in New York State Law that enable employers to essentially point to any factor in an attempt to avoid liability. The Governor proposes tightening these exceptions so the pay differentials are excused only where the employer can show that the differential is truly caused by something other than gender and is related to job performance.

• Prohibit employers from terminating or retaliating against employees who share wage information. Policies against sharing wage information essentially deny women workers the ability to discover whether their wages are unequal to their male counterparts.

JWFNY also commends the Governor’s proposal to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 an hour. Many jobs traditionally held by women pay minimum or comparable wages. This increase will help all minimum wage workers and will specifically boost single female headed households with young children, who represent the highest percentage of people whose income falls below the poverty level.

JWFNY’s advocacy efforts are largely guided by its advocacy partners, who are making the Governor’s 10-Point Act and women’s equality possible. JWFNY is proud to stand with New York Women’s Agenda, A Better Balance, and National Council for Jewish Women, among other organizations, and continue this important work together.

To read the section of Governor Cuomo’s 2013 State of the State Address that covers the 10-Point Women’s Equality Act click here.

The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York Funds Three Women Entrepreneurs in the PresenTense NYC Fellowship

With the help of JWFNY, PresenTense has chosen three promising women to partake in the 2013 cohort of the NYC Fellowship program. These up-and-coming female leaders will receive high-quality entrepreneurial training and networking to support their ventures geared toward economic empowerment and social action programs for women. On behalf of PresenTense, we are proud to announce the three cohort fellows receiving support from JWFNY:

Adena Blickstein
Jewish Women’s Talent Agency
Adena is a dedicated individual with enthusiasm for the Jewish community and the arts. In 2006, Adena established her own non-profit organization, Professional Women’s Theater. She has studied dance under the auspices of master teachers of Ballet and modern dance, and trained in institutions such as the Joffery Ballet and Tisch NYU. A mother of two, Adena is passionate about enabling religious female performers to use their talents to stay engaged within and strengthen the community.

The Jewish Women’s Talent Agency is an online system designed to expand the market for female performing artists in the Jewish community. It will consist of an online forum whereby events/organizations can find their match among the pool of female professional performing artists. It will also contain a pool of central media (music/dance/visual art) that Jewish female artists can upload and share.

Yvonne Feiger
Réunion De Dames
Yvonne works for a non-profit organization where she spends most of her time assisting teenagers. She is passionate about teaching and the Jewish religion and culture. Yvonne grew up in Vienna, Austria. She is proud of Vienna’s small but vibrant Jewish community and Austria’s newly re-established Jewish life.

Reunion De Dames is an intergenerational women’s discussion group that converses about topics of concern related to the women’s Jewish self-understanding. This venture aims to bring thought provoking discussion and dialogue into the female Jewish community.

Sarah Jacobs
Girls Are People, Too
Sarah was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and now lives happily in New York City. She graduated from the University of Denver, where she studied International Relations and grew her passion for working in the nonprofit world as well as promoting women’s empowerment. Sarah is energetic and passionate about meeting new people and making a change.

Girls Are People, Too is an organization dedicated to empowering women and tweaking the perception of the feminine ideal through mentorship and seminars. The organization is focused on empowering girls between the ages of 8-18 through various discussions, workshops and activities that teach girls they have the power to decide who they should become.

To learn more about the 2013 NYC Fellowship cohort and the fellowship program offered by PresenTense go to www.nycfellowship.com.

Now Accepting Applications!

Slingshot, in partnership with the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, is pleased to announce that applications for the new Slingshot Women and Girls Supplement are now being accepted.

Visit www.slingshotfund.org to access the application and apply by January 25, 2013.

• What is Slingshot?                          
  Slingshot ’13-’14 will list the most innovative projects and organizations in the North American Jewish community. Please encourage organizations that inspire you to apply!
• What is the Slingshot Women and Girls Supplement?
  The supplement guide will highlight the 15-20 most innovative Jewish projects and organizations doing innovative work on behalf of women and girls.
• Who reads Slingshot?                     
  Thousands of hard copies of Slingshot and the supplements are distributed to funders of all ages, foundation professionals, federation executives, Jewish community professionals, and other Jews searching for inspirational projects and organizations.
• Why should I apply?       
  Inclusion in the Women and Girls Supplement can help your organization generate press, funds, new participants and partnerships with other innovative organizations. Slingshot also exposes featured organizations to a network of next gen funders. The bottom line – Slingshot is a national seal of approval that can be used to further a variety of goals in creative ways.

Please visit www.slingshotfund.org for more information!

For questions, please contact Julie Finkelstein, Program Director, at Julie@slingshotfund.org.

Women are running a growing number of Jewish organizations, at least those represented in “Slingshot: A Resource Guide to Jewish Innovation.” While about half of the groups selected in recent years for the annual guide of 64 innovative Jewish organizations have been led by women, this year the percentage has shot up to 64%, or nearly two-thirds…

…Slingshot will also highlight women’s issues next year, when the guide includes a supplement looking at innovative organizations focusing on the needs of Jewish women and girls. The goal of the supplement, being produced with the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, is to encourage groups with this focus to apply to Slingshot so they can be brought to the attention of a wider pool of potential funders than they are likely reaching now, said Schneider. Many of these organizations haven’t even thought to apply to Slingshot, he said. “We get five to 10 applicants in this space now. I know that there are dozens of organizations that could be applying.”

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