Debbie Kuniansky, JWFA Past Chair

 August 2024

I write to you as a former Chair of Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta and as the current Vice Chair of the Board of Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. On October 8, 2023, JWFA was among the first to donate to Federation’s Atlanta Israel Emergency Fund, with a grant of $10,000. JWFA has taught me the benefit of collective giving. I recently returned from Israel as part of the Atlanta leadership delegation on the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) mission where we were able to see our philanthropic dollars in action. Throughout my time in Israel, the stories and gratitude from individuals and organizations reinforced my faith in the amazing difference we can make when we collectively make an impact. Thank you all for your support and we should all be very proud that we (Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta) are making a difference in the lives of Jewish women and girls in Israel and here in Atlanta.  

This trip was my first time in Israel since October 7th.  Reminiscent of my JWFA trip to Israel, we were there to meet with our grantee partners…to see the work of our philanthropic dollars. However, there is no question that this time was very different. The trauma was palpable.  It was difficult to witness but also inspiring to see the resilience and strength of the people of Israel.  

We visited the Nova Festival Site and went to Nir Oz, a Kibbutz close to the Gaza Strip where 1 in 4 members were either killed or taken hostage.  It was a difficult day bearing witness and listening to survivors.  And then we visited with our partners, our “boots on the ground” people who are using our dollars to support victims of terror, business owners who are struggling, IDF soldiers suffering from PTSD, families who need relocating, and families who are now single parent homes because so many have been called for reserves duty.  

Since the horrific October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel, Jewish Federations of North America has raised an astounding $833 million – more than half of the total funds contributed by the global Jewish community – and allocated $433 million to 520 Israeli NGO’s. With the Jewish Federation’s strong core partnerships and decades of experience, they were able to mobilize quickly to address the needs of evacuees, victims, and IDF soldiers. The campaign has touched people far and wide, helping more than 480 businesses with emergency relief loans; providing 407,000 Israelis with mental health support; and serving 1.2 million hot meals. Our philanthropy has helped shelter nearly 37,000 Israeli evacuees, provided equipment and supplies to 27 hospitals, and backed emergency loans for hundreds of businesses.  

As a JWFA Trustee, I do want to highlight a couple of grantee partners we met with that I believe are directly aligned with our JWFA mission. We met with Miriam Schler, Executive Director of Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Center. There are 9 sexual assault clinics in Israel. The October 7th massacre saw brutal sexual assaults and brought back the collective memory of pogroms and the Holocaust with such horrifying atrocities. The failure of the world to recognize these crimes and/or justify them due to occupation has had a devastating effect on rape survivors in general (reliving their own trauma). Miriam said, “The therapists and first responders are dealing with their second-hand trauma from October 7th and the days that followed”. Survivors also include witnesses to sexual crimes and families of victims. They have had to increase staff and develop new techniques and programs to support these survivors. 

We also got a chance to hear from Rachel Azaria, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and Knesset member who co-founded HaOgen LeMishpachot HaMiluim, (The Anchor for Families of Reservists).  She brought with her Ruth Ross, a client of HaOgen whose husband was called up as a reservist into Gaza.  Ruth felt like she was okay and turned down services at first. But then, she would get calls from HaOgen volunteers and food would be left at her door and she realized, “I do need help.” HaOgen knew that many would reject the help because of “Israeli pride,” but the reality is that families and now single parent homes are struggling beyond even their own expectations. HaOgen is a volunteer organization that helps with babysitting or just providing an extra set of hands while the mother is still home, bringing cooked food, transporting kids, help around the house, taking the dog for a walk, moving apartments, and so much more. Ruth had tears in her eyes as she expressed her gratitude.

Thank you, again, to JWFA for your support. Collectively, the dollars raised for the Atlanta Israel Emergency Fund are making a real difference and I am grateful for the opportunity to share some of my experiences with you. 

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Mindy Binderman, JWFA Vice Chair

Summer 2024

This was my first trip back after October 7th.  There were posters and messages about the hostages all over, and, in any conversation with Israelis, the trauma of the war and the uncertainty about the future is top of mind.  At the same time, the restaurants and beaches in Tel Aviv were full of people trying their best to carry on day to day in spite of the situation.

I went primarily to attend a dear friend’s son’s wedding (which was one of those once-in-a-lifetime special memories) but I also spent a few days in Tel Aviv volunteering on my own. And, thanks to my husband’s wonderful suggestion and Melissa’s help in making connections, I met with four of our grantee organizations.  Other than the wedding, these meetings were the highlights of my trip!

I met with Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers, the Rackman Center, and Women’s Spirit. First and foremost, I was inspired by the women that I met.  Each of them is truly a hero as they continue to work to promote social change and make progress in the face of so many professional and personal challenges.  I was also struck by the fact that I heard certain themes repeatedly from each organization- concerns about the rise in domestic violence, pride in the role that each of them has played in getting the UN to acknowledge the rapes of women on October 7th, and concerns about future government policies were prevalent in each of our conversations.

Physicians for Human Rights

Since this was my first time meeting them in person, we spent some time talking about the full scope of the organization. They have an on-site clinic; they work on the right to health care in the Israeli prison system and run mobile health units in the West Bank.  In addition, they focus on health policy change in Israel studying gaps in equitable health care with a large focus on gender equality.

We have funded their work to pull together a coalition on reproductive rights that is working to eliminate the requirement that Israeli women seeking an abortion must appear before a committee that approves their abortion.  The coalition is also working to make more forms of contraception available in Israel’s public health system.  Presently, only the pill is available, not IUDS or other contraception methods.

Specifically, since October 7th:

• they have been working to oppose policies that make it easier to get a gun license.  Israeli law states that to get a license, an individual must get a doctor’s note specifying that they do not have epilepsy or severe psychosis.  There is no check for prior acts of domestic violence.  They feel that it is a violation of medical ethics to involve physicians in this way, and they have gotten prominent medical professionals to sign open letters in opposition.
• they have worked on issues of sexual violence and briefed the UN.  They said that the fact that they are a human rights organization with ties to the West Bank and Gaza gave their testimony more credibility.
• they have worked to treat 1st responder trauma, and
• due to their previous relationships with medical providers in Gaza, they were called upon to try to make connections to help the hostages- to no avail.

Women’s Spirit

The war has traumatized their clients.  Many have been evacuated from their homes in the North and South.  Images from October 7th were triggering and traumatizing for participants who have already been victims of domestic violence.  Moreover, the evacuees are disconnected from social services and Women’s Spirits’ participants who have worked so hard to regain control of their lives had that taken away from them as a result of the war.

So, as a response, Women’s Spirit gave out material assistance for the first time to participants in the first months of the war.  They gave laptops and housing vouchers.

They shared that for the survivors and evacuees from the South, there is a routine that is helpful. They immediately held resilience workshops and yoga and krav maga classes to help build community. In the North, however, it is more challenging as the war and bombings are a part of daily life and the financial situation is terrible since many people there were in the tourist industry.  Women’s Spirit is working to give the women there resources such as connecting them to summer programs for their children and making digital professional development courses available.

They also are working on policy changes-

• they are working to ensure that women get entitlements for social services such as safe housing
• they speak in the media about the implications that the war is having on women since, as we know, during war, domestic violence tends to escalate
• they are making statements against making guns widely available due to concerns about domestic violence
• Their CEO spoke at the UN about the impact of the war on women and the UN accepted a recommendation that they made about economic violence.

They continue to run their wedding dress shop (see photo) – and it was wonderful to spend some time there.  Clearly it is a happy oasis in such a difficult time.  They shared that several brides to be were killed at the Nova festival and that their parents donated their wedding dresses to the shop.

I was thrilled to visit them just before they were to go to Jerusalem to receive the very prestigious President’s Award for Volunteerism in recognition of their work strengthening the resilience of the Israeli home front during Sword of Iron.

Yet, despite their incredible work, fundraising is currently a challenge.  They have traditionally raised funds from the business sector in Israel, but Israeli companies are focused on the war.  And, Foundations in Israel are focused on the needs of survivors from Beeri, Kfar Aza, etc.  

The Rackman Center

I really felt like I met kindred spirits at the Rackman Center- I told them that, if I ever make Aliyah, I will be applying for a job there!

As we know, they view law as a tool for social change and work to achieve legal precedents and are also active in Knesset on legislative issues (in Knesset, they believe that can play a unique role within the advocacy groups because members on the right are more willing to speak with them because of their affiliation with Bar Ilan). They focus on a broad scope of family law issues in both religious and civil courts in Israel.

They also have a call line- which, in addition to being staffed with lawyers, has a social worker on call to offer emotional support.  They realize that there is so much emotional baggage on issues such as divorce and lawyers cannot both do the legal work and support the emotional needs of their clients.

Our discussion about the work post-October 7th focused on some familiar themes including concern about the rise in domestic violence and the new gun law.

They said, “Women are more threatened now than at any other time since the establishment of the State.”  They believe that this is due to the drop in numbers of women’s representation in Knesset and right-wing government policies.  They explained that the issue of war will dominate society for a long time to come and will push aside women’s issues YET war causes social and economic crises, and you need women around the table dealing with these issues.  So women’s representation in halachic committees, Knesset, etc., is a top priority.

Their Director, Dr. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari has been focusing almost exclusively on issues of rape on October 7th and has spoken multiple times at the UN to get them to recognize the sexual violence of Hamas.

Association of Rape Crisis Centers (ARCCI) 

My last visit was with Orit from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.  I was so impressed with her strategic perspective.

Their core advocacy project is to abolish the statute of limitations for rape and sexual abuse in Israel.  They are trying to learn all they can about how the prosecution deals with evidentiary issues in states in the US that have abolished the statute of limitations and one way that we can help them is by connecting them to US lawyers with expertise on this issue.

Our conversation focused primarily on the work that they have done to speak for victims of sexual violence by Hamas.  

Right after October 7th, they started to get information from people who saw bodies or who treated victims of sexual violence.  They started keeping the various bits of information they got on a spreadsheet—and soon it became clear that there was a pattern.

They then taught themselves all they could about sexual violence and war as this was a new area to them.  They served as resources for the NY Times article on Hamas’s sexual violence against Israeli women and published a report of their own as well which was the first comprehensive report that analyzed what happened, where, etc.  For example, they found a systematic pattern of shooting directly at genital that showed that orders for this type of violence must have come from above.

Orit reminded me that there are very few survivors or witnesses to the violence.  Most of them were killed.  And the world news has capitalized on Israeli inability to tell stories about this violence due to trauma.  Moreover, Israel doesn’t use people’s stories for propaganda or share pictures of dead bodies as Hamas does.