The Hadassah Foundation at #jfn2017

The Hadassah Foundation's Founding Chair, Barbara Dobkin (above, left) spoke today at a panel about women's philanthropy at the Jewish Funders Network conference, an international gathering of Jewish philanthropists and foundation professionals. Scholars from the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America have been featured in several sessions, and tomorrow, the Foundation will host a breakfast conversation for funders interested in leadership programs for girls and women.

Foundation Grantee Creating a Feminist Haggadah on Rape Culture

Last weekend, the Foundation visited its grantee, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago's Research Training Internship, where high school girls are leaning how to do research from a feminist perspective and influence local thought leaders.  This year, the girls are focusing on rape culture within the Jewish community, and are creating a Passover haggadah that will highlight this issue.

JCC Chicago Creates Teen Social Entrepreneurs

The Hadassah Foundation visited the JCC Chicago to see our grantee, the Project Teen--Seed613 Teen Girl program, which encourages high school girls to become social entrepreneurs. The girls are creating a range of projects to benefit their community, and hope to impact local agencies that help high school youth, homeless teen girls, and the hungry. Sunday's session focused on creating a "prototype" in order to test a thesis or project.  Here, a participant has created a model sandal to be used on a hypothetical trip--this lesson will help the girls create prototypes for their own enterprises.

The Adva Center visits the Hadassah Foundation

Our offices are in NYC...and yet about two-thirds of our funds go to Israeli organizations every year.  So it is always a special treat when one of our Israeli grantee partners makes the trek to our office! Valeria Seigelshifer (above left), Director of Gender Projects at the Tel Aviv-based Adva Center, dropped by today to discuss its efforts to strengthen Jewish and Bedouin female business owners in the Negev, a project supported by the Foundation.

Hadassah Foundation at Hadassah Chicago--North Shore

The Hadassah Foundation spoke to members of Hadassah Chicago--North Shore board today, enabling them to learn about our many grantees. Two Chicago-area programs are current grantees, and there is the potential for collaboration between the programs and local chapters.