written by Lonye Rasch
Bolstered by grants from the Jewish Women’s Collective
Response Fund, three Israeli nonprofits are expanding their support for women experiencing
domestic violence, a circumstance exacerbated by COVID-19.
The Jewish Women’s Collective Response Fund was convened and
facilitated by the Hadassah Foundation, under the leadership of Tracey
Spiegelman and Audrey Weiner. In addition to the Hadassah Foundation, the fund includes
the Greater Miami Jewish Federation Women’s Amutot Initiative, Israel Lions of
Judah, the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and the Jewish
Women’s Foundation of Atlanta. Combining their resources and knowledge, the
group set out to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on women and girls. Thanks to
the Jewish Women’s Collective Response Fund, Tahel, Crisis Center for Religious
Women and Children; Maslan, the Negev’s Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
Support Center; and Women’s Spirit, promoting economic independence of women
survivors of violence, were each granted $15,000 to further their work in this
time of crisis.
As Debbie Gross, the founder and director of Tahel, comments,
“It was terrifying for me that women were trapped in their homes with their
abusers” as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and so many men losing their
jobs. Within six weeks, Tahel received 557 calls to its hotline. “Women were
calling in the middle of the night so their abusers could not hear them,” she
relates. And then there were those women who were fearful of calling at
all.
These frightened women needed another option with which to
reach out. In response, with the help of the grant, Tahel created a WhatsApp
hotline. It is poised to launch shortly, along with a major awareness campaign
about its availability. As Gross explains, this is not the regular WhatsApp
that we are familiar with; it’s a special version tailored for Tahel with many
other features. For example, a woman who communicates with Tahel on this
version of WhatsApp can immediately delete the conversation so her abuser cannot
see it. But Tahel saves it in case it is needed in the future.
“No woman should have to cry alone,” says Gross. Now,
ultra-Orthodox women can have their “kosher phones” configured to enable this app.
The Jewish Women’s Collective Response Fund grants to Maslan
and Women’s Spirit provide money to train more volunteers and extend staff
hours to meet the increasing demands for help. Maslan Resource Development Coordinator
Noam Shmallo reports that her organization has witnessed a “massive” increase
in sexual violence, including abuse of children, and she fears “more
challenging times ahead of us.” Providing hotline help in eight languages,
Maslan gives its volunteers eight months of intensive weekly training, which equips
them to respond to the cultural nuances of Maslan’s diverse communities. Maslan
is working with Bedouin sheikhs and other community leaders to raise awareness
about sexual violence in their patriarchal community and is providing workshops
to their schools. “We are trying to prevent the next tragedy,” Shmallo says.
Women’s Spirit Executive Director Tamar Schwartz emphasizes
the crucial role that mentors play in her nonprofit. “What women who experience
violence need,” she says, “is a loving big sister. And that’s what Women’s
Spirit’s mentors are!” Every week for two years, the mentors get in touch with
the women and support them through the process of overcoming abuse. Schwartz explains that Women’s Spirit is
unique because it combines the worlds of domestic violence and economic
rehabilitation. The number one factor that keeps women in the vicious circle of
violence, she says, is economic. These women are dependent on their controlling
husbands for financial support. Frequently, the husband incurs debts that the
woman doesn’t even know about but is responsible for to the same extent that he
is. Schwartz relates that she has been working for five years to change that situation
and is optimistic that the courts will finally right this wrong.
The Knesset, with the advocacy of Women’s Spirit, nullified
a law that hurt women particularly during the pandemic. The law had dictated
that a woman could not receive both child support and unemployment insurance,
making things extremely difficult for those women who lost their jobs. Now
women can receive both.
Women’s Spirit’s’ end goal, Schwartz emphasizes, is to
enable a woman to be independent economically. Once she is, says Schwartz, “she
will not return to her violent husband.”
Read
more about the grantees and the Jewish Women’s Collective Response Fund.
