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Plan A:  NCJW's New Advocacy and Education Campaign

Become an informed advocate for women’s reproductive access.  Join with NCJW and let our combined voices be even more powerful.

► Pharmacy Refusals

► Comprehensive Sexuality Education

► Emergency Contraception

► Affordable Contraception

► Young Women’s Access

NCJW Israel Program "At a Glance"    

The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)’s work in Israel directly mirrors our work to create progressive social change in the United States. Our pioneering programs in Israel foster and support education, promote empowerment of women, and bridge the gaps in society for Israel’s vulnerable women, children, and families. In July 2005, NCJW welcomed a partnership with US/Israel Women to Women (W2W), an organization dedicated to supporting grassroots programs and advocacy efforts for women in Israel. This partnership continues to create meaningful opportunities to build on a shared legacy of courageous, compassionate work to improve the lives of women, children, and families in Israel.  

If you would like more information or are interested in supporting NCJW’s Israel program, please contact Emily Snyder at 212 463 6015 or esnyder@ncjw.org .

 NCJW’s programs in Israel include:

Advocacy and Coalition Work   

Through coalition work in Israel, NCJW is actively involved in social action and advocacy issues in the areas of poverty and food insecurity; tolerance, co-existence and promotion of equal citizenship for Israeli minorities; children’s and women's empowerment (including the rights of agunot — women who are refused a “get,” or Jewish divorce by their husbands), trafficking, and the equal participation and representation of Israeli women in all national conflict resolution processes. NCJW is committed to advancing women’s status and rights in Israel by helping them develop a stronger voice on all levels of Israeli society, as well as supporting at-risk populations, with a special emphasis on children.

NCJW’s Action Center broadcasts emails with breaking news and information on advocacy initiatives, enabling participants to easily send instant action emails to policy-makers. Some of our recent action alerts related to our Israel agenda include calls for: support by the Knesset of legislation to provide nutritious meals for all school children in Israel; protection of Agunot; promotion of equal access to opportunities for all Israelis, and the implementation of the recently passed law implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 — a resolution that calls for women to be involved in "all decision-making levels for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict." If you do not already receive NCJW action alerts, please go to our website at www.ncjw.org to sign up for the NCJW Action Center to advocate on behalf of our Israel and domestic agendas. 

Israel Granting Program    

Yad B'Yad: NCJW's Initiative to Nurture Knowledge is a grant program supporting grassroots organizations serving at-risk children and families in Israel. Launched in 1998, the Yad B' Yad program has funded hundreds of grants to foster positive and innovative learning environments for individuals of all backgrounds, and has supported programs that have empowered women, children, and their families in Israel. NCJW will continue to provide grants to at-risk families and children in Israel through Yad B’ Yad and will be launching a new funding stream, Women to Women: NCJW’s Empowerment Initiative, in the 2008 fiscal year. This grant program will support grassroots organizations and programs designed to empower women in Israel.  

NCJW Funding at Tel Aviv University   

The NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, established in 2001 with a $1 million endowment by NCJW, educates and nurtures students to see the world through a gender lens and become agents of social change in Israel for years to come. This groundbreaking program — the first bachelor degree-granting program of its kind in the Middle East —  provides an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research through over one hundred courses from the faculties of Law, Humanities, Art, and the Social Sciences. In the 2007 fiscal year, NCJW completed its funding of this innovative program and continues to award scholarships to students in need for studies in the NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program.

The NCJW Women Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University convenes a group of academics who are dedicated to feminism, women’s empowerment, and shaping the next generation of scholars. NCJW continues to support the NCJW Women Studies Forum with grants made through the Women to Women granting program.  

NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education at Hebrew University (RIFIE)  

In support of the development of educational programs in Israel to bridge societal gaps, in 1969 NCJW created the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education (RIFIE) at Hebrew University, where researchers develop and facilitate innovative methods of education to meet the needs of immigrant and disadvantaged children and their families, promoting their integration into Israeli society.  RIFIE’s Home Instruction Program for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) won such acclaim by the Israeli government that it was implemented nationally in 1975, and has since been expanded to 167 international sites, including the US.

NCJW continues to fund programs at RIFIE through the RIFIE endowment. In the 2007 fiscal year, the RIFIE programs supported by NCJW included: “Gateway to the University”, an educational program for talented high school students from Israel's lowest socio-economic segments, which provides special classes and activities to enable these students to advance to and succeed in Israeli universities, and “The Teen Girl's Project:  Preparation of Girls for Service in the IDF”, in partnership with the Yuval School-The Hebrew University Apprenticeship Program. This program identifies teenage girls that had been rejected from IDF army service, but still wish to experience IDF service and trains them for such service and independent adulthood.

NCJW also invests in the future of Israeli society by providing scholarships for study at the Hebrew University High School through the Drabkin Scholarship Fund.  

NCJW Mission to Israel

NCJW missions to Israel offer the opportunity for participants to put their commitment to progressive social change into action as they experience the tremendous impact of the NCJW Israel Program on a personal level.

The NCJW Israel Office is located at:

NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Room 267

Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus

Jerusalem, Israel 91905

972 2 5882 208

msncjwi@mscc.huji.ac.il