In October 2023, in response to the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7, NCJW launched its Israel Granting Program Emergency Appeal to apply a gender lens to the crisis and strengthen efforts and approaches which place women, children, and families front and center at all levels. Together, we have raised just under $200,000, and grants have been allocated in four rounds between November 2023 and December 2024, responding to evolving needs and priorities on the ground.

Round 1, November 2023
Focusing on supporting women most impacted, in ways that center women’s needs and women’s voices…

Bonot Alternativa: For infrastructure for emergency women’s organizing efforts which include a network of thousands of women volunteers offering direct support for evacuated and bereaved families including psychosocial support, activities for children, assistance with bureaucracy, and legal support. 

Itach Ma’aki: For their involvement in the Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages. Itach Ma’aki is the only women’s organization active in this group lobbying for shelters and protection for these most marginalized communities in the South and providing direct humanitarian assistance. They bring a gender lens to the work of the Council and provide direct assistance to the network of hundreds of Bedouin Women for whom they previously provided legal aid.

The National Breast Milk Bank of Magen David Adom: For breast pumps and a publicity campaign to ensure the provision of breastmilk for orphaned infants. Note, they cannot take donations of milk from abroad.

Counseling Center for Women: For trauma counseling for women most impacted and training in gender-focused therapeutic approaches for partner organizations involved in providing trauma counseling. 

Women Wage Peace: To work for a more peaceful future through their collaboration with Palestinian-based Women of the Sun. A founding member of Women Wage Peace, Canadian-Israeli activist Vivian Silver, is among those murdered in the Hamas attack.

Round 2, December 2023
Focusing on fostering women’s resilience, societal safety, and advocacy for justice… 

Eden Association: For care for at-risk girls evacuated from the Gaza Envelope (populated areas within 4.3 miles of the border). This long-standing partner of NCJW serves at-risk girls who suffered directly from the attacks of October 7 and the ensuing war. Our grant will support girls of the Eden residential care facility and their staff who were evacuated from their homes. 

El Halev: For Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) workshops for women and girls who experienced the trauma of October 7. El Halev has built concise, focused workshops rooted in the ESD methodology, thoughtfully customized to address the unique challenges of the current crisis. These programs serve as a lifeline for those contending with a loss of security, safety, trust, and overwhelming feelings of disempowerment. Our grant will fund workshops and courses for women and girls from the South residing in temporary accommodation centers since October 7. 

Gun-Free Kitchen Table (GFKT): For dealing with a new reality of mass-civilian armament. GFKT is a coalition of 19 organizations working to prevent gun violence by reducing the distribution of small arms in civilian spaces. Gun control and the small arms reality inside Israel are undergoing radical change. Handguns and rifles are proliferating throughout the country in exponentially rising numbers, and new regulations for private gun licenses reduce oversight — raising the risks across society, especially for women, who face disproportionate risks in homes housing guns. Our grant to GFKT will support accurate, timely data collection and tracking, lobbying for increased collaboration between government agencies and law enforcement, and advocacy to push back and plan for the potential reversal of mass civilian armament in Israel.  

Itach Ma’aki: For Political Negotiations from a Gender Perspective. Itach Ma’aki’s Political Negotiations from a Gender Perspective training program has produced a powerful and diverse cohort of women from all sides of the conflict who have continued to meet and seek out ways to take an active part in negotiations to end the conflict. Itach Ma’aki will work to empower their alumni community as negotiators and will utilize the project’s steering committee of Israeli and Palestinian experts to promote the application of a gender lens and assimilation of gender perspectives into track II peace and security deliberations in Israel and Palestine. The project will also include a public media campaign for advancing women in negotiations. 

The Rackman Center: For international advocacy regarding gender atrocities of Hamas. Led by Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a world-renowned expert in gender and international law, the Rackman Center has been working to exercise all possible avenues, with an emphasis on international human rights bodies (mainly the UN and academic institutions of influence), to help release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and to raise awareness about the gender atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli women, girls, and children on October 7. This includes interviews to leading international media outlets, appearing before UN and international law bodies, personal meetings with influential decision makers, and webinars with communities around the world. Professor Halperin-Kaddari’s past experience as Vice President and member of the UN’s Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women as well as her distinguished academic career in women’s rights allows her and the Rackman Center to significantly influence this arena.

Kulna Jaffa: For Jewish-Arab Solidarity for Social Justice. Dozens of Arab-Israeli women from Jaffa have lost their jobs since October 7, many fired without warning, safety net, or indication of when or if they would be able to work again. Many are single mothers subsisting on minimum wage and living from month to month. To respond to growing needs, Kulna Yaffa, a grassroots community organization established in 2021, initiated a Jewish-Arab coalition to support these women and ensure that they and their children will continue to have food to eat and a place to live. They are currently raising urgent funds for food stamps for impacted mothers. They have also established solidarity working teams to assist families in job counseling, legal aid, and access to governmental and municipal services and food banks. The grant for this program will be channeled through Itach Ma’aki.

Round 3, February 2024
Focusing on working towards a future of resilience and influence for women…

For advancing women’s leadership at centers of decision-making and influence:

5050 Post-Municipal Election Campaign The Municipal Elections being held on February 27th present an opportunity to strengthen women’s leadership at local levels as a key component of countering the regression in women’s visibility, representation and influence of the last year. We propose offering a grant to the 50-50 initiative for their non-partisan “Equal Cities” project, planned for the “day after” the elections. Through this project, 50-50 aims to work with newly elected officials across the country to advance gender equity in their localities as a first order of business.

The Day after the War Forum Established and led by three key feminist leaders from Tel Aviv University, the Forum’s goal is to raise awareness among the Israeli public that an extensive military operation to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza can only be part of a broader multi-state political alliance, shaped with the cooperation and support of Western countries and moderate Arab countries. The Forum develops and presents policy proposals and nurtures public will for a political horizon.

Contribution to a collective grantmaking fund of Jewish women’s funds which will support organizations that will advocate on behalf of women’s rights in the rebuilding of Israel. Through this fund, we will collaborate with Hadassa, Eluminate and others to maximize and leverage the impact of giving with a gender lens. Organizations that will be considered will include:

• Those that conduct advocacy to influence policies and decisions at various levels of Israel’s government and ensure women are at the decision-making tables; and
• Women’s organizations and networks created within Israel for this moment, as well as those that existed prior to Oct. 7 that focus on advocacy for women and girls.

For supporting Israel’s youth in healing from the gender aspects of collective trauma:

The Institute for Gender Equity in Education (IGEE) — Educational package for schools. The gender dimensions of the war are immense and the impact on young people, particularly teenage girls, who have been exposed to images and information about gender based violence and other gendered aspects of the collective trauma need to be addressed. This grant will support the IGEE to develop an educational package to support educators in initiating conversations about current events, emphasizing a gender lens. The package equips educators with the necessary tools and knowledge to address gender issues made acutely relevant at this time. The package will include a discussion framework, background information, and methodology for in-class application.

The Institute has a very fruitful and long-term partnership with the gender equity department and the R&D division at the Ministry of Education for distributing educational tools, through professional development courses for educators, district instructors, conferences and online platforms.

Round 4, December 2024
Focusing on equity, healing, and hope…

EQUITY

Israel Religious Action Center & Israel Women’s Network: For protecting women’s equality in the IDF. This grant will support legal advocacy and public campaigns to ensure that women in the IDF do not pay the price of conscription of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men. In June 2024, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the army must begin to conscript members of the Haredi public. Efforts to persuade Haredi men to enlist have included an assurance by the army that they will be strictly insulated from any contact, including visual, with female soldiers — a drastic level of discrimination against women that interfere with their service, opportunities for promotion and advancement within the military structure. The proposed initiative will include legislation, advocacy and campaigns to advance solutions which ensure Haredi conscription whilst safeguarding the rights of women soldiers. 

HEALING 

Eden Association: For October 7 Herstory Testimonies. This grant will support the creation of 5 video documented testimonies of the events of October 7 by women from the Gaza Envelope. This initiative was born out of therapeutic sessions with women dealing with trauma who were firsthand witnesses to the events of October 7th. In these sessions, the women expressed the need to tell their stories to create a coherent memory of the sequence of events, helping them cope with the trauma and progress in their healing journey, whilst ensuring their voices were heard and recorded in history. 

HOPE

Women Envisage Hope: For promotion of a unique book “Women Write Peace”. This grant will support promotional activities of a unique book dedicated to the memory of peace activist Vivian Silver z”l, who was murdered on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th. The book, curated by feminist activist and CFI leader Ghadir Hani, shares the stories of 21 Israeli women of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds who have each been working to promote coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians since October 7th. 

Itach-Maaki Women Lawyers for Social Justice: For Capacity Building for Alumni of Negotiations Training . A capacity building grant to enable a representative of Itach Ma’aki’s Track II negotiations training for women to take part in an NCJW-led event at the UN CSW meeting in New York in March 2025, and additional meetings with relevant diplomats and experts.

NCJW & Partners: Contribution to Collaborative Funding Pool for CFI Outcomes. We are retaining $10,000 as a starter for matching funds to deliver the outcomes currently being developed by the “Impact Clusters” of NCJW’s Connecting for Impact collaborative planning process, and will actively seek partners to advance this work together.