Training Israeli Clinicians in Trauma Care | $1,800,000

Sheba Medical Center
Intensive Mental Health Training Courses: Funding will provide two-week intensive courses for certified mental health professionals with advanced psychology and social work degrees who may not have studied or practiced trauma in many years or ever, built on the expertise of Sheba’s trauma specialists. Participating professionals commit to at least one year of work in a public mental health clinic in northern or southern Israel.  

Medical Simulation Training: Sheba is a leader in simulation-based medical education. Funding will provide simulation-based training courses (using sophisticated robotics and specially trained “patient” actors) for medical and other professionals within Israel’s formal and informal education and welfare systems. Courses will take place on-site in the northern and southern periphery towns and cities to increase the nation’s capacity for trauma care as the need continues to grow.

The Jewish Community Foundation launched the Fund for Women and Girls in June 2023. The Fund is designed to promote social change, and to help shape an equitable world in which all women and girls can thrive. The Fund supports efforts to address immediate obstacles and systemic challenges holding women and girls back from reaching their full potential, domestically and in Israel.

Local leaders on the ground in Israel are continuing to help us understand the urgent challenges women and girls are facing in the aftermath of October 7^th and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Specifically, our partners have emphasized the exponential increase in the need for:

• Trauma support services for all women impacted by the war.
• Push back against the spikes in sexual violence and intimate partner violence that occur during times of conflict.
• Resources for displaced women and families and financial support for single heads of households.
• Increased access to decision-making power so that more women can advocate on behalf of their needs and the needs of all women and girls.

In response, the Fund for Women and Girls has made two rounds of grants to support women and girls impacted by the Israel-Hamas war. The inaugural round of grantmaking directed $100,000 to organizations focused on trauma and therapeutic services, relocation support, and aid for single mothers. Our second round of grantmaking provides an additional $100,000 in ongoing support to organizations supporting women’s trauma and mental health needs, as well as to organizations focused on amplifying women’s voices and gaining access to positions of power and influence.

April 2024 Grants Announced:

Women-centered trauma and therapy services: Israel is in a mental health crisis and rates of intimate partner violence spike when a country is at war, making the work of the following centers that much more urgent.

Counseling Center for Women (CCW) | $20,000: Counseling Center for Women (CCW) is a therapy center run by women for women. It has a staff of 25 clinical social workers, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists that treats more than 300 women each week according to women’s unique emotional and psychological needs. CCW is currently training other agencies in feminist therapy, contributing to Israel’s ability to cope with nationwide trauma. This general operating grant builds on our initial grant of $15,000 to expand their work and serve the growing number of women and girls seeking services.

Tahel Crisis Center for Religious Women and Children | $20,000: Tahel Crisis Center helps victims of abuse and their families overcome crisis; prevents further abuse by providing educational training; increases the awareness of abuse and domestic violence within the religious community; develops and implements “safety” programs and protocols for communities and institutions; and lowers the incidence of PTSD by providing post-trauma workshops. This general operating grant provides critical funds so that Tahel can care for an increasing number of women and girls who are seeking services to due the impact of the war and often unable to seek services through broader organizations.

Building women’s power and influence: The gender gap when it comes to positions of political power in Israel is at an all-time high (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute puts it at 61%), which means women are not receiving adequate representation when they need it most.

We Power | $30,000: We Power promotes women’s leadership within all tiers of Israel society, increases awareness of gender inequality, and brings about social change to advance a more equitable civic society. We Power, which consults the U.N. on women’s leadership, recognizes that women in positions of power promote more balanced decision-making processes and allocate resources in a more equitable manner that better address women’s needs and concerns. This general operating grant will support We Power’s work to ensure that women have decision making power in Israel’s future.

Itach Ma’aki | $30,000: Known as Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Itach Ma’aki empowers women subjected to social, geographic, national, ethnic, and economic discrimination in Israeli society. Itach Ma’aki provides free legal aid and representation for women in need, promotes discourse about gender within Israel’s diverse communities, promotes female leadership, and advocates for important legal and legislative policies. This general operating grant supports Itach Ma’aki’s work to ensure that women have a seat at local decision-making tables.

Inaugural Grants | December 2023:

The Fund for Women and Girls focused its inaugural grantmaking on three urgent and unique needs: trauma and therapeutic services, relocation support, and aid for single mothers.

Women-Centered Crisis Response and Relocation Services

Bonot Alternativa | $25,000: Funding will provide support for emergency operations and centers, which is leveraging over 100,000 volunteers and deploy their team to provide treatments (e.g., psychologists, speech therapists, physical therapists, etc.) to services such as laundry and babysitting, as required. The first Bonot emergency communal center is up-and-running in Eilat where scores of families from Sderot and the surrounding kibbutzim are in hotels and empty flats. They plan to open 8 more centers.

Eden Association | $25,000: Funding will support the Eden Association’s ability to maintain psychological and trauma services for the 60 displaced young women (ages 12-18) who were evacuated from the Eden School in Kibbutz Karmiya (which is in the Gaza Envelope 3 km from the border) while simultaneously rebuilding the structures that were destroyed by missiles during the attack.

Women-Centered Trauma and Therapy Services

Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) | $15,000: The October 7^th attack has created trauma for survivors and victims that is resulting in huge increases in outreach and need for services. This grant would help the ARCCI and nine regional Rape Crisis Centers (RCCs), the only centers in Israel whose main aim is to combat sexual violence, meet that need. The RCCs provide services, including hotlines, support groups, workplace education, help through the legal process, and counseling for victims of sexual violence.

Counseling Center for Women | $15,000: Funding will provide psychotherapy to community members impacted by the October 7^th attack, including survivors of the music festival; citizens from the South who were able to escape the Hamas attack; evacuees; families who lost close relatives; journalists, social workers and other psychotherapists experiencing 2nd degree trauma; and others. The Center is also helping evacuees via support groups for single mothers, English-speaking Israeli women, women volunteering in emergency relief initiatives, and women with family members in the armed forces, among others.

Social Services and Financial Support for Single Mothers

Ruach-Nashit (Women’s Spirit) | $20,000: Ruach-Nashit helps victims of violence find employment and establish financial independence so that they can escape from situations of poverty and risk. Funding will support three social workers and help purchase computers for the organization’s southern branch. Their staff in the south have been overwhelmed with an increased flow of physical and psychological requests as well as growing needs from their participants, women survivors of abuse, many of them living in the cities that were infiltrated by terrorists.