June 13, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
By Nicole Lewis
In the last decade, more than a dozen new Jewish women’s foundations have been created to improve the lives of women and girls in the United States and Israel, says Lilith magazine (Spring).
Driving their creation is Jewish women’s increasing awareness of their “charity clout” and the example set by other local women’s foundations, the magazine says.
Some Jewish women see the foundations as filling a gap largely ignored by Jewish federations. Others worry that setting up separate foundations to benefit mainly Jewish women and girls will make it easier for mainstream Jewish groups, which have deeper reserves of money, to ignore women’s causes. The 19 Jewish women’s foundations have collective assets of around $20-million, compared with United Jewish Communities’ $2-billion.
The foundations have so far supported a range of projects, including a video about domestic violence in Jewish families and programs that address eating disorders in Jewish teenage girls. But foundation officials say there is a dearth of good proposals. Nancy Schwartz Sternoff, executive director of the Dobkin Family Foundation, in New York, gave foundation officials this advice on solving the problem: “Go to your local Jewish Community Center and tell them, ‘We have money to give away. You are doing nothing for girls. Let’s look at programs from around the country and see what you can do.’”
