BRINGING WOMEN TO THE FORE
A FEMINIST PARTNERSHIP
August 7, 2012
Jewish Women's Collaborative International Fund
USA
Dear Friends,
We would like to thank the Jewish Women's Collaborative International Fund for its decision to support BRINGING
WOMEN TO THE FORE and for the vote of confidence you have given us. Your support has touched us deeply, and it
shows, above all, your strong commitment to women in Israel and to Israeli society.
Your support will enable us to realize the vision and the goals that we presented in our application and to advance
the status of women in Israel. The generous grant that you earmarked for this purpose, will enable us to implement a
new, innovative model of action, in which Israeli feminist organizations join together for a sustainable, long-term
partnership, for the purpose of creating a new public agenda that will focus on the rights of women in all spheres of
life, promote legislation benefitting women, prevent the implementation of policies harmful to women, and create
the basis for a broad solidarity among women's organizations and between these organizations and the women
serving in the Knesset, other decision makers, diverse groups of women throughout the country, media people, and
civil society organizations. This partnership will help to establish values, visions and practices that contribute to social
justice, solidarity, physical and social security, and the reduction of discrimination against women in many areas of
life.
We have already made one important decision: to hire as project director Dorit Abramovitch. Dorit will begin work in
September 2012. She is a leading feminist who has been actively assisting feminist organizations for a decade. We are
delighted that she accepted the position, as we are familiar with her abilities and past achievements. We are
confident that Dorit will make an outstanding contribution to the success of the project.
As a senior lobbyist and media figure, Dorit Abramovitch has already made a significant contribution to the goal of
establishing feminist organizations as a significant actor in the public sphere. She is highly respected by all the
organizations in the partnership, and she has good working relations with numerous legislators and other decision
makers. In recent years she initiated and led several joint petitions and campaigns in which dozens of feminist
organizations participated, which were notable both for their achievements and for the fact that they encompassed
so many organizations. Among others, Dorit led campaigns to expose and remove officials involved in sex crimes,
most notable of them past President of Israel Moshe Katzav, who was convicted. Another campaign, carried out in
conjunction with the labor union KoahLaOvdim, along with 30 women's organizations, led to an increase in the
salaries of women providing home day care. Yet another, in which seven women's organizations worked shoulder to
shoulder, led to the rejection of a proposed law to raise the age at which women are entitled to social security and
workplace pensions. Her record shows that Dorit Abramovitch has a unique ability to work with feminist
organizations and to encourage them to overcome differences.
The first year of activity of BRINGING WOMEN TO THE FORE will be devoted to the following goals:
1. Articulating a vision for the partnership and recruiting additional organizations to the partnership, on the
basis of that vision.
2. Increasing the visibility of feminist organizations in the mass media and establishing communication on a
daily basis with media people. Part of this work will involve providing on-going statements and analysis on
issues relevant to women's rights, initiating news articles and features, and writing op-eds.
3. Establishing media avenues for the partnership, including a project website, a blog, and a Facebook page.
Frequent updates are to be made, and posts are to be written by representatives of all the organizations in
the partnership as well as by other feminists from a variety of backgrounds.
4. Conducting two media/lobbying campaigns on issues selected by the partnership, in cooperation with
additional organizations and with pro-feminist legislators.
We view the organizations in the Jewish Women's Collaborative International Fund – together and separately – as
partners to the vision and the way. We also attach great importance to the goal of deepening our relationship with
your leaderships, as a basis for the success of the project.
As September approaches, we will be happy to communicate with you in order to introduce the partners and to
discuss what we are planning to do.
We also invite each and every one of you to visit us here in Israel, and when one or more of us comes to the United
States, we would be happy to visit you and report on the latest developments.
Once again, we would like to thank you for the wonderful grant, for that heartwarming vote of confidence, which
will enable us, together, to work for the realization of our common goal of a more egalitarian and woman-friendly
Israeli society.
Sincerely,
Shula Keshet-Achoti, Keren ShemeshPerlmutter- Itach/Maaki, Kawla Rihani-Economic Empowerment for Women,
Barbara Swirski-Adva Center, Michal Dagan-Mahut Center, Lena Bregman- Supportive Community, Maki NaamanWomen's Spirit, Galit Desheh-Israel Women's Network