Israel Granting Program (IGP)
We’ve worked in Israel to support marginalized communities since the country’s founding, developing deep relationships with organizers on the ground who place women, children, and families front and center. These relationships and our ongoing work in Israel enabled us to quickly react and determine emerging needs among our partners. The IGP Emergency Appeal also funds, in part, this ongoing work.
The Israel Granting Program Emergency Appeal will fund the following priorities:
- Women Organizing for Women, Children and Families: NCJW believes in the power of women organizing for women. Through the IGP Emergency Appeal, we are supporting grassroots organizing efforts led by women to provide urgent, immediate relief to meet the basic needs of those most impacted. This includes food, shelter, sanitary products, toys, and more for women, children, and families of Gaza border communities that have been decimated by the vicious Hamas attack. We are also preparing for needs arising in the North.
- Trauma Counseling for Women, centered on women’s experience: Israeli society is undergoing a trauma of colossal proportions, and women, children, and families need emotional first aid now, and a route to emotional rehabilitation for the long term. We will work with partners to provide therapeutic support to women across Israel, prioritizing those most in need: women from Gaza border communities; women whose loved ones have been murdered, kidnapped, or are fighting on the front lines; single mothers; survivors of sexual violence whose scars are triggered by the images and stories around them; and victims of domestic abuse who are beginning to bear the brunt of the PTSD shock-waves in their homes. For this effort we will work with experts in therapeutic approaches that validate and address the unique ways we experience pain, loss, and trauma as women.
- Including women and women’s perspectives in decision making and negotiation: As this devastating conflict deepens, the lives and well -being of innocent women, children, and families in Israel, Gaza, and beyond are at risk. It is vital that women are among those that make decisions about the conflict and its resolution, and in particular, that they are included in the hostage negotiating teams so that women’s perspectives and experiences are represented. We will work with partners that are lobbying and influencing Israeli decision makers to incorporate women on key teams.
The details above were updated on October 25th, 2023.
Background:
The Israel Granting Program (IGP), created in 1998, is a National NCJW funding pool of monies raised by NCJW local Sections to support feminist, advocacy and service organizations in Israel who work to support gender justice for women, children, and families.
All donations raised from a variety of Section programs about Israel go directly to National NCJW IGP. National NCJW reviews grant proposals from Israeli organizations and then annually grants funds where they are most needed to aid women and girls. Given the recent judicial overhaul activities in Israel, it is critical to address the risks to women’s’ freedoms now and in the near future. NCJW grantees are on the front lines fighting for gender justice!
Chicago North Shore section has now joined 15 other NCJW sections across America to raise funds for IGP. In the last fiscal year, a total of $52,500 was sent from NCJW Sections to National’s IGP funding pool and went to the following organizations in Israel:
- “Israel Coalition for Reproductive Rights” – A group of 19 Israeli gender justice NGO’s raising awareness about threats to reproductive freedom.
- “Bonot Alternativa” – Educating women in periphery towns about their legal rights.
- “Eden” – Training in gender equality in marginalized Negev communities.
- “Breaking the Walls” – Bringing underrepresented women’s voices into the current pro-democracy movement.
Please donate under Israel Granting Program here.
To learn more about NCJW building power for women in Israel, click here