BOSTON WOMEN
LEADERSHIP & SOLIDARITY MISSION
Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center’s Boston Women Leadership & Solidarity Mission Brings Gender Lens to October 7 Atrocities & Efforts to Build a Shared Society
January 10, 2024
The Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center (FJC), with the support of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, is currently running the second in a series of four specialized solidarity missions. This three-day Boston Jewish women’s leadership and solidarity mission began two days ago with the arrival of the group composed solely of Boston-area women who are leaders at the forefront of US Jewish and feminist organizations.
The group visited the Wolfson Medical Center and Heder 4 in Holon, where some of the freed hostages were received and treated upon their arrival and met with senior surgeons and trauma specialists who shared their experiences and insights into gender-sensitive care at the unit and about the diverse populations that both provide and receive treatment at the hospital. The mission then met with Dr. Cochav Elkayam Levy, founder and head of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, and discussed how to ensure that the events of October 7th are never forgotten and never denied.
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman, senior Rabbi of TBZ (Temple Beth Zion) in Brookline, MA, co-chair of the Boston JStreet Rabbinic Cabinet, and board member of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, said “During war, so much goes to the backburner, especially gender-based discrimination. I helped organize this mission because it speaks to my experience and because we need to ensure not only that the events of October 7 remain primary issues, but also address the way that women in particular were affected and can take action.”
Yesterday, the mission witnessed the devastation in the south of Israel, visiting Kibbutz Nirim, Kibbutz Re’im – the site of the Nova music festival where more than 360 young musicians, artists, singers, and performers were butchered – Ofakim, and the Jewish-Arab situation room in Rahat.
“We need to understand and bear witness to what happened on October 7. We need to focus on that terrible day but also about its ramifications: What is the leadership doing about the lack of women in power? The values shared by this extraordinary group of women are part of the story. Part of ensuring that it will be shared, not ignored. It will take a lot of time to process what happened here,” added Rabbi Kreiman, who envisioned the mission with FJC and her colleagues Idit Klein, CEO of Keshet, and Dr. Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women’s Archive – All of whom firmly believe that a shared society is the only way forward.
Today, the mission will hold meetings with key change-initiating organizations, including Adv. Hanan Al-Sana from Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Peta Jones Pellach from Women Waging Peace, Rachel Stomel, from the Center for Women’s Justice, Sally Abed from Standing Together, and the Home for Gender Equality in Jaffa, and will meet families of hostages at the Bring Them Home Now headquarters.
Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff, CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, added “Israel can no longer turn a blind eye to the scarcity of women in our wartime government, the female soldiers who alerted their commanding officers before the Hamas attack and were ignored, the sexual violence committed by Hamas and largely ignored by the world, or the lack of gender equality in Israel and how it translates into the Israeli wartime efforts. This mission is our contribution to ensuring that Jewish women are not only heard and witnessed, but that they will lead.”
FJC has run specialized missions for North American clergy and will soon run missions for physicians, and then musicians as well as missions for school, synagogues, and FJC’s board.