The breakfast event, hosted by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) and National Council of Jewish Women of Australia Victoria (NCJWA Vic), was attended by women from a broad cross-section of community organisations: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform synagogues, schools and education providers, museums, arts organisations and more. Both presidents and women in senior management were invited.
Participants drew on their own experiences to develop ideas to increase gender balance in Jewish community leadership. These ideas included:
“The JCCV is focussed on community, connection and collaboration. This event covered all these objectives as we brought together so many talented women from our community to network, share experiences and plan for a stronger future,” Judy Fetter, JCCV CEO, said.
“The JCCV was proud to be one of the first signatories of NCJWA Victoria’s Gender Equality Pledge in 2019. It will strengthen and benefit our community when more Jewish women are provided with leadership opportunities.”
NCJWA Vic President Helen Lewin said that: “It was most inspiring to see approximately 20 Jewish organisations, who have all signed the #makespaceforher pledge, come to our
organisation at this event, to become part of a network wanting success from the implementation of gender equality in their organisations and contribute to a movement that will frame the next steps our #makespaceforher campaign.”
NCJWA Vic board member Suzi Finkelstein added: “This breakfast, NCJWA Vic’s Jewish Women’s Directory and the recent Accountability Report, all reflect our commitments made in the Gender Equality Pledge. We are proud to be working with the community to facilitate events like these for women in our community, so they are afforded the same access to and opportunities enjoyed by men in communal leadership, decision making and community panels and events. We have a new and exciting initiative launching later this year, so watch this space.”
To further promote gender equality in community leadership, the JCCV will host a discussion at its August Plenum on the topic.
At that event, the community is invited to get an update on the Gender Equality Pledge from Lisa Ezekiel, NCJWA Vic CEO, and then learn from a panel of terrific community leaders, including Simone Zmood, Councillor at Glen Eira Council and President of UJEB, Janice Iloni-Furstenberg, first female President of St Kilda Hebrew Congregation and Sharon Roseman, first female President at Maccabi Victoria.
This discussion is open to the whole community, venue to be provided on registration.
