National Council of Jewish Women's Head Pushes 'Passion for Advocacy'

Each week, the Ladue-Frontenac Patch features a community leader's views. Each leader is free to express what is on his/her mind.

I’m a doer.  I believe in community service and advocacy, and that’s why I got involved with National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) almost 30 years ago.  The mission of NCJW is to work through a program of community service, advocacy, education and philanthropy, inspired by Jewish values, to strive for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms. 

As President of NCJW, it’s my job to ensure that we serve as many people as possible, involve as many volunteers as we can, and to have the funds to make things happen. 

Our goal is to meet specific needs in our community by developing projects that address those needs.  This past weekend, we held a fundraising event, Bravo St. Louis, to make sure we can continue our key community service projects:

• Back To School Store, which prepares over 1000 children annually to get ready for school

• Kids Community Closet, which provides for emergency needs to keep children in school

• Silent Witness Initiative, which educates and informs about  issues related to domestic violence

• Wife Widow Woman, a free support group for recently widowed individuals

• Healing Hearts Bank, a micro-lending program to support victims of domestic violence

Through these projects, we can see with hands-on experiences what the issues are in our community.  The second piece of what we do is to take action by trying to eliminate the root causes of these issues and by working with our elected officials to address public policy. 

My passion for advocacy is what keeps me involved in NCJW, and the amazing women I have met play an important role in my life.  I encourage all of you who have a passion for these issues to get involved with NCJW—you don’t have to be Jewish and you don’t even have to be a woman.