SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — The San Diego Jewish Women’s Foundation (JWF) announced that it has grown to 100 members and installed Jennifer Levitt as its fifth chair.
Levitt follows in the footsteps of founding chair, Jan Tuttleman, as well as Betty Byrnes, Marcia Hazan and Elaine Galinson. Established in 2004, the Jewish Women’s Foundation is a hands-on organization where members pool their resources and actively participate in grant making. Since its inception, it has granted and leveraged more than $400,000 to address critical needs facing Jewish women and girls in San Diego. In the last year, the JWF awarded grants to Jewish Family Service programs’ Project SARAH and Supporting Jewish Single Parents.
Levitt moved to San Diego 21 years ago from Utah and earned her degree from UC San Diego where she is currently a doctoral candidate in sociology. Her thesis focuses on the way gender, race, class, and sexuality shape the role of motherhood.
“I joined the JWF because it was starting to support Jewish single family parents, and this fit with my interest in motherhood and gender equality,” she said. “A few years ago a comprehensive study on the San Diego Jewish community showed that some of the most vulnerable members of our community are women, and the fact that JWF is dedicated to defining and addressing the needs of this population more broadly, also drew me in.”
She has served on the organization’s single parents committee and the grants committee. Currently she is leading the group’s new Teen Leadership Initiative. In November, JWF will announce the recipients of this year’s grants to local organizations that will develop and run programs for Jewish girl “teens and tweens” in San Diego. The need for this initiative arose out of extensive interviews and focus groups with a cross-section of leaders and teenage girls themselves in the San Diego Jewish community.
The JWF operates out of and receives additional support from the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. To find out more about the JWF and how you can be involved, go to www.jwfsd.org or call JWF Manager, Barbara Marcus at 858-279-2740.
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Preceding provided by the San Diego Jewish Women’s Foundation