National Council of Jewish Women
Want to join the 2024 Get-Out-the-Vote Campaign?
Last night, I attended the National Council of Jewish Women’s annual dinner in Chicago (and enjoyed the excellent flourless chocolate cake for dessert). NCJW is a civil rights organization that works to ensure “the full equity and safety of women, children, and families in the U.S. and Israel.”
One of my friends who is on the Chicago NCJW board invited a few of us to join her table. I would have liked to honor her work by linking this essay to the board and praising each one of them, but there’s a huge uprising of antisemitism in the world (reminiscent of what our parents and grandparents felt in the 1930s), and some of the most bigoted of the haters think it’s acceptable to defame, slander, and vilify Jews even here in the land of the free (a distortion of ‘Freedom of Speech’).
If anyone comments rudely on this essay, I will block them for eternity (They won’t even get the chance to apologize to me in the world to come). None of the current uprising stopped me and the other 120+ attendees from attending the NCJW dinner.
Even before telephones were invented, NCJW was promoting social reform and education, and actively fighting the antisemitism that has sporadically bubbled up throughout the centuries (there’s some evidence that it happens about every 80 years). 1934 to 2024….hmm.
For 130 years, since the 1893 World Columbian Exposition’s “Board of Lady Managers” decided to organize events for women of every religious denomination for the World Parliament of Religions, NCJW has also promoted affordable and accessible childcare, equal pay, voting rights, and women’s health and autonomy.
Some religions were not invited to the first Parliament of Religions (including Latter Day Saints and Native American leaders), but it brought together Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Jains, Shintos, and Zoroastrians, for the first time ever. And it was considered to be the beginning of the global interfaith movement.
Hannah Greenebaum Solomon was elected to lead the Jewish women’s delegation to the 1893 parliament, and to do so, she had to handwrite 90,000 letters, convince women to shlep to Hyde Park on Chicago’s south side, and grapple with those who disagreed with her (because that’s what sometimes happens when strong Jewish women get together).
Each year at the NCJW dinner, an award in Solomon’s name is bestowed on someone who embodies and works toward NCJW’s values. This year’s recipient was our wonderful former Illinois state representative, Elaine Nekritz. Now a consultant and lobbyist for just about everything I believe in, as a state rep, Nekritz focused on the environment, fiscal responsibility, and women’s healthcare and abortion access.
Although it’s more common today to just click and send an automatic payment, back in the 20th century, many of us used to volunteer for organizations that do good in the world. We ‘networked,’ before we knew what that meant, we learned how to organize events and people, how to work together as a volunteer team, how to build a playground or a hospital wing for women (I’m a lifelong Hadassah member).
There was always something that needed time and effort, and there were always some women capable of doing more than anyone else — my friend on the NCJW board is one of them.
It was gratifying last night, to be in a room of women, mostly Jewish, who share my concerns and who, in an era of busy-ness and self-absorption, are committed to the aim of making the world a better place for everyone.
This year, NCJW is doing a get-out-the-vote campaign. Are you looking for a way to make a difference in the 2024 election? Check out NCJW. Maybe I’ll see you at the dinner next year!
