A New WIZO Partnership Expands Support for Bereaved Mothers and Sisters

Grief can become an identity of its own.

For mothers who have lost a child, and sisters who have lost a sibling, life is often divided into a before and an after. The loss remains present, but so do all the other parts of who they are: women, mothers, daughters, professionals, friends, partners, and individuals with their own needs, strengths, hopes, and inner worlds.

A new partnership between WIZO and Yad Labanim, initiated by World WIZO CEO Marsel Asulin, is expanding WIZO’s existing work with bereaved mothers and sisters and creating additional spaces in which women can reconnect with their own strengths, needs, and lives alongside their grief.

As part of the partnership, WIZO will hold ten workshops for bereaved families: five for bereaved mothers and five for bereaved sisters. Yad Labanim will introduce the program to families within its community, while WIZO’s Division for the Advancement of the Status of Women will develop and lead the professional content.

The initiative comes at an especially significant moment. As Israel approaches three years since the October 7 massacre, the circle of bereavement has grown dramatically. Families who have lived with loss for decades have been joined by many more who lost loved ones on October 7 and throughout the past three years. Behind every loss are mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and entire families learning how to carry grief while continuing to live.

The partnership builds on WIZO’s existing work with bereaved mothers and sisters, while significantly expanding its reach. Through Yad Labanim’s national network, WIZO will be able to bring these dedicated programs to more women from bereaved families, combining the organization’s experience in strengthening women with Yad Labanim’s deep connection to Israel’s bereaved community.

Helping develop the program is Shira Sternfeld, an arts therapist specializing in movement and dance, who leads a range of programs and therapeutic responses across both WIZO and Yad Labanim.

At WIZO, Sternfeld leads several programs for families of reservists and mothers of soldiers. In recent years, through her work with Yad Labanim and FIDF, she has also supported the professional and emotional components of therapeutic journeys in Israel and abroad.

The combination of experience she brings from both organizations gives her a unique perspective on the needs of bereaved families and on the kinds of support that can help women reconnect with their own strengths alongside grief.

For Sternfeld, the purpose of the new initiative is not to separate women from their grief, but to widen the space around it.

“We are looking at how we can help these mothers and sisters expand their sense of identity into additional parts and perspectives,” she explains. “There is a connection to personal resources, to resilience, and to creating a moment in which we can place ourselves, as women, back at the center.”

Some participants may have lived with their loss for many years. Others may have been bereaved during the past three years. Each woman arrives with a different story, a different experience of grief, and different needs.

That requires a deeply sensitive and trauma-informed approach.

The workshops are being developed with an understanding that grief cannot be hurried, resolved, or reduced to a single experience. Instead, the program aims to help participants reconnect with personal resources, strengthen resilience, and create space for themselves alongside the loss they carry.

The goal is not to ask participants to move away from memory, but to help them make space for life alongside it.

The partnership also reflects a broader principle within WIZO’s work with women: meaningful support begins by meeting women where they are, recognizing the complexity of their experiences, and creating responses built around their actual needs.

For Sternfeld, the collaboration brings together two kinds of expertise: Yad Labanim’s deep familiarity with the world of bereavement and WIZO’s experience in creating spaces that strengthen women through connection, resilience, and personal growth.

The ten workshops are now taking shape, with the first groups expected to bring together women from different backgrounds and stages of bereavement.

What they share is loss.

But the workshops are intended to create room for something alongside it as well: connection, strength, and the possibility of looking forward.