One WIZO: Creating Direct Connections and Shared Impact Across Israeli Communities

WIZO has always been a global movement.

For more than a century, women in Israel and Jewish communities around the world have built WIZO together, connected by a shared sense of responsibility, community, and commitment to Israeli society.

A new series of partnerships between WIZO federations around the world and WIZO Israel branches is giving that connection an even more direct and personal expression.

The idea is not simply to connect a federation with a specific project and report back at the end of the year.

It is to create an ongoing relationship with a community in Israel.

Through these partnerships, federations can become closely involved with a local branch: getting to know its leadership and volunteers, understanding the people it serves, following its programs, needs and successes, and seeing the impact of WIZO Israel’s work as it happens on the ground.

When representatives visit Israel, the relationship can become even more personal through meetings with the branch and the women carrying the work forward. Throughout the year, stories, photographs, updates, events and achievements can keep that connection alive.

The aim is to create not only awareness, but emotional involvement and a sense of personal commitment to Israeli society.

It is an expression of One WIZO: a global Jewish movement in which Israel and the Diaspora are connected through shared responsibility and shared action.

For Ora Korazim, Chairperson of WIZO Israel, this is what makes the partnerships so meaningful.

“What excites me most is the opportunity to turn the connection between our federations and Israel into something direct and personal. Through these partnerships, federations can know the communities themselves, follow the work throughout the year, and see the impact they are helping to create in Israeli society. It allows all of us to feel that we are truly part of one movement, working together for the same people and the same future.”

Three partnerships now taking shape show how this model can look in very different parts of Israeli society.

WIZO Holland and Daliyat al-Karmel: Women, Identity and Connection Between Communities

The WIZO branch in Daliyat al-Karmel reflects the distinctive character of Israel’s Druze community.

Led by attorney Ghada Kamel, the branch works to advance women while combining women’s empowerment and gender equality with respect for Druze culture, tradition and identity.

More than 40 volunteers are active in the branch, which reaches over 500 women, children and community members each year.

Its work includes workshops and lectures for women, economic empowerment and entrepreneurship programs, support for mothers, educational programs for children, activities for older adults, and resilience initiatives developed in response to the realities of recent years.

The branch also plays an important role in creating connections within Israeli society.

Through meetings between Druze and Jewish women and exchanges with other WIZO branches, participants learn about one another’s traditions and lives, discuss shared challenges, challenge stereotypes and build relationships across communities.

For WIZO Holland, the partnership creates a direct connection with this work and with the women leading it.

It offers an opportunity not only to learn about WIZO’s activity within the Druze community, but to know the people behind it and to become part of the social impact being created there over time.

WIZO Holland and Ashdod: Resilience and Community in Israel’s South

Ashdod tells a very different story.

A major city in southern Israel, it has lived for years with security challenges that have intensified considerably since October 7.

Throughout this reality, the WIZO Ashdod branch, chaired by Irit Asraf, has remained a community anchor for women, children, families and older residents.

One of its central initiatives is Safety Net – Women Rising Together, a community for women and children rebuilding their lives after domestic violence. The program provides long-term emotional and therapeutic support, legal and housing assistance, parenting guidance, empowerment and support for children as families work toward safe and independent lives.

Alongside Safety Net, the branch operates a wide range of programs throughout the year.

Women take part in lectures, empowerment activities and reading groups. Older women develop digital and AI skills. Children receive educational and emotional support through programs such as An Hour with a Child. Intergenerational activities bring young people and older adults together, while music, singing, dance and cultural programs create connection and strengthen community resilience.

The branch’s Bigudit boutique adds another dimension: providing affordable clothing and household items, assisting families referred by welfare services, and connecting more women to the community through volunteering and sustainable consumption.

For WIZO Holland, the partnership offers a way to follow all of this work closely and to see how a local branch responds to the changing needs of a southern Israeli city.

It creates the possibility of direct involvement and direct impact in Israeli society, while building a relationship with the people and stories behind that impact.

WIZO Austria and Karmiel: Belonging and Resilience in the North

In Karmiel, WIZO’s work reflects the diversity and resilience of northern Israel.

The branch, founded in 1973, has developed into an active community hub supported by approximately 120 volunteers and strong relationships with the municipality, welfare services and educational institutions.

It serves women, children and families from a wide range of backgrounds, including new immigrants, single-parent families, women at risk and families facing the added pressures of the security situation in the north.

The branch operates Safety Net for women and children affected by domestic violence, provides support to reservists’ families, runs resilience programs and women’s leadership initiatives, and offers educational and therapeutic support for children.

Its community programs reflect the particular needs of the city as well.

A Hebrew-language program supports new immigrants. Women recovering from cancer find a space for connection and mutual support. Programs bring together women from different religious backgrounds.

The branch also has an important role in the lives of older women. Community groups, including its longstanding knitting group, provide not only meaningful activity but friendship, routine and a place to belong, helping reduce loneliness among older residents. The items they create are donated to babies, soldiers and senior citizens, allowing the women themselves to remain active contributors to the wider community.

The developing partnership with WIZO Austria creates a direct bridge to this work in northern Israel.

It allows the federation to follow the branch’s impact over time, to become emotionally connected to the community, and to take an active part in strengthening the lives of the people WIZO serves there.

Three Communities, One Shared Responsibility

Daliyat al-Karmel, Ashdod and Karmiel tell three very different stories.

One reflects WIZO’s work within the Druze community and its ability to build connections across cultures.

One shows the importance of community resilience in a southern city living with continuing security challenges.

One demonstrates the strength of a northern community hub serving a diverse population and creating belonging across generations.

Yet the idea behind each partnership is the same.

A federation is connected not only with a program, but with a community to know, people to meet, stories to follow and change to create together in Israeli society.

The relationship does not end when support is transferred.

It continues through updates, photographs, stories, events, visits, challenges and achievements. Over time, the names and numbers become people, and the work becomes something the federation can feel directly connected to.

That is where the strength of the model lies.

WIZO’s federations around the world and WIZO’s branches across Israel are different parts of the same movement. Each brings its own leadership, community, experience and strength.

These partnerships allow those parts of WIZO to work even more closely together and give federations a direct way to experience, influence and be part of WIZO Israel’s work within Israeli society.

From Amsterdam to Daliyat al-Karmel and Ashdod, from Vienna to Karmiel, the geography is different.

The commitment is shared.

One movement. Many communities. One WIZO.