Like much in the age of social media, it started with a tweet. Or rather, a series of them.
Sheila Katz fired off the first shortly after she arrived at an anti-Semitism symposium organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. She had joined the group only weeks earlier, when she was named CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, and she was eager for this gathering with colleagues. Her excitement quickly curdled, however, when she found that she was one of very few women attending. “I felt invisible,” she remembers.
This collection of 15 profiles spotlights individuals who are driving conversations about equity. Read about thinkers and doers, Twitter pros and essayists, philanthropy outsiders and insiders, and more.
That feeling deepened at the opening panel, which featured five men. By noon, only two women had been seated as experts. “I know plenty of experts on antisemitism who are women,” Katz tweeted. She suggested that her Twitter followers message the conference speakers and urge them to refuse to participate in future “manels” — panels without women.
The tweets, posted as a thread to a Facebook group, caught the attention of independent writer and consultant Esther Kustanowitz. The two began collaborating via Google Doc with another 10 or so women in the Jewish nonprofit field on an essay that came together virtually overnight. In the gentle tones and allegory of a fairy tale — it opened with “Once upon a time” — the essay skewered a Jewish community in which only men held positions of power. Meanwhile, it continued, talented yet underpaid and overlooked women gathered in a “Facebook village,” a reference to a large online group begun by Rachel Gildiner, executive director of GatherDC. In this digital safe space, the women had decided that “they’d have to fight to keep history in the past and forge a different future in solidarity with each other.”
The essay called out men but also asked them to embrace the word “ally” as a verb. It spelled out 13 things men could do to advance gender equity. Among them: ensure gender representation and balance on hiring committees, end the wage gap, and refuse invitations to participate in “manels.”
“The Week That All Jewish Women Turned Invisible,” which ran in eJewish Philanthropy, caught fire. More than 500 people co-signed the essay, and scores took to Twitter with the hashtag #EquityEverAfter. Women led by Haley Schreier and Tilly Shames at the University of Michigan Hillel converted the 13 steps into a pledge, with a website and even “Ally Is a Verb” coffee mugs.
“This was a communal effort,” Katz says. “It feels like the best of what happens when women come together.”
Although Katz’s original tweet wasn’t a shot heard ‘round the world, its message has found its way into research. A recent report on the gender gap in Jewish nonprofit leadership identified five key causes, including: Men fail to speak out. The report’s answer? The same 13 steps outlined in the essay.
