Rachel Wasserman's Rosh Hashanah Message for 2022

During the High Holidays, the sound of the shofar echoes throughout the walls of our synagogues and temples, reminding us to wake up, to take an account of our actions, and to commit to being better in the year ahead.

For us as individuals, this might mean being more patient with our children or being more generous with our philanthropy.

For us as a greater Jewish community, there is also much for us to wake up to, to take an account of, and to commit to improving.

We must wake up to the fact that white women working full-time in Georgia earn, on average, 80 cents for every dollar men earn. The gender wage gap is even wider for women of color. As a community of organizational and business leaders, we must take an account of our own institutions and commit to eliminating the gender wage gap by compensating equal work with equal pay.

We must wake up to the fact that many of Atlanta’s Jewish institutions are still not offering sufficient paid family leave, thereby limiting the economic and career possibilities of their employees. We must commit to investing in the people who run our congregations, teach our children, and plan our programs by providing supportive work environments where they can care for new babies, elderly parents, sick spouses, or travel out of state for an abortion without having to take unpaid time off.

We must wake up to the high cost of Jewish living and understand how that impacts single mothers, Jewish communal employees, and other people who want to participate actively in the community but cannot afford to do so.
I could go on and on. We have a lot of work to do.

In order to address these issues, as well as the myriad of issues affecting Jewish women and girls, we must talk about these problems in our community and acknowledge that they exist. Then, we must commit to eliminating them by working together. At Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta, we work collaboratively to effect change in the areas of economic empowerment, mental health, gender-based violence prevention, leadership development, and other areas in which gender inequality negatively affects women and girls in our community.

In our first ten years, we have allocated nearly $2 million to almost 60 organizations. No other organization is exclusively and passionately dedicated to the advancement of Jewish women and girls in Atlanta and around the world.

This Rosh Hashanah, as the shofar reminds us to wake up, take an account, and commit to change, please join Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta by investing in our community’s girls and women.

L’shana tova u’metukah.

Rachel Wasserman is the CEO of Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta.