About Us

The Jewish Women's Foundation (JWF) was established in August 1999 by the Jewish Federation and United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit. Studies show that women often turn first to institutions affiliated with their religious backgrounds for help and support. We recognize that there is a unique role to be played by women's funds associated with a religious and cultural identity and communal structure.

The JWF offers Jewish women an opportunity to use leadership and financial resources to make a difference in the lives of other Jewish women and girls, a chance to raise issues and ensure that programs to address those concerns receive funding.

The JWF challenges the Jewish community to give more consideration to the needs of Jewish women and girls in designing and delivering programs and services. We believe that, with support, secular women's organizations might also pay more attention to the needs of Jewish women within their ranks.

Our goals are:

• To address the needs of Jewish women and girls and advance women and girls' issues generally;
• To fund projects which seek to improve the status of Jewish women and girls overall, not simply to provide services or programming which only benefit individual Jewish women and girls;
• To fund projects which address the root causes of the challenges faced by Jewish women and girls;
• To be an educational vehicle for women in philanthropy; and
• To be grant makers within the context of being Jewish women: celebrating our identities, recapturing our biblical and historic legacy, and honoring our traditions of tzedakah and tikkun olam.