PHOTO: Juju Chang (Courtesy Photo)

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
One of the highlights of Jewish Portland’s pre-pandemic fall is back.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Women’s Philanthropy will host Impact 2023 at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Thursday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 pm, featuring keynote speaker Juju Chang. 
“It’s the first time connecting this way with our community, in person, since 2019,” explained event co-chair Karen Blauer. “That’s really exciting to have an opportunity to come together.”
Chang has won three Emmy awards for her work with ABC News, where she started working in 1984. She’s appeared on World News Tonight, Good Morning America and Nightline. Chang converted to Judaism in 1995 before marrying her husband, Neil Shapiro. All three of the couple’s children have attended a Jewish day school in New York, and she is active in her synagogue, Congregation Rodeph Shalom, while also working with the Anti-Defamation League. She’s spoken regularly about antisemitism.
“It’s so clear to me that anti-Asian American Pacific Islander hate and antisemitism are rooted in scapegoating a minority group within a majority. The COVID pandemic brought so much fear and anxiety into our world, and some chose to weaponize that fear against a group they sought to ‘blame’ for the virus,” she said. “Antisemitism is often the same kind of blaming the outsider.”
Chang was born in South Korea but emigrated with her family to the United States when she was 4. She later attended Stanford University. Chang has become notable for her work on stories centering women’s health and refugee crises.
“I’m also drawn to stories of immigrants and the disempowered because of the Jewish notion that ‘we were once strangers in a strange land.’ For me, that’s quite literal,” she said. “So I still, to this day, see the world through the eyes of that young stranger who found herself in a strange land and wasn’t always made to feel welcome.”
“I think that we’re so fortunate to have Juju come in and share her personal journey, and we all have a personal journey,” Blauer said. “Hearing each other’s journeys I think is really inspiring.”
Impact has been a traditional showcase for Women’s Philanthrophy but has not been held since 2019 due to the pandemic. 
“There is a different space that is created when you have a group of women together, and you could not create that space over Zoom,” explained Federation Chief Development Officer Wendy Kahn.
The unique energy created when community-minded women come together to make a difference has been powering programs in Jewish communities around the country for decades.
“Women’s philanthropy started because of the fact that women didn’t have a place in boardrooms. Historically, that is why we have gathered in these spaces and created powerful moments,” Kahn said. 
“Each of us as an individual has a responsibility to be counted, and Impact has been an event that gives women an opportunity to come together as individuals to make a collective,” Blauer added. “It’s really exciting to have the opportunity to do that as women.”
That need to come together has only been amplified in the wake of the Simchat Torah attacks in Israel.
“As we enter the second week of this sad and difficult time, our charge in the Portland Jewish community is to ensure that our Greater Portland Jewish community continues to thrive,” Kahn said. “Our task is to bring the community together – to fill the room with women who want to make a profound impact on our Jewish community locally, in Israel, and worldwide.”
Impact is for cisgender women and girls, transgender women and girls, and non-binary people who are comfortable in female-centered spaces. Registration is $85 and is available online through Nov. 7 at jewishportland.org/2024impact. For more information, email wendy@jewishportland.org.