1. Women and Girls: Emphasizing programs and services that enrich, enhance, and inspire Jewish women and girls. Programs could be in any number of realms, including but not limited to Jewish continuity/identity, health, social justice, or basic needs. 

2. Jewish Continuity: Emphasizing programs and initiatives that seek to help strengthen Jewish identity through engagement, education, arts, culture, and beyond. 

 3. Justice: Emphasizing educational programs and initiatives that seek to promote tolerance, inclusion, and understanding with a focus on combating anti-Semitism, prejudice, racism and all forms of social injustice and inequity. 

*Women and girls refer to all cisgender women and girls, transgender women and girls, and non-binary people who are comfortable in female-centered spaces. 

Women's Giving Circle Impact - By the Numbers

2025 GRANT ALLOCATIONS
12 members
Total number of grant recipients: 9 
Total number of grant awards: $26,000

OVERALL IMPACT
Total Women's Giving Circle cohorts since 2017: 9
Total number of grant recipients: 66 
​Total grant funds allocated: $207,965

"Girls In Trouble - The Series" is created by Rabins, Rose, and producer Lara Cuddy. (Note: Project is referred to as GIT_TV for brevity.) GIT_TV is a new initiative within the broader educational-creative project of Girls in Trouble, helmed by award-winning musician, writer, and Jewish educator Alicia Jo Rabins. Rabin's work on Jewish texts has been featured in publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Forward; the song cycle at the heart of Girls in Trouble began as Rabin’s master’s thesis at JTS.

This project includes two steps: the videos themselves (which include creation and dissemination), and brief study guides to help individuals access the stories of Biblical women, draw inspiration from them, and add their voices to the interpretative tradition. $2,500. 
 

2. Beit Am/Sacred Earth Sacred You
Ongoing Program Support. Beit Am/Sacred Earth, Sacred You, Rosh Chodesh Circles. This initiative offers a monthly Rosh Chodesh program and an annual retreat for Jewish women* from post-Bat Mitzvah age through elderhood. It guides participants to expand their Jewish identity, live more purposefully, and build trusting and meaningful relationships within a safe Jewish community.

Grounded in ancient Jewish earth-connected wisdom and aligned with the Jewish cycle of the year, each gathering includes reflection, intention-setting, arts and crafts, meditation, movement, and discussion. This holistic approach supports emotional, spiritual, and intellectual wellness while cultivating a caring and intergenerational Jewish community. By connecting women to Jewish wisdom and tradition in meaningful, relevant ways, participants deepen their Jewish identity and are empowered to carry these values into their families and broader communities. The community Rosh Chodesh program serves Jewish women across the mid-Willamette Valley, including Corvallis, Albany, Philomath, and Lebanon, as well as participants from as far as Newport, Eugene, and Portland. 

* Women refer to cisgender women, transgender women, and non-binary people who are comfortable in female-centered spaces.

This project includes two steps: the videos themselves (which include creation and dissemination), and brief study guides to help individuals access the stories of Biblical women, draw inspiration from them, and add their voices to the interpretative tradition. $3,600. 
 

3. Mayaan Ha Torah Day School
New Program Initiative. Mayaan Ha Torah Day School, Yachad Arts. The program features an after-school or Sunday program to provide extracurricular performing arts activities for all Jewish girls (ages 5-25) in Portland. Activities to include director-supervised and high quality teen-led performing arts instruction; leadership opportunities skill development for Jewish teens and young adults; guest professionals/educators from various performing arts studios and organizations, both locally, from Israel, Los Angeles, and the east coast; community events/performances in collaboration with Jewish and secular agencies throughout the greater Jewish community.

The girls, friends, families, and community will gather for an end-of-year or otherwise planned performance. The gathering will allow Jewish women to meet, learn from, and engage with other women from all over the greater Portland area while experiencing unity and empowerment through the arts. $1,800. 
 

4. Congregation Shir Tikvah/Torah Study at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility
Ongoing Program Initiative. Congregation Shir Tikvah, Torah Study at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Every Friday, two or three volunteers from Congregation Shir Tikvah bring torah study, challah, and grape juice to women incarcerated at Coffee Creek. Six to eighteen women attend regularly, more at the Medium Security facility and fewer at the Minimum Security facility. The program goal is to be present with the women. One observable outcome of this weekly study is that over time, volunteers find women becoming better able to navigate the nuances of multi-sided ethical questions and multiple interpretations of ancient texts. The result was unanticipated, since underneath our joyful weekly study is often a dark current of suffering inside and outside the prison. Many of the incarcerated women participating in the weekly study began torah study seeking black and white solutions to complex moral questions, and over time have found themselves better able to accept uncertainties and ambiguities that life presents. The Torah study addresses a deep-seated need for incarcerated women to find meaning in their suffering through studying sacred Jewish texts in a Jewish pedagogical tradition. $2,700. 

5. Dignity Grows
Ongoing Program Initiative. Dignity Grows. Dignity Grows Portland Chapter addresses period poverty by assembling menstrual and hygiene totes in partnership with six local community organizations, including homeless shelters, school programs, community health centers, domestic violence shelters, and women’s empowerment groups. Through these partnerships, Dignity Grows provides menstrual and hygiene totes to women (and people who menstruate) who need these basic resources most. Young girls in school accessing food pantries, women living in homeless encampments across Portland, new immigrant mothers, women escaping domestic violence, and women working to make new lives for themselves.

Volunteers from the Jewish community participate in hands-on packing and work alongside community partners to support vulnerable populations with essential menstrual and hygiene products. Each tote contains an evidence-based combination of supplies for one individual for one month. Our program, rooted in Judaic values of kehillah (community), tzedakah (justice and charitable giving), and tikkun olam (repairing the world), fosters social justice through direct action in our community. Through national collaboration, we inform broad social justice efforts while building deep, impactful community relationships and offering leadership opportunities within our Portland Jewish community. In 2024, volunteers and donors enabled Dignity Grows Portland Chapter to pack and distribute 2,304 menstrual and hygiene totes - that’s 2,304 women and menstruators in our community who had access to basic supplies that otherwise would not have. Dignity Grows Portland Chapter operates cost-free, using fundraising and grants to supply the products. $3,600. 
 

6. Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE)
New Program Initiative. Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE). Women are taking the lead in the emerging field of death-work & death-education: 90% of Jewish Death Doulas are women. Rachel Crawford, she/her, is  JADE's Portland-based death educator. Rachel designs and executes various educational programs in Portland to increase awareness and understanding of Jewish end-of-life rituals and traditions. JADE also has created an online resource called the Hineni Tool (hineni.jadeinfo.org) and offers monthly webinars to support this learning and the in-person programming.

Some of the desired outcomes of this work are (1) that Jewish community members leave the programming having a deeper understanding of Jewish end of life rituals and that they are empowered to consider how these rituals might be applied to their own ritual practice and (2) end of life professionals that are in a position to support Jews during the end of life stage have a reliable resource that can support them in understanding the diversity of Jewish ritual observance and expression.

The most apparent need that JADE seeks to address is the deficit in knowledge about Jewish end-of-life rituals among Jewish communities in the United States. Jewish death and mourning rituals, like so many of our other traditions, require communal support and participation. Before meaningful communal participation can occur, there needs to be a communal knowledge base around these traditions. The resources available on Jewish death and mourning rituals are limited and often lean heavily toward a specific Jewish denomination which alienates Jews that are not part of that denomination. Through JADE's local death-educators and online educational tools, we are working on addressing this need.

JADE's target population is vast—death affects everyone's life in a multitude of ways. JADE seeks to provide information to every Jewish person equally, from the ultra-observant to the unaffiliated and everyone in between. It’s JADE’s goal to educate and inform people about Jewish end-of-life practices. Whether and how they apply this information to their lives is a personal decision. $3,600. 

7. Jewish Family and Child Services

New Program Initiative. Jewish Family and Child Services. (JFCS) JFCS is excited to host two events to foster deep, intergenerational connections among women in our community. These gatherings will center on the power of storytelling, offering a unique opportunity for women of all ages to come together and share their lived experiences and perspectives. The first gathering features a live storytelling session, allowing participants to witness the art of storytelling aloud. At the second gathering, a professional storyteller leads an engaging workshop on intergenerational storytelling. Participants will have the chance to share their own stories, allowing mutual understanding and connection. These events are designed to encourage the exchange of cultural traditions, foster a sense of belonging, and strengthen Jewish continuity during a time when our cultures and identities are threatened. A welcoming and inclusive environment allows every voice to be heard, valued, and supported.  By providing an opportunity for profound social connection and cultural exchange, these gatherings will ensure that rich Jewish traditions and shared experiences continue to thrive across generations. $1,000. 

8. MJCC (Mittleman Jewish Community Center)
New Program Initiative. Mittleman Jewish Community Center (MJCC). The MJCC recently started a Volunteer Corps to provide opportunities for members and the broader community to help not only the MJCC but also other nonprofit organizations in the local area. Blanchet House, founded in 1952, is a nonprofit social services organization located in Old Town Portland. Its mission is to alleviate suffering and offer hope for a better life by providing essential aid with dignity.
This past year, the MJCC partnered with the Blanchet House with the Volunteer Corps to provide resources for those who use the Blanchet House for various services. In continuing this work, MJCC's Volunteer Corps is partnering with the Blanchet House to help support their new women’s shelter, Bethanie’s Room, an emergency nighttime shelter that is expected to open next fall in downtown Portland.  There are currently no women’s nighttime emergency shelters in Portland without a waitlist, so Bethanie’s Room will fill a critical need. The MJCC's project is designed to create hygiene kits for women that will be given to them when they are welcomed to the center for the evening.  These kits will provide women with the essentials that they will need for basic hygiene and showering to help their stay be even more comfortable. $1,800. 

9.  OJMCHE (Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education)
New Program Initiative. Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE).  Funding to support a public program in conjunction with the museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Outliers and Outlaws: The Eugene Lesbian History Project. The exhibition will be on view at OJMCHE from June 8 to October 26, 2025. Outliers and Outlaws highlights the intersection of lesbian and Jewish stories while also exploring the powerful ways Eugene's lesbian community during the 1960s-1990s carved out a life and culture that profoundly altered Oregon history.

The program will celebrate and share the history of the Family Freedom Seder of 1992, a groundbreaking event that combined Jewish tradition with LGBTQ+ activism, which is featured in the Outliers and Outlaws exhibition. This innovative Seder brought together approximately 400 guests in a powerful display of solidarity and resistance against Oregon's discriminatory Measure 9, which sought to constitutionally label homosexuality as "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse," posing a significant threat to LGBTQ+ rights in Oregon. The Seder creatively adapted the traditional Passover ritual to address contemporary struggles for freedom and equality. By intertwining Jewish customs with LGBTQ+ themes, the event affirmed the intersecting identities of Jewish lesbians in Eugene while fostering understanding and support from allies.

OJMCHE envisions this program not only honoring the significance of the Freedom Seder but also bringing its history to the fore to show current generations how activism rooted in Jewish history, values, and customs can make a difference. $1,800. 

10.  The Oregon Hillel Foundation

New Program Initiative. The Oregon Hillel Foundation at the University of Oregon, Rosh Chodesh Program. Funding to support a monthly Rosh Chodesh programming at the University of Oregon occurs nine times per academic year. These gatherings are a meaningful space for women and all individuals who feel safe in a women-centered environment to connect, reflect, and empower one another. Rooted in Judaic themes and values, Rosh Chodesh provides students with a sacred pause from their daily lives, fostering community, resilience, and personal growth.