Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project is meeting in Buenos Aires as part of its new focus on Spanish-speakers.
The group is set to announce during the meeting on Monday and Tuesday for 100 Spanish-speaking women from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil and Miami its first Spanish-speaking subsidized trip to Israel, known as “Birthright for Moms.”
“We chose Buenos Aires because of the magnitude of the local Jewish community here and also because we have seen a very significant impact by local Argentinian Jewish women who have gotten increasingly active in the Jewish community after our MOMentum trip to Israel and we want to strengthen and replicate that experience. Latin American women need greater skills, support, and tools to rise as leaders and face the challenges of living in a culture that has not nurtured female leadership. Our strategic focus now is in the Spanish-speaking world,” Galia Rubinstein, who oversees JWRP Latin American partnerships, told JTA.
The JWRP “MOMentum” trip to Israel is an eight-day, highly subsidized trip to Israel for Jewish mothers with children under the age of 18 living at home. Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is partnering with the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project in bringing Jewish women on these educational trips to Israel
“We had 20 women from Argentina in Israel in May, we will bring another 22 in November, By the end of 2017 we will have taken 170 women from Argentina since 2013,” Ruth Baars, JWRP Director of Programs, who is in Buenos Aires to lead the conference, told JTA.
MOMentum will have its first-ever Spanish-language version in May 2018 when more than 150 women from Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; Ciudad de Mexico and Cancun, Mexico; San Jose, Puerto Rico; Ciudad de Guatemala. Guatemala; and Bogota, Colombia will have an educational experience in Israel. The Israeli guide and teachers will all be Spanish speakers.
MOMentum trips have brought nearly 1,000 women from Latin America to visit Israel.