{"id":439434,"date":"2026-05-13T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/439434\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:26:08","slug":"world-emunah-the-women-who-are-holding-israel-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/439434\/","title":{"rendered":"World Emunah: The women who are holding Israel together"},"content":{"rendered":"

On paper, the statistics are straightforward enough: the religious Zionist community<\/a> makes up a relatively small percentage of Israel\u2019s population, yet its men serve disproportionately in combat units and reserve duty. But statistics rarely capture what happens after midnight, when exhausted mothers finish another day of work, put children to bed alone, and prepare for another morning shaped by uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Frieda Ross, President of World Emunah<\/a>, these moments have become the rhythm of everyday Israeli life. \u201cThe women are still part of the workforce, and they still have to take care of the home and the children when their partners are away,\u201d Ross says. \u201cWhen we talk about resilience, I think one of the things that\u2019s most important is to highlight their strength, how much they carry on their backs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MeiraMeira Lerner, World Emunah Director (credit: Courtesy)<\/p>\n

That message is expected to be a prominent feature when Emunah representatives appear at the upcoming Jerusalem Post New York Conference. But in conversation, Ross and her colleagues quickly move beyond the language of resilience alone. What emerges instead is a portrait of an organization focused on continuity: childcare centers functioning under fire, schools improvising wartime support systems, and women quietly building<\/a> social infrastructure while the country remains in prolonged crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is intertwined,\u201d Ross says. \u201cThe daycare is important, the resilience of the children in the homes is important, and continued education is important. Everything affects everything.\u201d Today, Emunah’s leaders increasingly frame the organization as a long-term investment in women\u2019s leadership, particularly within the religious Zionist community.<\/p>\n

Ross points to one initiative launched decades ago: a businesswomen\u2019s network created by professional religious Zionist women in their 30s. \u201cThey shared professions, abilities, and contacts. They used each other almost in a barter system, and that club is still active today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, nearly three decades later, Emunah has launched a new initiative aimed at younger women entering politics, business, and professional leadership. The program, called Rishonot, provides mentorship, networking, and leadership tools to women around the country.<\/p>\n

But even those programs rarely remain confined to networking alone. World Emunah Director Meira Lerner describes how one woman from the business council was instrumental in opening a jewelry studio inside one of Emunah\u2019s residential homes for at-risk youth. \u201cThe purpose wasn\u2019t just jewelry-making,\u201d she explains. \u201cThe kids learn responsibility and work ethic. How to run a business, essentially.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As these teenagers assist in running the studio, their skills grow into confidence, which in turn opens new possibilities. “It\u2019s been a tremendous success,\u201d Lerner smiles, noting that Emunah\u2019s work encompasses multiple generations in more ways than one. The women who once built professional support systems for themselves are now creating opportunities for vulnerable children, children who may someday become leaders in their own right. But if professional empowerment forms one pillar of the organization\u2019s work, the war has placed another issue at the center of its public message: the burden carried by religious Zionist families during Israel\u2019s prolonged military campaigns.<\/p>\n

Ross notes that although the national religious community represents a relatively small percentage of Israel\u2019s population, its men make up a significant share of combat units and reserve service. \u201cThe husbands are away on reserve duty,\u201d she says, “And the women are still part of the workforce. They still have to take care of the home and the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a form of strain that is both national and deeply intimate. Women become, simultaneously, sole parents, emotional anchors, financial providers and caretakers of communal morale. \u201cWe represent a specific sector of society,\u201d Ross says. \u201cAnd these women are going through a very, very difficult time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet unlike the dramatic images that dominate television broadcasts, the labor these women perform is largely invisible. It happens in kitchens, schools, WhatsApp groups, and daycare centers. It happens at 6 a.m., before work, and at midnight, after the children are asleep. And it continues, regardless of war. One of the clearest examples came when schools across Israel repeatedly shifted into emergency modes and to distance learning.<\/p>\n

In Pardes Hanna, where Emunah operates both a children\u2019s home and a high school, staff members improvised their own support network. \u201cSome of the teachers from the high school came to the home on their own,\u201d Lerner recalls. \u201cThey came to help the kids with distance learning, with questions, just to be there. No one instructed them to come.”<\/p>\n

That willingness to continue functioning under impossible conditions is foundational to Emunah\u2019s leadership. The daycare centers remained open whenever authorities allowed them to operate, even though many staff members themselves had relatives serving in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teachers were also mothers, sisters, daughters of people serving in the army,\u201d Ross says. Still, the doors opened. If there is a unifying theme running through the conversation, it is foresight \u2013 Emunah is not just reacting but planning ahead.\u201d That planning now includes one of the organization\u2019s newest and most sensitive initiatives: a treatment center for women and children leaving shelters for abused women.<\/p>\n

The project remains in its early phases, Ross notes, but its purpose is clear: to help women transition from protected shelters back into everyday life. \u201cIt will support these women with counseling and whatever assistance they need to reenter the real world,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe all face moments where, one second, you\u2019re waiting for sirens and rushing into a safe room, and the next, someone snaps their fingers and says, \u2018Okay, carry on with your life.\u2019 That is their daily struggle in a nutshell, and I wish returning to normal was as simple as that. For women leaving abusive environments, stepping out from a secure space into a potentially unpredictable or unsafe world can be challenging. The new treatment center will be built upon years of counseling experience already integrated into the organization.<\/p>\n

Emunah has run family counseling centers across Israel for many years, including in Sderot, an area that experienced rocket attacks long before October 7 shifted the national focus. \u201cThe attacks on the Gaza envelope didn\u2019t start on October 7,\u201d Ross states. \u201cPeople in Sderot have been suffering for many years.\u201d She recalls one counselor in Sderot who continued phone sessions with patients on October 7, even as her own sons fought in the army. \u201cThe counseling experience is deeply rooted in the organization,\u201d Ross adds.<\/p>\n

Lerner concludes by widening the lens even further. Beyond welfare services and emergency response, she says, Emunah also sees itself as part of a broader effort to preserve and elevate women\u2019s role within Zionism itself. \u201cPeople sometimes think of Zionism only as history, but it\u2019s constantly evolving.\u201d Women, she argues, are shaping that evolution in real time \u2013 as municipal leaders, emergency responders, educators, and community organizers. \u201cOne of our responsibilities,\u201d she says, \u201cis to highlight where women are having such strong impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is the story Emunah ultimately intends to bring to New York: Resilience not as an abstract Israeli virtue, but a daily labor performed overwhelmingly by women whose contributions often remain out of frame. Women who continue teaching during wars, who sustain homes while partners fight, build systems that outlast crises, and plan for the next generation while carrying the current one. Or, as Ross puts it more simply: \u201cEverything affects everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written in collaboration with World Emunah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On paper, the statistics are straightforward enough: the religious Zionist community makes up a relatively small percentage of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[206044,85,526,46,86599,43,154529,129228],"class_list":["post-439434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-empowering-women","tag-il","tag-in-focus","tag-israel","tag-israeli-women","tag-news","tag-women-in-the-workforce","tag-world-emunah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}