WIZO in an era of change

Tamar Lazarus
President
WIZO South Africa

This year’s theme was “WIZO in an Era of Change”. Discussions centred on how we take our movement forward at a time when world Jewry is experiencing uncertainty, change, and where the mindsets around membership are challenged.

But it wasn’t all meetings and discussions. We spent a day visiting WIZO projects in Sderot and met with the Sderot Media Centre who briefed us on what the community has had to live through over the past decade.

Sderot is blooming and flourishing with many new developments that include a completely rocket-proof train station. We also had a glimpse of how close this town, the most “bunkered” in the world, is to the Gaza Strip and we heard about the intolerable conditions they have endured living under incessant rocket fire.

During Operation Protective Edge, WIZO opened its boarding schools in order to give safe haven to many of the residents of the south. WIZO was thanked profusely for all we did to ensure that vulnerable civilians felt safe.

It was extremely sobering to hear our chaverot from around the world describe the situation for Jewish communities in their countries. They were given tools and advice on how to make the case for Israel… WIZO women make excellent ambassadors! The voice of Jewish women has never been more important or needed and we encourage as many women as possible to sign up as members today.

Seeing the WIZO SA projects in Israel is always the highlight of the visit as all money raised has been invested in making a better future. Inez Bernstein Day Care Centre in Tel Aviv and Chorlie Day Care Centre in Kfar Saba, both have child-friendly, renovated bomb shelters. 

The Neve WIZO 5^th Cottage is now furnished and the new foster parents in the home are welcoming one child at a time.  

Running parallel to the Meeting of Representatives,  was the Leadership Empowerment Seminar aimed at encouraging and training future leaders. Participants were enthralled and enthused by the sessions that included the crème de la crème of female Israeli leaders.

Participants Andrea Wainer, vice chairman WIZO Johannesburg, and Felicity Isserow, co-chairman WIZO Cape Town, represented South Africa proudly, proving once again that we are vocal about our Zionism and dedicated future leaders.

South Africa is very well represented within the ranks of World WIZO. Laurienne Baitz, our dynamo from Durban is the World WIZO Aviv representative to the World Executive and we congratulate Rolene Marks whose loss to WIZO South Africa was World WIZO’s gain as she has now been appointed to the World WIZO Executive as vice chairperson of the Organisation and Tourism division.

We all returned re-energised, enthused and filled with motivation for a productive WIZO year ahead.