Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, announced on Wednesday its annual list of ‘18 American Zionist Women You Should Know.’
The list consists of both Jews and non-Jews, of American-born women, American immigrants and Americans who have made aliyah.
“America’s Zionist women were a powerful force for Israel well before the country was founded and they are a powerful force for Israel today,” said Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz. “Since October 7, they have raised their voices to tell the world about Hamas’ brutality and to call out the antisemitic stereotypes and prejudices that have burst forth from every corner of the world. These women will help see us through the current crisis and shape the future of Zionism and Israel.”
With nearly 300,000 members, donors and supporters, Hadassah is the largest Jewish women’s organization in the United States.
18 American Zionist Women You Should Know:
Shai Albrecht
First on the list in Shai Albrecht, a pro-Israel Social Media Influencer and certified personal trainer.
Albrecht started her social media platform to focus on physical and mental health, but she soon began advocating for Orthodox Jewish women and correcting misconceptions about Israel in response to the rise in antisemitism after October 7.
Destiny Albritton
Destiny Albritton is a Christian Zionist activist. She is known for her position as senior director of Next Gen Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and for overseeing the Israel Collective, a program of Christians United for Israel that connects young American Christian leaders to Israel.
In addition to having led many advocacy missions to Israel for young allies of Israel, Albritton shares online Christian and Zionist content creators to her over 900,000 followers on TikTok.
Eve Barlow
Eve Barlow is a known writer, Thought Leader and Jewish Advocate – While originally a Scottish pop culture journalist, Barlow became known for her Israel advocacy.
Since October 7, she has made two reporting trips to Israel and produced a mini-documentary with Honest Reporting. Barlow shares her message to a monthly reach of over 1.5 million people.
The ‘18 American Zionist Women You Should Know’ are not the first to recognize Barlow's achievements, as in 2020 and 2021, the Algemeiner recognized Barlow as one of the “Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life.”
Emily Briskman
Emily Briskman is a Jewish Communal Leader and educator with an expertise ininformal Jewish and Israel education partially thanks to her 19 years’ experience at JUF and Hillel. In addition, Briskman is associate vice president of JUF Campus Affairs and executive director at the Hillels of Illinois.
Valeria Chazin
Valeria Chazin is an award-winning activist from Kiev in Ukraine and was raised in Israel.
Chazin co-founded Students Supporting Israel (SSI), which she grew from a single campus group into an international student organization. Chazin helped to empower thousands of students across North America to be strong voices for Israel and Zionism and against antisemitism.
In addition, she is a member of the Va’ad Hapoel of the World Zionist Organization and sits on the JCRC board in Minnesota, where she now lives.
Adela Cojab Moadeb
Adela Cojab Moadeb is an author and Israel activist. While an undergraduate at New York University in 2019, Cojab Moadeb, a Syrian-Lebanese Jew born in Mexico and raised in New Jersey, made headlines when she filed a Title VI complaint accusing NYU of failing to protect Jews on campus from consistent harassment. Her actions led to a resolution agreement addressing antisemitism as a form of discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which laid the groundwork for similar lawsuits against other universities.
Cojab Moadeb has been recognized for her contributions for to Jewish campus life and named one of 2021’s “Top-50 Pro-Israel Influencers” and one of JNS’s “Top-40 Latin American Pro-Israel Advocates and Leaders” for the same year.
Diana Diner
Diana Diner is an educator of all things Israel and Zionism Educator. She is cited as being the driving force behind a group of Hadassah programs designed to kick-start conversations about what Zionism means to women in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
The daughter of Russian immigrants, Diner credits the 10 days she spent in Israel with Birthright in 2005 with inspiring a career in Zionism education. Before joining Hadassah in 2020, she spent almost 20 years working with teens and young adults at Birthright, Hillel International, the Israel on Campus Coalition, Masa Israel Journey and Young Judaea, and at the Israeli consulate in New York.
Virag Guylas
Virag Guylas is a speaker, author and a former diplomat to the European Union.
Guylas is known for her vocal pro-Israel advocacy and, as a non-Jewish Zionist, Gulyas used her high-profile education and PR campaigns to challenge false narratives about Israel and to expose double standards in many Jewish civil rights activities.
Now the head of JNF-USA’s Global Jewish Speakers Bureau, Guylas works toward eliminating stereotypes about Israel and Jews and is a fierce critic of the BDS movement, the UN's anti-Israel stance and the exploitation of educational curricula designed to cultivate a generation sympathetic to anti-Zionist ideologies.
Jenn Handel
Jenn Handel is an educator and Jewish non-profit professional. She was recognized in the Atlanta Jewish Times’ “Jewish 40 Under 40” in 2022.
Handel is the director of Israel engagement for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and a frequent speaker on antisemitism and Zionism.
She spent nine years working at Jewish Life at Duke and the Stony Brook Hillel and credits a 2010 Birthright Israel experience with changing the course of her life and making her feel “Jewish enough to be Jewish.”
Toby Klein
Toby Klein is an LGBTQ+ Progressive Zionist employed as a program manager for A Wider Bridge. Utilizing this platform, Klein builds connections between America’s and Israel’s LGBTQ+ communities through virtual programming and in-person trips to Israel.
When homophobia, transphobia and antisemitism skyrocketed in the wake of October 7, Klein witnessed personal and professional communities shattered, scattered and isolated. In response to this, Klein took a group of 15 LGBTQ+ American leaders to Israel to witness the aftermath of October 7 and volunteer alongside LGBTQ+ Israelis. She continued to work toward a day when all LGBTQ+ Zionists are safe wherever they are and able to be their full, authentic selves.
Aviva Klompas
Aviva Klompas is a writer, speaker, and the CEO and co-founder of the ‘think-action tank’ Boundless. Boundless works to address key challenges in education about Israel and how to combat antisemitism.
Additionally, Klompas served as the director of speechwriting for Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, an experience she wrote about in her debut memoir, Speaking for Israel: A Speechwriter Battles Anti-Israel Opinions at the United Nation, and was a senior policy advisor in the Ontario Cabinet Office.
Debra Messing
Debra Messing is an Emmy Award-winning actress, producer and activist.
The Will & Grace actress has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Women In Film’s Lucy Award, The Gracie Allen Award and American Comedy Award, among 50 more nominations.
In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack, Messing used her platform to be an informed voice advocating for Israel, the end of hate and misinformation and the release of the hostages.
Messing spoke at the March for Israel in DC as well as UJA’s United for Israel rally in New York City. Messing traveled to Israel in December 2023 to bear witness to the massacre and meet with hostage families and survivors.
Additionally, she has been executive producing the documentary Primal Fear about the explosion of antisemitism since October 7.
Luisa Narins
Luisa Narina is a pro-Israel advocate who has been a highly involved member of Hadassah.
Tova Ricardo
Tova Ricardo is an award-winning writer, poet, social media content creator and Jewish community advocate.
Ricardo focuses her platform on the themes of Israel advocacy, Jewish empowerment and what it means to be black and Jewish. She is also a founding facilitator of the Zahav Fellowship for Black Jewish Zionists of Zioness, a coalition of Jewish activists and allies who are “unabashedly progressive and unapologetically Zionist.”
Michelle Rojas-Tal
Michelle Rojas-tal is the director of strategic partnerships at Sixpoint Media and is a senior shlicha (emissary) to Hillel International, director of the Israel Fellows program of The Jewish Agency for Israel and director of diaspora education for the Israeli advocacy organization StandWithUs.
In 2022, Rojas-Tal brought those communication skills to Hadassah, where she spent a year as Zionist Scholar-in-Residence.
The Tel Aviv Institute named Rojas-Tal to its 2021-2022 "Jewish 100" list of influential activists, educators and leaders who are fighting hate. In 2013, The Jerusalem Post included her in its lists of the “50 Most Influential Jews” in the world and (one of only six) "Women to Watch" in the Jewish world.
Ashira Solomon
Ashira Solomon is the host of the talk show The Quad. Solomon, who is based in Jerusalem, “give[s] a voice to everything Israel and Jewish from the unique female perspective” along with fellow hosts Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan, journalist Emily Schrader and former Canadian Ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici.
Solomon has repeatedly advocated for a secure future for Israel, women's health and greater political participation and against antisemitism in the African-American community.
A recipient of the prestigious David L. Boren Fellowship, Solomon spent a year at Israel’s Institute for National Security Services working on projects about US-Israel relations. She is one of eight women nationwide awarded the Congressional Running Start Star Fellowship Award.
Sam Von Ende
Sam Von Ende is a member of the steering committee of IPF ATID, a community within the Israel Policy Forum created to engage the next generation of leaders.
Vom Ende has worked in judicial chambers at the county and federal level and spoken before four state supreme courts. She has published on comparative constitutional law and advises organizations on how to shape policy and advance inter-community relations.
Gila Zarbiv
Gila Zarbiv, who made aliyah in 2007, is a certified midwife with a large social media following.
In addition to being a clinician at the Hadassah Medical Organization, Hadassah’s Jerusalem medical center, Zarbiv is an educator and researcher who lectures internationally on the complexities of life, birth and medicine in Israel, and is widely published on maternal and neonatal health.
Adding to her vast career in healthcare, she is also a policymaker who represents Israel in the International Confederation of Midwives, sits on the executive board and chairs the International Relations Committee of the Israel Midwives Association and is a fellow at the Israel Implementation Science and Policy Engagement Centre (IS-PEC).