Hadassah has released its list of “18 American Zionist women you should know” for three years to “spread the word that today’s Zionists aren’t who you think of when you hear the word,” the nonprofit told JNS.
“Zionism today is expressed in myriad powerful and personal ways by women of all different backgrounds and walks of life,” Carol Ann Schwartz, Hadassah’s national president, told JNS.
“Hadassah’s list captures that breadth of experience and celebrates women who are not only advocating for Israel but also reshaping the conversation about what it means to be a Zionist,” she added.
Hadassah shared the list with JNS prior to its publication.
“It’s pretty incredible,” the actress and advocate Patricia Heaton told JNS, about appearing on the list.
“It’s weird that you have to have a list of people that believe that Israel has a right to exist and that it’s a finite number,” she told JNS. “To me, on many different levels, politically, spiritually and from a common sense standpoint, Israel exists and has every right to exist and benefits the world.”
“It’s not controversial,” she said.
Anila Ali, a Pakistani-American and co-founder, board chair and president of the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council, is also on the list. She told JNS that she is a proud Zionist and was “glad” to be the first Muslim woman to sit down with Israeli President Isaac Herzog during his trip to the United States.
After Oct. 7, Ali knew it was her “call of duty to stand with Israeli women and stand up to the atrocities that Hamas committed in the name of my religion,” she told JNS. She added that she found solace in the Jewish community after Sept. 11, when she experienced hatred from students, colleagues and community members as a public school teacher in California.
Her Jewish mentor helped her develop a curriculum to combat hatred. “I learned how to fight hate from the Jewish people,” she told JNS. “How could I not help the Jewish community?”
The other members of the list are the educators Stephanie Bonder, Deborah Villanueva, Michal Ilai and Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, as well as lawyer Galia Amram, social-media influencer Emily Austin, Hadassah executive Suzanne Patt Benvenisti, entrepreneur Caroline D’Amore, social-media educator Hilary Hawn and writer Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, who co-hosts a JNS podcast.
Also listed are women’s health advocate Allison Korman, Georgia state representative Esther Panitch, nonprofit professionals Yocheved Ruttenberg and Elena Yacov, the Ethiopian-born U.S. politician Mazi Pilip and Bellamy Bellucci, a black, transgender Jewish social-media advocate.
A dancer and model, Bellucci told JNS that “the diversity of the women on Hadassah’s list, and the inclusivity the list reflects, shows that today’s Zionism has many faces, each carrying her own presence, her own light.”
