Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War
Friday, September 6th. 1:00 p.m. ET
Register Here
Event Overview:
A conversation with Ayelet Razin Bet Or, co-founder of The Dinah Project, and Meredith Jacobs, JWI CEO and co-founder of I Believe Israeli Women, about the international fight to end conflict-related sexual violence
Speaker Bios:
Ayelet Razin Bet Or, co-founder of The Dinah Project, is one of the leading experts advocating for victims of gender-based violence and working to hold the perpetrators of Oct. 7 accountable for the sexual violence they committed.
Ayelet has 20 years of experience at the intersection of law and society. She was most recently Director of The Authority for Advancement of the Status of Women in the ministry of Social Equality. She holds a graduate degree in Law and Criminology from the Hebrew University and specialized in criminal law at the State Attorney's Office. This led to a long-term specialization in the field of combating gender-based violence and the advocation for women's rights.
Upon finishing her work at the State Attorney’s office, she was appointed as the head of government relations and legal advisor to the Association of the Rape Crisis Centers of Israel. She led various public struggles on issues such as the long-standing struggle for the approval of electronic surveillance against perpetrators, legislation to extend the statute of limitations for sexual offences against children, free legal aid to survivors and more. She worked to establish public committees and initiated public reports on law enforcement and the rights of crime victims.
During her pervious roles, she represented Israel on gender equality-related issues at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Universal Periodic Review of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and at several conferences of the OECD.
Meredith Jacobs is CEO of Jewish Women International (JWI), a 125-year-old nonprofit dedicated to ending violence against women and girls. Since assuming the role of CEO in 2020, Jacobs has shepherded the development of numerous JWI initiatives, including the National Center on Domestic & Sexual Violence in the Jewish Community; the Collaborative of Jewish Domestic Violence Agencies; the Women’s Financial Empowerment Institute; ReStart: job readiness for survivors; the Jewish Communal Women’s Leadership Project; Men As Allies: Leading Equitable Workplaces; the Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable and the international expansion of Young Women’s Leadership Network. Under her leadership, JWI is spearheading state-wide advocacy efforts to achieve justice lending practices that would give survivors of financial abuse access to bank loans that would set them on the path to long-term economic security.
Learn more about I Believe Israeli Women here.