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Reconnecting
Women join Jewish Women International for advocacy, issues and
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Staff Writer
he name has changed, but
the goals are the same.
Jewish Women
International, formerly
B'nai B'rith Women, has operated
independently since 1962, but official-
ly broke from B'nai B'rith
International about three years ago.
The final break had to do with finan-
cial independence, says Gail
Rubinson, executive director of the
Washington-based group. JWI decided
not to pay dues to continue member-
ship in BBI.
About 2,500 women in Detroit
affiliate with JWI, "a fairly good-sized
population," according to regional
director Robin Winner. Chicago, New
York and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., have the
largest JWI memberships.
still maintains solid ties with
B naiirrith offshoots Hillel, the Anti-
Defamation League and B'nai B'rith
Youth Organization, but relations with
- B'nai B'rith International are still
strained due to the breakup, Rubinson
says.
Elana Shelef, Detroit's paid project
coordinator, said, "We've changed our
name, but we're the same organization
that your mother or your grandmoth-
er belonged to."
For 14 years, one of the group's pri-
orities has been domestic violence.
"One of our members was killed
by her husband, and since then, our
organization has chosen to focus on
this area," said Rubinson. That
includes working with shelters and
publishing a rabbi's guide for handling
domestic violence.
The group also supports a residen-
tial treatment center in Israel.
"It's become a training center for
therapists around the world because
[it's] so successful at reintegrating seri-
ously disturbed children back into
society," Shelef said.
Some JWI Detroit chapters have a
specific focus, like the Mitzvah
Chapter, comprised mostly of young
mothers. At 90, Detroit's oldest JWI
member, Irene Rodman, belongs to the
mostly senior citizen Marshall Israel
Brandeis chapter, which was created
from the merger of three chapters.
7
At age 90, Irene Rodman is
the oldest Detroit-area
member of JWI.
"Our chapter has a membership of
over 500, [but] they have trouble get-
ting leadership," Rodman said. "The
only reason they have so many mem-
bers is because they have diversified
groups — mahjj club, book club,
sewing club, bowling. The older
women have trouble keeping their
chapters viable because younger
women will not join with us; they go
for younger chapters, with younger
women. We want to get them in,
that's the future, and the older chap-
ters are holding on for dear life."
Shelef admits that, like other
Jewish women's groups, JWI has an
"aging population." And, it must
compete with the National Council
of Jewish Women, Na'amat,
Hadassah and other Jewish women's
groups that are vying for member-
ship. In fact, she was hired part-time
to plan community-wide programs to
entice new members.
Still, membership in Detroit has
stayed steady, Shelef said. "In a way,
we have to recreate our identity in the
community because we changed our
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