A Silver Spring woman is one of the 10 Jewish entrepreneurial female executives and leaders selected to participate in the philanthropic network Elluminate’s sixth cohort of its Collective. The Collective aims to promote, strengthen and advance Jewish women’s leadership in the nonprofit sector.
Daphne Lazar Price, the executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, works to expand women’s rights and opportunities under the framework of halakha (Jewish law) and build a vibrant and more equitable Orthodox Jewish community: “It is vital for women to be at the table wherever decisions are made,” she wrote in an email.
The 10 female Jewish leaders are nonprofit CEOs managing organizations working to solve some of society’s urgent issues. That includes combating antisemitism, protecting access to abortion, ensuring gender equality and ending child sex exploitation and trafficking.
The women participating in The Collective will take part in a “robust, two-year curriculum led by noted social activist Ruth Messinger, [receive] grant funding to their organizations” and receive membership to the Global Jewish Women’s Leadership Network, according to an Elluminate press release.
“By creating a Global Jewish Women’s Leadership Network, we can advance social change of equity and justice faster and help to gain support for women leaders. We need to see women at all levels of decision-making tables, and these women already have power and influence and are on the rise,” Elluminate CEO Melanie Roth Gorelick said in the release.
The selection process for cohort participants took seven months, as there were more than 100 applicants. Criteria included feminist leadership, connection to Jewish values and work in four areas: ending poverty; creating an equitable and inclusive Jewish community; promoting women’s equality and leadership; and advocating for gender justice, reproductive rights and women’s safety, according to the press release.
Lazar Price began as JOFA’s executive director in February 2019 after years of experience in the Jewish nonprofit sector. Through JOFA, she advocates for better practices in Jewish divorce, saying Jewish law can be “weaponized against women.”
“On a national and global scale, we have been raising awareness and speaking out against the erasure of sexual violence that was perpetrated against women and children on Oct. 7,” Lazar Price said. “And when it comes to accessing health care, we advocate for abortion rights and access at the state and federal levels.”
Feminist work is important to Lazar Price because she said it can get lonely as a Jewish Orthodox woman, especially with the recent global surge of antisemitism.
“Not only is our voice discounted by Jewish people on the right and on the left but, too often, we don’t even get a seat at the table,” Lazar Price said. “That’s why being in Elluminate’s Collective, in a cohort with so many incredible Jewish women leaders who are invested in supporting women and supporting the women who support women, is so timely and important.”
She said gaining a spot in The Collective was a highly competitive process, and she is honored to be included.
“The fact that there are 90 or so other women holding high-caliber roles who were in the mix tells me that we need more investment in their leadership as well,” Lazar Price said. “There is an old saying that goes ‘a rising tide lifts all boats.’ I am privileged to be surrounded by so many strong Jewish women leaders who have played positive roles in my personal and professional life and to be able to pay it forward.”
She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Lazar Price has served as development director at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, where she did program and strategic planning, management, alumni engagement and development.
Lazar Price helped foster connections between Muslim and Jewish communities as the former North American director of the Muslim Leadership Initiative at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She most recently served as vice president at West End Strategy Team.
She said she hopes that more women will step into leadership roles.
“We need more people to advocate with and for women,” Lazar Price said. “So I also want to add the blessing ‘ken yirbu:’ ‘let there be more.’ Let there be more women brave enough to lead. Let there be more women leaders brave enough to step into spaces that can be so deeply uncomfortable. Together we can build and ensure vibrant and equitable spaces for women everywhere.”
