We Are Women Music Video – Remake of Helen Reddy's Anthem
By Liz Morris, NCJW Greater Houston Section
A few days ago, I found myself sitting next to a young woman who had recently graduated from college and was starting her career. This was a perfect opportunity, I thought, to share that my NCJW Houston Section had just created a music video and uploaded it to YouTube!
Our section assembled local talent and volunteers in Houston’s beautiful Discovery Green. We adapted the lyrics of Helen Reddy’s 1975 rhythm-and-blues feminist anthem, I Am Woman — updating it to reflect today’s struggle for access to comprehensive reproductive health care, and to highlight the impact women can have on this issue if we vote on November 6.
I was driven to suggest this project based on my own experience as a young woman, and the fear that current policies might literally bring me back to the time when I was in college. “You know,” I said, “three women in my college dorm were expelled from school before graduation because they got pregnant. The school infirmary didn’t provide birth control, as the pill was not yet available, and abortions were illegal — you know, before Roe v. Wade,” I added.
The security at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel was a maze of barricades and police – a navigational nightmare intended to protect the many heads of state, US political leaders, business executives and women’s civil society movement representatives all gathered for this event. Valerie Jarrett, special advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, spoke of the President’s challenge to the United Nations General Assembly one year ago – to break down barriers to political and economic empowerment that “stand in the way of women and girls.”
At the rally, an organizer handed me a sign that read, “Diversity equals success.” Many speakers told personal stories, quoted think tank studies, cited admissions statistics, and repeated the message of the sign I held. As a student I couldn’t help but wonder, is diversity really the key to my success?
NCJW works to promote the empowerment of women here in the US and in Israel. NCJW activists in Florida, with support from our Washington office, are mobilizing Jewish women across the state to educate their communities against frightening ballot initiatives that threaten religious liberty and women’s access to health care. And in Israel, an NCJW grant is helping Itach-Maaki — Women Lawyers for Social Justice, who in partnership with WIPS — Women in the Public Sphere, is working to support the campaign to implement the Israeli Amendment 4 of the Equality of Women’s Rights Law. This progressive piece of legislation was inspired by U.N. Resolution #1325 that mandates representation of women from diverse populations in all realms of conflict-resolution and general policy-making on a national level.
JUST VOTE NO! That was the message received by more than 150 of us who attended a training and education forum convened by the NCJW South Florida (SoFL) coalition on Sunday, September 9 in Deerfield Beach, FL. 
At a time when women’s ability to make their own reproductive choices are so threatened in this country, when not only women’s right to safe and legal abortions, but also access to birth control and reproductive technology are being called into question, Hannah’s story is surprisingly resonant. She faces two voices that are strikingly familiar to our contemporary ears: one man who, claiming he is acting from love, tells her he knows better than she what she needs; and another deriding her for the methods she has chosen.
For too long, costs associated with health care have kept women from the preventive services they need. The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) has been a staunch advocate for preventive care for all women. We know that expanding preventive services for women will have a positive ripple effect across generations and systems; when women are healthy and receive preventive care, their families, their employers and their communities benefit.
On July 4, I learned that Abington Health System planned to merge with Holy Redeemer Health System, which pledges to adhere to Catholic doctrine. As a part of the merger deal Abington had agreed that it would no longer do abortions. I was appalled. Until now, Abington had been vocal about its commitment to women’s reproductive rights.
If there is anyone who knows that courts matter, it’s Lilly Ledbetter! On July 10, she shared her personal journal through the United States judicial system with more than 400 people who gathered in Omaha, Nebraska, for an event sponsored by the Nebraska Coalition for Constitutional Values, a coalition started by the NCJW Omaha Section. 
Standing on the steps outside of the Supreme Court, on the morning of the ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA, the 2010 health reform law), I saw partisanship manifested in a very visible way. Two ideologically different camps began to form, with one side housing “the liberals” holding signs which read, “Moving Forward: Protecting Our Care,” and on the other were the opponents, including Tea Partyers waving their signature yellow, snake emboldened flag, demanding the ACA’s repeal. The tension between the two groups was impassioned, as each side tried asserting their respective position by speaking the loudest. This screaming match continued well into the afternoon, and the masses of people only continued to grow as individuals made it their priority to demonstrate either their support or disapproval of the law. At one point there were belly dancers in the crowd; Christian religious leaders lying on the ground with prayers books, exclaiming the unconstitutionality of the law; and a slew of members of Congress all braving Washington’s summer heat wave and unruly crowds to express their opinions. The adrenaline continued to build within me as I stood there with my NCJW sign, supporting health care reform, trying to soak it all in.