Overview

Our Story

In 2006, the “Me Too” movement was founded by a survivor and activist, Tarana Burke. In 2017, #MeToo went viral, and a global movement around sexual violence emerged. It was in the context of Jewish women coming forward privately and publicly, sharing their stories of gender-based abuse, harassment, and discrimination by colleagues and leaders in Jewish workplaces and communal spaces, that SRE Network (then SafetyRespectEquity Coalition) was launched in 2018. With support from Jewish foundations across the United States, our early investments focused on documenting their testimonies, developing robust organizational policies for Jewish institutions, supporting respectful workplace training, improving hiring and advancement practices, and furthering gender equity in the rabbinate. Since that time, SRE Network has invested over $3.75M in efforts to advance gender equity in Jewish spaces, published groundbreaking research, and our Standards for Safe, Respectful, Equitable Workplaces, adopted by over 150 member organizations, provides a roadmap toward making lasting change.

Key Assumptions that Inform Our Approach

Gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination are age-old, widespread societal phenomena, persisting in all institutions, communal spaces, and communities. Our Jewish communal sector overwhelmingly employs woman-identified staff and volunteers. However, the roles with the greatest power and influence in the sector, such as the CEO role and board of directors, are primarily held by men, particularly in the cases of the largest and best-resourced organizations. This reality reinforces existing gender inequity in the Jewish community.

Gender issues do not exist in a vacuum but are instead inextricably linked with other forms of violence, bias, and inequity in the workplace.

Organizations are capable of creating and sustaining safe, respectful, and equitable workplaces for all, and addressing gender-based harassment and discrimination, provided they are committed and have the skills, tools, and resources to make meaningful change.

On Gender

We actively support individuals of all gender identities and expressions to ensure we have safe, respectful, equitable workplaces and communal spaces. And we seek to effectively engage cisgender, trans, non-binary, and queer individuals through our workplaces and communal entities to further gender justice work. We know that words matter, and we want to continue to evolve with you. If you have feedback on the language we use around gender or other issues, we want to hear it. Please get in touch to continue the conversation.