The second Webinar in ICJW’s Bridging the Gap series included the voices of four women leaders from ICJW- affiliated Jewish women’s organizations in Greece, Poland, South Africa and Sweden.
The online webinar took place on Wednesday April 21.

Click here to watch the video

Here are the bios of the four participants:

Karolina Schnaider from JKS in Sweden

Karolina is involved with the JKS (Jewish Women’s Society of Malmo), which she initiated and co-founded, she has been intimately involved in Malmo’s Jewish community for a while. She is studying digital technologies in education, and researching meaning-making through technology use from a social semiotic multi-modal perspective, all this as well as raising three lovely daughters. In her spare time – if she has any – she is an avid runner, a participant in extreme sports and a gardener of note.

Aleksandra Jach from the Czulent Jewish Association in Poland

Aleksandra is a social activist, an expert on social engagement and human rights. She is passionate about strengthening political and civil organisations; promoting the engagement of minority groups; promoting tolerance and creating an attitude of openness towards the national, ethnic and religious minorities, and focuses on preventing antisemitism and discrimination, including cross-discrimination. Since 2019 she has been a board member of the Jewish Association Czulent, an ombudsman organisation, where she has focused on projects promoting ideas of an inclusive society; and she has helped to develop the educational tools for fighting antisemitism.

Joanna Nahmia from ICJW-Greece

Joanna grew up in Athens as the daughter of an English mother and a Greek Holocaust survivor father of Spanish origin. She was always involved with the community’s youth; she was a founding member of one of Athens’ most successful riding clubs; and she became active in community affairs when her children, a son and a daughter, attended the Lauder Jewish Community School, the school which was established to ensure a Jewish future in Greece and help the children develop a strong, proud Jewish identity.  She joined the school’s committee in 2005, assisted the fund-raising committee, and currently serves her second term on the Board of the Jewish Community of Athens. 

Moderator: Lisa Schewitz from the Union of Jewish Women in South Africa

Lisa has a BCom (Hons) in Economics and a B PhysEd (Hons) in Sports Science. Having been involved in community projects since her school days, today she owns and runs a large commercial property business in East London. She served on the   Governing Body of her children’s primary school for 10 years; she has been the Communications Secretary of the UJW in East London for 15 years; she sits on the Synagogue Committee and works with the elderly in the community. She and her husband have 3 children, two of whom are studying abroad in the USA and Israel.  In her spare time she enjoys mountain bike riding, road cycling, running and golf; and she is an afficianado of the world of Disruptive Innovation and technology in general.