Members of Hadassah Florida Atlantic Advocacy Team: Lois Gordon, Marlene Cohen, Toby Usenheimer, Rep. Lois Frankel, Joanna Rothstein, Iris Rothstein, Joy Parks, Sheila Steinberg.
Members of the Hadassah Florida Atlantic advocacy team had the opportunity to share the organization’s views on a variety of legislative issues with Rep. Lois Frankel and Felicia Goldstein, the congresswoman’s district chief of staff at a recent Day in the District session.
The group thanked the congresswoman for her support of numerous women’s health policies and funding and legislation combating antisemitism.
Advocacy team members asked Rep. Frankel to support bills now before Congress that strengthen United States–Israel medical partnerships, fostering collaboration between the U.S. and Israel in health research and technology that would impact the world; U.S. national security aid, which is critical to rebuilding Israel’s depleted defense resources; preventing hate; and coordinating the federal study, assessment, response to, and reporting on antisemitic threats and acts. Frankel was asked to support the Nonprofit Security Grant Program so all nonprofits threatened by terrorism have the necessary security and information to operate safely. She added that she would “fight for as much funding as possible.”
Hadassah has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the UN as a non-governmental organization. Hadassah is concerned with the high-level of anti-Israel bias, especially cases in which high-level UN officials have condemned Hamas for October 7, 2023, atrocities and their subordinates contradict their reports and refuse to acknowledge Hamas’s crimes, especially related to using sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Frankel shared that the “entire Florida congressional delegation and the administration is very sensitive to antisemitism.” At a recent hearing at the UN, Rep. Frankel, ranking member of the House National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriation Subcommittee, stated that, “The United Nations remains one of the few forums where countries from every region come together to confront shared challenges. The United States is most effective when we lead — not when we retreat.” She told the group that “it is essential that the United States retain a seat at the table.”
On the domestic front, Frankel told the Advocacy team about The Promise Fund and its contribution to community projects — outreach to lower resource women with a focus on cervical and breast cancer prevention and the funding of mammography machines and a health center. The congresswoman continued by saying that “women’s health equity in medical research is crucial.”
Photo by Iris Sandberg
