Women's Leadership Institute AZ

09/09/2026

What better way to spend the week before Rosh Hashanah than starting our year off with Cohort 11? We had an incredible Opening Retreat, full of learning, connection, fun, and of course there was mahj. WLI women found their perfect pairs, studying the qualities of women in leadership from our sacred texts, heard from a panel of past mentees (thank you Madison, Andrea, and Meghan!), dreamed of how to make our Jewish community stronger, prayed together and shared our stories. It was a magical weekend and we can’t wait to see what these women will accomplish in our year together.

Mazel tov, welcome to the WLI family Cohort 11, and may everyone have a new year as sweet as our time together!

09/01/2026

Time to get out the vote for WLI! We are proud to be nominated for Best Women's Programming in this year's Jewish News Readers Choice Contest. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to cast your vote for WLI by September 4th! You can go straight to the "Religious & Community Organizations" category to find us quickly.

Vote here today: https://readerschoice.phoenixcjp.org/

08/25/2026

The cohort year is off to a great start! Our 16 mentors for Cohort 11 gathered on Sunday for mentor training. We talked skills for mentoring, got to know one another more deeply, and prepared for an amazing start to the year together. Cohort 11 mentees, you are lucky to have these incredible women as your guides this year! They can’t wait to get started.

Special thank you to Andrea Malley Kravets for hosting and to our past mentee panel, Sydney Light (Cohort 10), Alana Everett Raizer (Cohort 10), and Jamie Kornbluth (Cohort 5) for a stellar panel teaching our mentors about the mentee experience.

08/21/2026

Last night we had our first Women’s Torah Study session of the year with over twenty women learning together! This group began as a project led by Cohort 9 Mentee Alissa Hollander and is going strong into its second year. We talked about what Torah means to us and how we engage with difficult texts. Thank you to our friends at Temple Chai for hosting us in their beautiful new building!

08/14/2026

We officially kicked off our Leadership Cohort year with a mixer for this year’s Cohort 11 and last year’s Cohort 10. Mentors and mentees got to know one another and made new connections that will span this year and beyond. A special thank you to Cohort 10 alum Sivan Levine for hosting in her home! Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom filled with the warmth and joy of this room of women.

08/12/2026

Cohort 10 mentees Karri Bernstein, Lisa DeLuca, and Brooke Khaz planned another great event with our partners at Hadassah Evolve this week! A self defense class for women whose attendees included alum Meghan Jalowiec and incoming Cohort 11 mentee Tally Iskovitz! We love seeing WLI mentees leading and continuing their projects beyond just the cohort year! Way to go Karri, Lisa, and Brooke!

08/07/2026

The end of this week's Torah Portion of Re'eh details the three Pilgrimage Festivals, the Holidays of Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot. The Torah tells us that each person would arrive before God in the place God would choose, bearing gifts.

In the early days of Israelite worship, this would be the Temple in Jerusalem, and the gifts were sacrifices. But today, in the 21st Century, with no temple or sacrificial system, what does it mean to be pilgrims? How do we show up in the places that are sacred to us with the gifts we have to offer? Here at WLI, we seek to help answer those questions, to empower the women of our community to show up in sacred ways with their own special gifts of leadership.

The women in our WLI alumnae community have enjoyed a summer of relaxation and travel. (check out some of these pictures of their many adventures!) But as schools come back in session here in Arizona and we turn towards a new Jewish Year next month, we invite you all in the pilgrimage back home. We're ready for another year of WLI women bringing their gifts to our Jewish community in Greater Phoenix. Shabbat Shalom to all!

08/05/2026

Thank you to the Jewish News for this beautiful article on our Cohort 10 Graduation and Celebration of Achievement in May! We love spreading the word about our work in the community.

https://www.jewishaz.com/community/wli-honors-cohort-10-looks-ahead-to-second-decade-of-leadership/article_689b55e7-9fb0-472a-a13c-1ddeb877d904.html

And if you've been inspired by all the back-to-school buzz this week and are wanting to learn Torah the WLI way, it's not too late to join our weeknight Women's Torah Study cohort. The first session is August 20! Click here to register and learn more: https://www.jotform.com/form/261725770744059

The Women’s Leadership Institute (WLI) celebrated a decade of cultivating female leadership in Greater Phoenix’s Jewish community during its 10th anniversary graduation ceremony on May 14, honoring Cohort 10 while

06/30/2026

So proud of Cohort 10 mentee Chelsey Saperstein (supported by her co-mentee Lauren Rubin and mentor Tobee Waxenberg) for launching a community for couples of mixed-heritage exploring Jewish life! Chelsey created an evening for connection to explore Shabbat and take home some goodies to celebrate together. Thank you to our partners at Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix and Togethering and to our amazing hosts at Temple Solel of Paradise Valley for making last week’s event happen!

06/09/2026

Blown away by these beautiful photos by lexy popa photography of last month's Graduation and Celebration of WLI's first decade. You can feel the warmth, love, and spirit of the room. Mazel tov again to the graduates of Cohort 10! We'll be carrying the joy of this night into the rest of the summer!