Supporting Federation is Always in Fashion.
For 22 years, OPTIONS – The Women’s Event, has celebrated the power of San Diego’s Jewish women by engaging them and raising funds to advance the Jewish Federation of San Diego County’s vision of a vibrant, caring, connected and enduring Jewish community. Women are naturally the leaders, nurturers and trailblazers who hold our community together. By bringing them together for the OPTIONS event, a collective power, which empowers Federation to touch more lives than any other Jewish organization in the world, is unleashed.
OPTIONS will take place on Sunday, November 1, starting at 11:30 AM at the beautiful Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego. The event will feature three trailblazing Jewish women – Melissa Rivers, actress/television host and E’s “Fashion Police” executive producer, Janet Gurwitch, Founder and Former CEO of Laura Mercier Cosmetics, and Tracy Borkum, Principal of Urban Kitchen Group. This remarkable panel of women will engage in a moderated “fireside chat” about life, career and Jewish identity.
“Women’s Philanthropy brings together a diverse group of women who share a personal commitment to supporting our Jewish community, here in San Diego, in Israel and around the world. These are not docile do-gooders – their voices guide the fundraising efforts of Federation and our granting strategies. When they come together, it amplifies the intent of their philanthropy and we see exponential impact,” Lisa Kalal, Director of Women’s Philanthropy and Shalom San Diego shared with Giving Back Magazine.
The program is also an opportunity for attendees to learn how Federation, through its mission, is changing lives in San Diego and around the world. Whether it is providing much-needed food and medicine for displaced people in Ukraine’s civil war, to sending children to Jewish summer camps, to providing free Jewish education to more than 3,500 children in our community alone, these empowered women help Federation create a vibrant, caring, connected and enduring Jewish community. The event also cultivates a feeling of empowerment and an ongoing commitment from one generation to the next by bringing together multiple generations of strong Jewish women.
Four extraordinary volunteers will be co-chairing this year’s event. Two of the Co-Chairs are leaders from Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy Board – Karen Kogut, Chair, and Laura Vainer, Board Member; two are leaders from Federation’s young adult NextGen Board – Simone Abelsohn, Chair, and Stacy Soefer, Board Member and Member of Federation’s National Young Leadership Cabinet.
“OPTIONS is important to me because I love seeing and feeling the power of 1,000 Jewish multi-generational women in one room. This event inspires and encourages us to recognize how we are all trailblazers in our own lives and how we can each make a difference in this world,” shared Karen Kogut.
Laura Vainer added, “OPTIONS is Federation’s strongest community building event of the year. It is our best tool for educating our donors about what we do and how we help make this world a better place!”
Tickets for OPTIONS are set at $36 to make the event accessible for all. Please join us by contacting Jewish Federation at (858) 571-3444 or buy your tickets online at www.jewishinsandiego.org/options.
