NA’AMAT’s founding goes back to 1925, when Sophie Udin established the Pioneer Women’s Organization of America to give moral and material support to Moezet Hapoalot (Women Workers Council), which had been created in what was then Palestine in 1921 to support female workers. Pioneer Women was the American arm of Moezet Hapoalot, championing women’s equality in Israel, America, and around the world. There were chapters in Long Beach and Los Angeles, but it wasn’t until the early 1970s, after the western states region of Pioneer Women held a conference in Anaheim, that we first see a local chapter, officially titled the Frieda Chapter of Pioneer Women, Orange County; another group specifically for younger women was created in Irvine in 1982. A year earlier, when Moezet Hapoalot had changed its name to NA’AMAT (an acronym for Nashim Ovdot u’Mitnadvot, which means “Working and Volunteering Women”), Pioneer Women also changed its name, to NA’AMAT USA, to reflect the two organizations’ ongoing close ties and shared mission. Fast forward to 2024, when former Irvine mayor Beth Krom founded the Bat Galim chapter in Orange County, which successfully raised $25,000 last year to address pressing needs at a day care center in Sderot, close to the Gaza border. In addition, former NA’AMAT executive director Susan Seely is from Orange County, as is National President Susan Miller. Today NA’AMAT is the largest women’s organization in Israel, improving the lives of millions of women, children, and families from the entire spectrum of Israeli society, and NA’AMAT USA continues to support this much needed endeavor.
Dalia Taft, Director of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit https://www.jccoc.org/Pages/Oc-Jewish-Historical-Society. You can also contact Dalia at Daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, Ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.