Hon. Vice-President (Counselling) - Sheila Miller Expand Sheila Miller became Vice-President (Counselling) in 2018. She was honoured by JWA for her incredible contribution to the charity for over 20 years. She set up JWA's face-to-face counselling service, running the service for many years in a voluntary capacity, and she worked as a JWA counsellor herself for most of that time.
Hon. Vice-President - Mildred Levison Expand Mildred Levison is one of our Honorary Vice Presidents. Her professional background is in social housing, public administration and organisational development. Mildred chaired the JWA Board of Trustees for several years and led the strategic development and implentation of JWA's range of professional services for women in the community experiencing domestic violence.
Hon. Vice-President - Elaine Grazin Expand Elaine Grazin was one of the founder members of Jewish Women’s Aid in Leeds in the 1980s, and has been a volunteer since then, supporting the Helpline, as well as raising awareness. She has spoken about JWA at communal events including Limmud, at synagogues, IDEVAW panels and at Women’s Aid national conference. Elaine served as a JWA Trustee for a number of years. In her professional career, Elaine was Public Relations Manager for public sector and charitable organisations, and was a domestic violence trainer for West Yorkshire Probation Service. While living in Leeds, Elaine was a Trustee of the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board, appointed Honorary Vice President in 2004, and served on the Board of Management of Leeds Jewish Housing Association. Here she first became aware of the need for a specialist organisation to help women in the Jewish community experiencing domestic violence, and worked with the inspired Welfare Board and Housing Association CEO Sheila Saunders z”l to set up JWA. Elaine has been a Trustee of the Together Women charity working with women offenders, and was a member of the Leeds task group for Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ 1990s Review of Women in the Community.
Hon. President - Judith Usiskin MBE Expand Judith Usiskin MBE is JWA's Hon. President. She was one of the founders of JWA in the 1980s, and has been a driving force behind the development of the charity over the last 30 years. She is a professional social worker. It was while she was working as Training Officer for Jewish Care and other communal organisations that with colleagues there they began to recognise the issue and realised that there were many Jewish women who were experiencing domestic abuse and who had nowhere to go for help. Together with other friends - all of them working women - they managed to establish the organisation in London, to become a national charity together with the helpline established in Leeds. Judith's enormous contribution to JWA was nationally recognised in 2004 when she was awarded the MBE.
Chair - Caroline Ratner Expand Caroline Ratner has been volunteering at JWA for three years and joined the board of Trustees in January 2019 as Vice Chair, before becoming Co Chair in April 2021 and now Chair. Caroline runs a PR consultancy which she set up in 2007. She helps JWA raise awareness of domestic abuse and believes that getting the message out through all forms of press and social media is essential for reaching the different parts of the community. Caroline says, "Domestic abuse affects all women from the very young to the very old, whether religious or secular. It is very fortunate that we now have so many different ways of spreading the word about our work, and can educate and connect with a wide audience, and hopefully help the women that need us to learn about domestic abuse and get the support they need".
Treasurer - Jo Rosenthal Expand Jo was recruited in November 2017 for her role as Treasurer of JWA's Board of trustees. Jo is a chartered accountant by profession, having trained at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she worked in their audit & accounting technical departments. She specialised in entertainment, media & telecommunication clients and International Financial Reporting Standards. Since leaving practice she has been running a property investment company. She volunteered for another charity for several years undertaking financial control review projects and assisting with internal audit. For the last 10 years Jo has also been involved with Norwood Women's Lunch including being co-chair.
Debby Amias Expand Debby joined the board of Trustees in 2023. She grew up between London and Israel, and worked for 20 years in sales and marketing, before moving to Hong Kong for 16 years. In Hong Kong she was on the board of the Jewish Women’s Association of Hong Kong, organising events and raising money for charities in Israel, as well as working for and volunteering at various other Hong Kong charities. She was also Chair of the Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival.
Gabrielle Adlestone Expand Gabrielle joined the board of Trustees in 2020. She is a qualified modern languages teacher and mother of three girls from Hale, Manchester. Gabrielle currently volunteers for The Fed, Manchester’s leading social care charity, and for Rays of Sunshine, a wish-granting charity for sick children. She has previously volunteered for Jewish Women's Aid within our education programme before becoming a trustee of JWA.
Joanna Benarroch Expand Joanna joined the board of Trustees in 2020. She has been involved in the Jewish community for over twenty-five years, working with many communal organisations, synagogue bodies, community professionals and individuals and is a qualified accountant. Joanna joined the Chief Rabbi’s office in 1997 – working for Rabbi Sacks for 24 years. As Executive Director, Joanna had responsibility for running a very busy public office with multi-faceted roles, managing a wonderful team and supporting Rabbi Sacks in his day to day activities. When Rabbi Sacks stepped down as Chief Rabbi in 2013, Joanna transitioned to jointly run his private office. Since Rabbi Sacks’ passing in November 2020, Joanna has been working to establish the Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust to continue to perpetuate and promote Rabbi Sacks’ values and teachings. Her previous work at the Marriage Enhancement Programme has involved educating trainers about JWA and domestic abuse.
Catherine Becker Expand Catherine joined the board of Trustees in 2023. She works in media, marketing and technology and has worked both within companies in exec and non-exec roles, as well as running her own successful businesses. She is passionate about women's support and safety and has run complex projects across her role as Chair of the Women's ERG in previous roles and on the exec of WACL (Women in Advertising and Communication Leadership) by supporting women, inspiring the next generation and driving equality in the industry through campaigning and education. She has led the writing of playbooks for equality and flexible working. As a result, she was named Ad Age's top 50 leading women across Europe and US in 2021, recognising the forces that are leading the change in the industry. Catherine has sat on the leadership committee at Alyth and was already a volunteer for JWA.
Kate Daniels Expand Kate joined the board of Trustees in 2020. She is a commercially focused project director and advisor with more than 20 years’ experience of successfully delivering, financing and supporting commercial programmes and projects spanning the private and public sector. She has proven success in delivering large, complex major infrastructure programmes, innovative commercial and financial structures and procurements supporting economic and social infrastructure in the UK. Kate is currently leading the client team within the Department for Transport (DfT) for the redevelopment of Euston Station and the wider multi-billion pound Euston area regeneration. She was also the Chair of Governors 2012 – 2018 for Akiva Schol, and was a governor from 2006-2019. She therefore has some experience of safeguarding issues as well as her many high level skills acquired through her work.
Rachel Jaysan Expand Rachel joined the board of trustees in 2023. She is a specialist family solicitor with over 17 years of experience and is also an accredited mediator who sees children as part of the mediation process. Her practice includes complex financial and Children Act work, which frequently comprises elements of domestic abuse. Rachel frequently works within the Jewish community due to her expertise with regards the issue of the Get (Jewish divorce). Rachel has previously sat on the executive committee of the Jewish Marriage Council, where she set up their mediation service.
Laura Rosefield Expand Laura joined the board of Trustees in 2020. She runs her own divorce agency and is a qualified barrister with a lot of knowledge and experience of family law, coercive control and domestic abuse. Laura has been working in the field of family law for around 10 years, after she left the Criminal Bar to care for her son. She set up her own business as a divorce consultant following her own very difficult divorce and has developed a practice mainly assisting clients who are involved in high conflict family law proceedings, many involving domestic abuse. It has become a focus and passion for Laura to work with these clients and help them in any way that she can, be that practical, emotional, legal and with any issues concerning their children. She is particularly concerned about the part the family court and other authorities (Cafcass, independent social workers, guardians etc) can and do play in the perpetuation of that abuse.
Anna Turner Expand Anna joined the board of Trustees in January 2023. She currently works as Head of Research and Insight at Legacy Foresight – a consultancy that advises charities on Legacy and In-Memory fundraising, where she leads large consortium research programmes for most of the major charities in the UK. Prior to that, she worked for over 20 years in advertising, as a brand strategist and insight director, working on global brands such as Dove, Boots (WBA) and British Airways as well as charities and government campaigns (including the first campaign promoting child safety on the internet). She was a governor of North West London Jewish Day School for over 10 years, serving as the designated Special Educational Needs and Disabilities lead, as well as Vice Chair and head of the Curriculum committee amongst other portfolios. She is currently an Ort Jump mentor working with sixth form students to help them understand more about careers and the working world.
Aliza Weinstein Expand Aliza holds a Masters in Public Administration from New York University focusing on charity management and policy, and BAs in Jewish Studies and English Literature from Yeshiva University. Her professional background is in sales and marketing at finance and real estate firms. She has been active in various charities and charitable endeavours for many years. Aliza joined the board of trustees in 2019.