For a second year, Hadassah is honoring 18 women who have made Zionism an integral part of their personal and professional lives. The 2024 cohort represents the diversity and vibrancy of Israel’s supporters. They are Jewish and Christian, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, journalists, writers, entertainers, public policy experts and campus activists.

These leaders “exemplify what it means to be strong Zionist women in 2024,” said Hadassah Zionist educator Diana Diner, whose own advocacy has earned her a spot on this year’s list, along with Luisa Narins, co-coordinator of Hadassah’s engagement division. “It’s more important than ever today to show Zionism’s diversity and resilience, celebrate Jewish identity and honor the values we hold dear as well as lift up the voices of Zionist women,” four of whom are profiled here.

Destiny Albritton

Destiny Albritton did not meet many Jewish people in her hometown of Columbus, Mo., but she did learn about ancient Israelites from her mother’s bedtime Bible stories. Her favorite? The tale of Esther, a Jewish woman who saved her people.

“That story stayed with me,” the 31-year-old said. “I realized when I got to college and began learning about the Middle East and modern Israel that Esther’s people lived on and still need help.”

At the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she majored in international studies, Albritton became president of a chapter of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). It was in college, Albritton said, that she “realized that I had always been a Zionist but did not know it because I had not been acquainted with modern Israel.”

After spending a year in Israel, where she received a master’s degree in political science from Tel Aviv University, Albritton made it her goal to introduce new generations of college students to Israel. She has brought many groups of Christian and Jewish students to Israel through her work at the Israel on Campus Coalition and CUFI, and now serves as the senior director of Next Gen at CUFI.

After the October 7 terror attacks, Albritton has redoubled her efforts to advocate for Israel. “My entire mission at CUFI is to ensure that the next generation of Christian leaders support Israel,” she said.

Eve Barlow

In her social media bios, Eve Barlow describes herself as “Journalist, Zionist, Feminist, Scottish.”

The 37-year-old grew up in Glasgow, where her identity was shaped by keeping kosher at home and attending shul, but also by reading Rolling Stone magazine and listening to her father’s records.

After graduating from University College London with a law degree in 2008, Barlow decided to instead pursue her true passion, music journalism, and began writing for major publications.

In 2014, Barlow moved to Los Angeles to write about the American music scene. In May 2020, during the Black Lives Matter riots that erupted after George Floyd’s murder, Barlow took to Twitter to condemn the vandalism of synagogues in Los Angeles. Her defense of Jewish property and the community, she said, was met with scorn by many in the entertainment industry, and she lost work overnight.

“We were living in a moment of grand radicalization, and we were suppressed by groupthink,” Barlow said. “I am the type of person who does not do well with the feeling that I am being silenced.”

From that experience, Barlow has emerged as a strong advocate for Israel and is willing to call out antisemitism on social media and podcasts. She also contributes to media watchdog groups like Honest Reporting and her own blog, Blacklisted.

“I feel like I do change hearts and minds all the time,” Barlow said. “I have become emblematic of the Jew that fights back. There’s a heavy burden and a heavy responsibility to that. But I continue to do it because I think that people are listening.”

Adela Cojab

Adela Cojab grew up in Deal, N.J., in a tight-knit community her parents called “Little Jewish Syria.” She attended day school, where she sang “Hatikvah” every day.

But she wasn’t born in Deal. The 27-year-old was born in Mexico, where her parents had met. Her father hails from Syria and her mother from Lebanon. When she was 5 years old, her family no longer felt safe in Mexico and immigrated to the United States.

“I grew up in a Jewish community where everyone is Zionist,” Cojab said about Deal. As a freshman at New York University, she joined the student group Realize Israel and eventually became its president.

Cojab’s tenure coincided with the rise of anti-Zionism on campus in 2018. During a Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Washington Square Park coordinated by Realize Israel, a number of anti-Zionist students burned an Israeli flag and tore others to shreds.

Cojab said that she had repeatedly approached the NYU administration to take action because she did not feel safe on campus. In 2019, after her appeals went unheard, she filed a complaint against NYU with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights for failing to protect Jewish students. The suit led to a settlement that acknowledged antisemitism as a form of discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Today, Cojab attends Cardozo School of Law and works with Jewish students facing harassment on campus. “Every Jewish student will have to decide: Do I stand up or do I keep my head down and graduate? I tell them that you must stand up,” she said. “I’m a living example of that.”

Ashira Solomon

Growing up in Livermore, Calif., Ashira Solomon would listen to her grandmother’s stories about the Holy Land. Her grandmother, who was Christian, believed that their family descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. While attending California State University, Chico, Solomon participated in a three-month study abroad program in Israel. 

“As soon as I landed, I was like, wow, I am home,” the 32-year-old said.

After she completed the program at the University of Haifa, Solomon kept returning to Israel for a fellowship and graduate studies—until 2022, when she decided to make her home in Jerusalem. She also chose to undergo an Orthodox Jewish conversion.

Solomon is now a talk show host on the Jewish News Syndicate’s The Quad, where she discusses current events with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem; activist and journalist Emily Schrader; and Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, Vivian Bercovici.

Solomon uses her unique platform and personal history to advocate for Israel. “What’s effective about me is, yes, I’m Black, I’m Jewish, I’m a woman and I’m an American,” she said. “When I put my face and voice to something, people listen.”

She recently helped launch a Black leaders roundtable in collaboration with Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan. She also helped coordinate a delegation of Black Jewish Israelis to travel to New York to meet with African American politicians of Muslim and Christian backgrounds. Eventually, Solomon said, she wants to create similar dialogues at historically Black colleges and universities.

“We want to bring back the human connection piece,” she said.

Hadassah Honorees

Shai Albrecht | Virtual fitness trainer and Israel advocate

Destiny Albritton | Senior director of Next Gen, Christians United for Israel

Eve Barlow | Music journalist and social media advocate for Israel

Emily Briskman | Associate vice president of campus affairs, JUF of Metropolitan Chicago, and executive director, the Hillels of Illinois

Valeria Chazin | Co-founder and board chair, Students Supporting Israel

Adela Cojab | Cardozo law student and Israel activist

Diana Diner | Zionist educator, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America

Virag Gulyas | Hungarian-born Zionist, author and speaker

Jennifer Handel | Director of Israel Engagement, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta

Toby Klein | Program director, A Wider Bridge

Aviva Klompas | Writer, strategist and co-founder, Boundless Israel

Debra Messing | Emmy-award winning actress and Israel activist

Luisa Narins | Actor, fitness instructor  and co-coordinator, HWZOA engagement division

Tova Ricardo | Poet, writer and Black  Jewish advocate

Michelle Rojas-Tal | Director of strategic partnerships, Sixpoint Media

Ashira Solomon | JNS television host and political commentator

Samantha von Ende | Co-founder and executive director, AMICUS Institute for Governance

Gila Zarbiv | Hadassah Medical Organization nurse-midwife

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Alexandra Lapkin Schwankis a freelance writer for several Jewish publications. She lives with her family in the Boston area.