Women of Valor
Those who welcome in the Shabbat each week will recognize the recitation of the Eshet Chayil poem (Proverbs, Chapter 31) as that moment on Friday night when the woman of the house is praised for possessing a “value far beyond pearls.” The heroine in this famous acrostic will stop at nothing to secure her family’s needs – whether that’s buying a field to plant a vineyard or knitting enough bedspreads, so every kid is warm at night. As its author, King Solomon, tells us, she “girds her loins with might, strengthens her arms, and extends her hands to the destitute,” all with “kindness on her tongue.” And while “many daughters have attained valor,” this Eshet Chayil has “surpassed them all.”
I’m a Jewish man, so, of course, there have been many valorous women in my life (starting with my mother, Bracha bat Leib, ע״ה). They include my wife, mother-in-law, neighbors I grew up with, assorted teachers and colleagues, and the list goes on. But when it comes to women in the Diaspora who’ve sewn metaphoric bedspreads for Israelis who’ve suffered (and sacrificed) since October 7th, 2023, I’m proud to single out a few examples (in this first of two blogposts).
Sara Raoof Jacobs, Executive Director, Founder of the L.A.-based Maman Nonprofit, is an uncommon leader, who has, according to Maman Board President (and film and TV producer/director) Sepi Makabi, “brought together professional women and mothers from all walks of to life to help those who have fallen on hard times. Anyone from those in the U.S. to Jews abroad, Christians, Druze, and Muslims across the world.” Jacobs, who was born in Shiraz, Iran, and fled with her family to the U.S. when she was just 15 months old, says that “to be a Persian Jew is to know that Israel is our homeland.” One example: “Persian wedding gifts often will include gold coins,” she describes. “And when I got married, my mom told me to never sell them. If I needed to escape [to Israel] those [coins] would come with me!”
While connected by heart and soul, Jacobs says her relationship to Israel prior to October 7th was not front and center. But helping Jews in her adopted hometown was. While studying Psychology and Social Welfare at UCLA, she co-founded Persian Hillel, served on the board of the Iranian Jewish Women’s Organization, and even joined the Muslim Student’s Association. “People think the protests started [on campuses] after October 7th,” she adds, “but they were happening all the time in the early 2000’s. At UCLA, I wanted to create connections with the Muslim and Jewish community to facilitate discussion and understanding.”
In fact, the template for helping others was set a decade before college, when Jacobs’ mother became ill with a rare cancer. She watched in awe as her extended Persian family – aunts, uncles, friends – all took turns cooking, driving her mom to chemo appointments, and carpooling Jacobs and her siblings to school. Some 14 years later, when Jacobs was carpooling her own son, a woman in the group (who was also nursing a newborn) discovered she had breast cancer. “I thought of everyone who had helped my mom,” Jacobs remembers. “And I was like: ‘Who’s taking care of this person’s meals? Who’s doing her carpool route? Who’s taking her to chemo?’ I became the one to organize everything.” The opportunity to do good returned, when, some nine years later, the son of a former classmate needed a bone marrow transplant. Jacobs raised a small army of volunteers to help gather some 5,000 swabs – from Canada, Mexico, Israel, and all over the U.S. – to locate a matching donor. “There was no formal way to organize the contributions of these people,” Jacobs continues. “So [in 2022] at the urging of my siblings, I started a 501c3 nonprofit called Maman, which means ‘mother’ in Persian. It was a way to honor the legacy of my mother, Mahvash Ghiam Raoof, who spent her life caring for others.”
What began as a local charity scaled dramatically after October 7th. “That first week,” Jacobs remembers, “texts came pouring in from Israel about the need for life-saving supplies. My brother-in-law put me in touch with a friend in the government who sent a list of items. We then put together an Amazon wish list and blasted it out to our local community, many of whom were well-off Persians eager to help. Adina Finn [see part 2] and Maya Sinai offered their homes as warehouses. We had Amazon trucks arriving with donations, and the warehouses going every day except for Shabbat. Each donation had to be listed on a manifest, and then palletized – all spearheaded by Maya Sinai. Who knew you can’t just put boxes of aid on a plane?”
One week after the Hamas attack, a huge shipment left L.A. for Tel Aviv, becoming the first of many Maman sponsored. Since 2023, the organization has ferried millions of dollars’ worth of humanitarian aid into Israel, and more than two tons of urgently requested humanitarian supplies delivered directly to individuals. “We started getting videos back telling us how our donations saved lives,” Jacobs says quietly. “It was incredible to know we were making a difference.”
And this self-described “Jewish momma bear,” didn’t stop there. After hearing from Nechama Shaina Langer, a psychotherapist friend who had left her job to help displaced residents of Kibbutz Bei’eri (housed at Dead Sea-area hotels), Jacobs raised money to cover Langer’s monthly expenses. That action later led to providing therapy funds for more than 500 victims of the terror attacks, as well as emergency aid for more than 200 displaced families. “At our Maman gala [in November 2023, in L.A.],” Jacobs recounts, “we were introduced to some Nova survivors. It was clear they needed help, non-traditional therapy through art, dance, and music – anything to calm their nervous systems.” A month later Jacobs got a call from Karin Hepner, co-founder of Irvine, CA-based Orot Healing, asking if she would help fly out 120 Nova survivors for a healing retreat because the first Nova group had responded so well. The event, held in Ojai, CA, in February 2024, was a success, proving the value of immersive, community-based healing. To date, Maman has provided mental health care and support for hundreds of Nova survivors.
For Jacobs, each mitzvah has birthed another. In June of 2024, Maman provided life-saving equipment to those involved in the rescue mission of four hostages. Partnering again with Orot, they helped implement a therapy program for 16 Duvdevan couples, the IDF’s counterterrorism unit that has a notoriously high divorce rate due to its high-risk, covert work, followed by another healing initiative just for female combat soldiers. Jacobs says one of her proudest moments was connecting with Nova survivors Daniel and Neria Sharabi at the November 2023 gala. The brothers’ tale of heroism under fire – sheltering behind a tank while saving dozens of Nova partygoers – has been well-documented in Israeli and international media. “Donations from here in the U.S. helped provide fiscal support as they started their own nonprofit called For the Survivors and the Wounded,” Jacobs explains. “We helped them receive scholarships to university and sent one of the brothers to Thailand for a retreat. Last year, they opened a physical center in Israel to expand their mission of healing.”
Jacobs says the timing of October 7th and her having just built the framework of a 501c3 nonprofit was clear evidence of G-d’s hand. “Every donation on every plane found its way to the people who needed it most,” she marvels. “To me that can only be Hashgacha Pratit [Divine Providence]. There’s no other explanation.” The work has also made an indelible mark on Jacobs’ family. “My youngest [of three children] was by my side when we loaded that first supply plane, and to see the pride on his face…” she trails off. “My kids met the wounded soldiers who came to our house, they’ve seen the Nova survivors, seen their resilience – all of that has given them a deep and forever connection to Israel.”
As the war in Gaza (and other fronts) closes in on three years, how does Jacobs see her efforts evolving? “We partnered with Momentum to lead our first-ever trip to Israel with a group of Jewish women from Los Angeles, all focused on leadership, connection, and service,” she says proudly. “And I recently went to the second wedding of a couple who met through Maman!” Jacobs says watching her two daughters co-found (with Camryn Banafsheha and Brooke Shamsa) an offshoot nonprofit – Maman Teens – makes her feel like the future of valorous women is in good hands. “The teens raise their own money and decide where it goes,” she details. “They’ve already made donations to one of the displaced kibbutzim and other victims of the war.”
I asked Jacobs if there is something special about an aid organization made up almost entirely of Jewish women, many of them exiles from their Persian homeland? She pauses a moment and then smiles, “It’s like seeing the awesome power of a mother bear. When she needs something for her cubs, nothing gets in her way. That’s Maman. And, if you think about it – that’s the entire nation of Israel.”
