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Ofra Strauss

About Jasmine: Jasmine is an Israeli not-for-profit organization, run by women – for women with the goal of promoting women’s economic development across Israel. Jasmine today is Israel’s leading organization in promoting the economic development of all Israeli women, regardless of creed, class, socio-economic status, race, or ethnicity. Jasmine fosters the growth and professional development of Israel’s women business owners and leaders; helps women begin their own initiatives; and helps impoverished women enter the Israeli workforce.

Nomination in Brief

Ofra Strauss spearheads Jasmine, an organization promoting social and economic change for businesses owned by women from all sectors, religions, and empowering especially Jewish and Arab women with small to medium business in Israel. Jasmine believes that if you improve the financial status of a community, tensions across different parts of society will decrease.

Read Ofra Strauss 2018 Nomination form (Word Doc)

Bio

Offra Yasmin Strauss was born in Nahariya, Israel. Her parents were the founders of the Strauss Group. Throughout the years, Offra played a number of different roles in the Strauss Group and in 2001, she was formally appointed as chairperson of the organization. Offra is also the President of the Israeli non-profit Jasmine, which promotes coexistence and gender equality among women. In partnership with the Israeli Women’s Network, she launched Israeli Catalyst census of women, taking after the Global Catalyst organization. In 2009, the Financial Times listed her as 12th out of 50 leading women in the business world. She is the mother of four children. Strauss Group is an international corporation with a portfolio of four companies, which provide a response to two leading world trends – Health & Wellness, and Fun & Indulgence. Strauss manages and develops its business in order to offer a wide range of quality Food & Beverage brands to the entire populations, which are marketed through various commercial channels. The Group has 14,000 employees worldwide, is active in more than 20 countries.The Group’s turnover is estimated at NIS 7.9 billion in 2016, of which its international operations account for 49%. Strauss has collaborations with Danone, PepsiCo, Haier and Virgin.. Strauss Group is traded on the Tel Aviv 25 Index, which includes Israel’s largest public companies, and has an AA+ credit rating.

More Detail

Strauss spearheads Jasmine, an organization dedicated to promoting social and economic change for businesses owned by women from all sectors, religions, and socioeconomic strata in Israel. Jasmine seeks to elevate the status of women and foster coexistence by empowering Jewish and Arab women with small to medium business in Israel. Jasmine believes that this is the key to strengthening Israeli society as a whole. If you improve the financial status of a community, tensions across different parts of society will decrease. Jasmine provides these women with power, confidence, and knowledge by offering job training, mentorship, annual conferences amongst many other things.

Jasmine was founded by Ms. Ofra Strauss and Ms. Kiram Baloum in 2006, as part of the Center for Jewish- Arab Economic Development, to fill the critical gap of nurturing women-owned enterprises (SME’s) in Israel. At the end of 2012, Jasmine has split off as an independent NPO, managed by women, for women, and it is dedicated to promoting businesses owned by Jewish and Arab women.

The Annual Business Conference hosted by Jasmine is typically attended by over 450 entrepreneurs, and representatives of both governmental and non-governmental groups. The purpose of this conference is to have women from all acts of life, including Druze, Arab and Jews to share their experiences. IZUN is a program put together by Jasmine that exists to promote Jewish and Arab women leadership in the economy. IZUN will create the first generation of women’s economic leadership in Israel.

Nominated by:

  • Robert Nicholson
  • Founder & Executive Director
  • The Philos Project