Congratulations to the 2024 award winners!
Hebrew Free Loan partnered with National Council of Jewish Women San Francisco Section (NCJW SF) to award four scholarships to Jewish women students who are studying or working in the area of social justice and who intend to pursue social justice after graduation.
Miriam Rivkin is a medical student at St. Louis University School of Medicine. Miriam’s volunteer activity includes The Women’s Safe House in St. Louis, St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, Crisis Counselor for Crisis Text Line (mental health support and intervention), food bank, free health resource clinic, and tutoring students at St. Louis juvenile detention center. Her field of medicine is Ob/Gyn with a focus on serving low-income communities to promote health equity, empower women, and remove barriers to healthcare.
Moriah Chedekel is currently working towards her Master’s in Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta. Moriah has volunteered at Booker T. Washington Service Center in SF, the SF Free Clinic, Brain Boost Academy (learning coach for teens with learning disabilities, trauma, and behavioral disorders), and as a research assistant at Cal Poly Healthy Kids Lab. She was a health services specialist at Planned Parenthood in Oakland and is passionate about reproductive health, abortion services, gender equity, and LGBTQIA+ issues. Moriah’s goal in healthcare is to empower systematically marginalized individuals seeking reproductive and preventive care. She plans to volunteer at the Harriet Tubman Clinic in Atlanta and, after her studies, return to Oakland and become a registered nurse trainer.
Lauren Parker attended Cornell University and received her B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management. Lauren is currently pursing a masters in public policy at University of Michigan. Her focus is on reproductive health and justice — “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” For the past seven years, Lauren has worked in administration with the Complex Family Planning Fellowship to support 500 graduates in Ob-Gyn. She has worked with the Bay Area Childcare Collective (BACC) in Oakland and SF, Camp Tawonga, The Bay Area Mutual Aid Project, Rape Trauma Services as a sexual assault counselor in San Mateo, and Cornell Women’s Resource Center and the Ithaca Advocacy Center. Lauren intends to return to the Bay Area and continue involvement in BACC.
Maya Eylon is currently attending Central Michigan University College of Medicine. Maya’s goal as a physician is to address health disparities and serve marginalized populations through primary care. Her undergraduate degree is from Whittier College where she founded an organization to reduce food insecurity for people experiencing houselessness and hand delivered meals to those in need. In medical school, Maya continued this work through Street Medicine, a traveling student organization providing basic primary care to the housing insecure. Prior volunteer work includes Bay Area Friendship Circle, Special Olympics, Disabilities in Medicine (Michigan), supporting sexual assault victims, Mecosta Osceola Substance Awareness Coalition, founder and president of Jews in Medicine at Central Michigan University, Whittier College Health Education, founder of Jewish Student Union at Whittier, and Whittier Chapter of the Red Cross.
Hebrew Free Loan provides interest-free loans to Jewish individuals in Northern California to help them achieve self-sufficiency. Our loans support individuals who are overcoming financial challenges or pursuing lifelong dreams.
Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW SF strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children, and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms.
The Tanette Goldberg Scholarship for Social Justice was established in memory of Tanette Goldberg (1926-2013), past president of NCJW SF from 1990 to 1993. Tanette was recognized for her work in 2007 when she received the NCJW Hannah G. Solomon Award. Tanette was a tireless and committed community volunteer. She worked to solve issues in the public schools where her children attended and in the community. She fervently believed in justice, equality, and effecting positive change, whether in the Jewish community or her neighborhood.
