Sharsheret

Sharsheret is a moshav in Israel's northwestern Negev, in the Gerar region and not far from the Gaza Strip border.[1][2] A settlement table lists it within the Azzatah Regional Council and records its affiliation with Ha-Po'el ha-Mizrachi, the religious labor movement; the entry on neighboring Tekumah also notes that affiliation.[3][2]

The sources present two dates relevant to the community's establishment. The settlement table gives 1951 as its founding year, while the Tekumah entry states that Sharsheret took over Tekumah's former site after Tekumah relocated in 1949.[3][2] The sources do not explain the timing difference. The Tekumah entry describes Sharsheret as a community of newcomers from Tunisia and translates its name as "Chain."[3]

Sharsheret's recorded population was 545 in 1970 and had declined to 248 by the mid-1990s.[3] Later figures show a partial recovery: the Tekumah entry records 283 residents at the end of 2002, matching the settlement table's count of 283 as of December 31, 2004.[3][2]

The agricultural economy of Sharsheret has been based on honey production, vegetables, flowers, and citrus cultivation.[3]

A chronology published in the Congressional Record on February 8, 1956, records an attack on Sharsheret on March 15, 1955.[1] It states that Egyptian marauders blew up a house in the settlement and were repulsed by the settlement's watchman and his sister. The watchman was wounded.[1] The account identifies Sharsheret as a settlement not far from the Gaza Strip border.[1]

Sharsheret is a national Jewish community response to breast and ovarian cancer, connecting women facing cancer with information, peer support, health professionals, and other resources.[4] It was founded in 2001 by Rochelle Shoretz, who discovered that she had breast cancer at age 28, and is based in Teaneck, New Jersey.[4][5]

The organization's name — "chain" in Hebrew — evokes its model of connecting women through shared experiences of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.[6] Its focus has historically been on young Jewish women, addressing medical concerns as well as questions involving religious practice, fertility, childrearing, dating, intimacy, and treatment decisions.[5] Non-Jewish callers seeking support were not turned away.[5]

Sharsheret's flagship service is its Link Program, a confidential peer-support network connecting women newly diagnosed with breast cancer — or identified as being at high risk — with others who have similar diagnoses and experiences.[5] One participant described the comfort of this connection: "Even though my Link and I are in different parts of the country, I imagined her hand placed softly on my back as I entered the hospital for my surgery."[5]

Beyond peer matching, the organization offers support for women with advanced breast cancer and for single women navigating diagnosis, hereditary-cancer information, resources for parents and children, treatment-related cosmetic support, and assistance for caregivers and family members.[5] Its education and outreach work has included training for locally organized support groups around the United States.[5]

A historical Slingshot National profile reported that since its 2001 founding, Sharsheret had responded to more than 40,000 breast- and ovarian-cancer inquiries, engaged more than 3,000 peer supporters, developed 12 national support and education programs, and delivered more than 250 educational programs nationwide.[4] Through Sharsheret on Campus, about 30,000 students participated in more than 850 student-led cancer-awareness programs.[4] These are historical figures from that report, not current totals.

Sharsheret launched its Israel pilot in May 2024 after years of planning and after English-speaking women in Israel had contacted the U.S. organization seeking information and support.[6]

The launch had originally been planned for October 2023 but was put on hold after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, and the outbreak of war.[6][7] When the pilot launched in May 2024, CEO Elana Silber described its purpose as addressing the physical and mental-health needs of women facing what she called "the dual trauma of war and breast cancer or ovarian cancer."[6] The initial investment was reported as $200,000, intended to train local health counselors, build a peer-to-peer network, form support groups, provide personalized care kits for women undergoing surgery or cancer treatment, and fund public education about cancer screening.[7]

The pilot initially focused on English-speaking, or "Anglo," women in Israel, with plans to add programs for Hebrew speakers and women who use other languages.[6] Services provided in partnership with the Israeli NGO Haverut include free, confidential virtual psychosocial support, navigation through the Israeli medical system, peer connections, facilitated support groups, community education, and surgery care kits.[8][9]

Support is available by phone, text, email, and WhatsApp, with one-on-one meetings and community events held when possible.[6] Sharsheret Israel's first community education event, focused on caregivers, took place in Ra'anana in May 2024.[6]

By August 2026, Sharsheret was operating in-person support groups in Israel where participants discussed treatment, screening, preventive measures, diet, and survivorship challenges. A fundraising tennis tournament was scheduled for October 9, 2026, at the Ra'anana Sportek Tennis Center to support the organization's breast-cancer, ovarian-cancer, and genetics programs.[10]

At the program's launch in 2024, Liora Tannenbaum and Dr. Pnina Mor served as Sharsheret Israel's co-directors.[6] As of September 2026, Sharsheret listed Tannenbaum as Israel Regional Director and Dina Selter, MSW, as Israel Support Program Coordinator.[8] Mor, an expert nurse-midwife with a doctorate in nursing genetics, had established a multidisciplinary "one-stop" clinic in Jerusalem for BRCA mutation carriers in 2007.[7]

Tannenbaum's experience as a BRCA1 mutation carrier informed her commitment to the initiative.[8][7] She has described how disclosing her own risk-reducing double mastectomy led a haredi Orthodox colleague, who had told no one in her community about her breast-cancer treatment, to confide in her and seek support.[7]

At its launch, the Israel program included a board of directors and a medical advisory committee.[6] Sharon Galper Grossman, a radiation oncologist on the medical advisory board, described the approach as implementing support systems developed in the United States while tailoring them to the Israeli healthcare system.[6] Silber likewise emphasized that an on-the-ground Israeli presence was needed to provide the personalized support and local resources available through the U.S. organization.[6]