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Philanthropist Barbara Dobkin is not bragging when she claims to donate more money to Jewish women's organizations than anyone in the world.

"I know it's true," said the 54-year-old New Yorker. "I'm aware of all the other funders out there and there's not that much being given."

For Dobkin, whose contributions total $1 million so far, charity isn't just about dropping a few checks in the mail in order to sleep with a guilt-free conscience. Trained as a social worker, she takes a hands-on, mover-and-shaker approach to causes and projects she is passionate about.

She will be the guest speaker at a Sunday, March 15 Choices '98 brunch at Scott's in Oakland. The annual Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay's women's event drew 400 people last year.

Dobkin, who is the wife of an investment banker, has played an integral role in the development of two young, but thriving organizations: Ma'yan, a Jewish women's center in New York City, and the Jewish Women's Archive, which she chairs, based in Brookline, Mass.

She met the archive's founder-director Gail Twersky Reimer in 1994 while both were on a panel at a Jewish Funders Network conference. At the time, Reimer had been developing the archive project at home, including writing grant proposals.

"Barbara makes things happen," Reimer said during a phone interview from Brookline. "Women are very moved by how out-front she is by putting her money behind her mouth. She sets a personal example and is willing to tell her story. That's what the archive is about."

Before meeting Dobkin, Reimer had been involved in women's and Jewish studies for some time. After editing a couple of books related to Jewish women, Reimer said she began to "get upset at how little things had changed for women in the Jewish community.

"There were no known role models for us and for the future generation of Jewish girls," she said. "Things weren't going to change unless there was a fuller appreciation of how much women have done over the course of the century, how much we can learn from them and how much they have to offer as we move into the future."

While a few women's archival organizations had preceded the Jewish Women's Archive, lack of financial support led most of them to falter, she said. By contrast, since JWA got off the ground in 1996, each of its grant proposals has received funding.

With the exception of breast cancer organizations, Dobkin said, "It's hard to raise money for women's things."

The newest resource of the JWA, the virtual archive (www.jwa.org) will be online March 1. This prototype developed by the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives at MIT is a multimedia database of sources on Jewish women housed in libraries, archives and historical societies across North America.

JWA is just one of many organizations hungry to document the past. It's practically a trend.

"Technology is making it more accessible," Reimer said. "Another issue is that we're starting to move toward the end of the century, and concern about the past and history surfaces. People realize we're entering another era and moving out of an era and we have to capture history."

While several institutions have expressed interest in housing the archive center, Reimer said, an opening, planned for the year 2000, is not a high priority.

Instead, JWA is most concerned with uncovering, chronicling and transmitting the historical record of Jewish women's lives. Just as important, according to Dobkin, "is to celebrate and reclaim these women."

As a way of recognizing exceptional Jewish women, for the second year in a row JWA has collaborated with Ma'yan, producing its "Women of Valor" educational poster campaign.

A set of posters highlighting three noteworthy Jewish women were recently distributed to 7,000 institutions in North America to coincide with National History Month. This year's posters, accompanied by resource materials and suggested programming ideas, profile actress Molly Picon, union activist Lillian Wald and Sunday-school movement leader Rebecca Gratz.

"If we can show that Jewish women are important, we can offer role models for our girls and boys," said Dobkin. "That [Jewish American Princess] stuff and other stereotypes about Jewish mothers and Jewish women just can't happen anymore. Women were at the front of every movement in this country. But it's hard to find stuff on it."

For a long time, historians didn't think of women as important players in history, said Reimer. "They weren't the decision makers. In the labor movements, women may have initiated strikes, but they didn't sit at the bargaining table."

For her part, Dobkin is determined to take a hands-on approach to funding women's projects — and she champions feminist and minority causes.

"I love controversy," she said. "Most charity is to maintain the status quo, to do it from a distance. We're all very quick to decide what people need instead of asking people what they need."