As founding director of EZRA, Anita Weinstein created local and far-reaching programs to relieve hunger and homelessness. Weinstein’s lifelong commitment to activism began when she witnessed a cross burning on campus, an experience that drove her to become involved in the civil rights, anti-war and women’s movements on campus. In graduate school at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, she helped organize sit-ins that successfully accomplished curriculum revisions in cultural diversity. She went on to work with the JCC, the Midwest chapter of the Jewish Feminist Organization, and coordinated the medical unit at the Response Center, a crisis center for teenagers. Weinstein then founded the EZRA Multi-Service Center, a collaborative program of the Jewish Federation agencies serving Jewish families living below the poverty level. EZRA provides cultural and religious programs, supportive housing, job assistance, advocacy and meals to more than 4,000 households annually, as well as housing for 800 homeless people in the Chicago area.

Anita Weinstein was honored at the 2004 Women Who Dared event in Chicago.