December 28, 2007

19 Tevet 5768

Dear WRJ friends,

It is almost 2008! Another “secular” calendar year has passed and we look forward to adventures and events of a new year. Are you tempted to say, “Where has the year gone?”

As I think about the past year, I am overwhelmed and overjoyed at all of the things that have happened in twelve short months! Personally, my family has been blessed with milestone birthdays, college graduations, exotic world travels, and an engagement!

WRJ has had, perhaps, the most amazing twelve months in its remarkable ninety-four year history.

In local sisterhoods, we have experienced outstanding programming, profound spiritual moments, and wonderful new friendships. In our districts, we have created exciting learning opportunities and fantastic area events and biennials. The lives of women in our congregations have been enhanced by the work we are all doing.

In April 2007, WRJ held it’s most successful Leadership Conference ever! More than 140 leaders gathered to share and learn and pray together.

Yet there is so much more! In many ways, WRJ has helped to reshape the future of both our organization and the progressive Jewish world. Let me highlight three historic moments in 2007.

1. In March, a delegation of twenty-two WRJ women attended the World Union for Progressive Judaism convention in Jerusalem. We were the largest delegation in attendance and we were acknowledged and honored for the constant and meaningful support that we have provided WUPJ throughout our history. In addition, we spent five days touring, learning, and visiting the many friends and programs that we support in progressive communities of Israel. This was a first for WRJ and forged a new link in our chain of connection to Israel.


2. In June, the WRJ Southwest District was born! The creation of this new district was the result of long range planning and the capable and dedicated work of many, many women. This was the second of three proposed district consolidations. In addition, all districts decided to change their names from numbers to more meaningful geographic designations. This was history-making for WRJ and will better define who we are and how we connect to one another.


3. In December, at the 46th assembly in San Diego, WRJ launched The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. The study of Torah will be forever changed and enhanced by the publication of this book. In the words of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, this volume “will be an extraordinary resource that will prove both useful and meaningful to all - men and women alike - who delve into its pages." This is a first for WRJ and for the entire Jewish world and will amplify the voices of women and connect us to our sacred texts.

The year 2007 has indeed been amazing. As we prepare to welcome 2008, the future of Women of Reform Judaism shines brightly. We have more history to create and more friendships to form.

May the light of the Shabbat candles shine as brightly as our future. I wish you all a glowing 2008!

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom.

Lynn Magid Lazar

WRJ first vice president

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December 21, 2007

12 Tevet 5768

Dear WRJ Friends,

Our magnificent 46th WRJ assembly has just concluded! As I banged the WRJ president's gavel to signal the close of this assembly Sunday morning, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for having been able to celebrate WRJ and its accomplishments with hundreds and hundreds of terrific women from around the world. First-timers and repeat attendees alike basked in the glow of WRJ successes.

Attending WRJ assemblies marks a biennial highlight for many of us. I have been a "WRJ assembly groupie" since 1985. Each assembly offers unique moments to savor. For me, personally (others can chime in with their own list), I'll forever hold a snapshot of the following key events:

• The debut of The Torah: A Women's Commentary was simply smashing. My snapshot captures the long lines of URJ/WRJ delegates purchasing the commentary at the URJ bookstore Thursday morning. Some people waited over an hour to buy multiple volumes and have our editor Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi sign a bookplate.
  

• The YES Fund luncheon on Friday was simply extraordinary. My snapshot captures Rabbi Walter Hamolka, Rector of Abraham Geiger Kolleg, telling our delegates that he stood before us that very day because we cared enough to take a risk and support him as a young, German rabbinic student. Now he leads the progressive movement in central Europe. His testimony, along with that of West London Synagogue's Rabbi Mark Winer, so engaged our women that an incredible record $195,000 in cash and pledges was raised for our YES Fund. We will be able to meet many, many more requests because of our delegates' generosity.
  

• The Torah exchange between my congregation and Rabbi Homolka, representing Abraham Geiger Kolleg, left not a dry eye in the crowd of more than 400 men and women attending the YES Fund luncheon. My snapshot captures my group of thirteen congregants surrounding our temple president as she handed over that Torah. Knowing that WRJ had facilitated the Torah match was not lost on our delegates and their guests. As we heard over and over again, we make things happen!

• The Gary Rosenthal glass event was spectacular. My snapshot captures women who had never previously met bending over glass shards together to find the most perfect fragments to glue, making a piece of Judaica. Many kvetched about not being crafty, but quickly learned that you didn't need to have talent for this enterprise. Bonding was more about sisterhood hearts and minds then about gluing glass! This exciting sisterhood-sponsored program, which financially benefits the YES Fund, is now available to all of our sisterhoods at home.

So much to tell...so little time. Check for fabulous photos and other reports on the WRJ website in the next few weeks. Remarks that I shared at our Opening Plenary, as well as executive director Shelley Lindauer's report to our delegates, follow.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhoods.

Warmly,

Rosanne M. Selfon

WRJ President

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46th Assembly

San Diego, CA

Presidential Address
WRJ: EVOLVE TO THRIVE - Opening Plenary - Rosanne M. Selfon

December 12-16, 2007
3-7 Tevet 5768

Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Women of Reform Judaism includes and represents you and me and all women in our Reform congregations, primarily in North America but also in progressive congregations in South Africa and soon in Israel. We represent 94 years of history and legacy, triumphs and challenges and bountiful joy, celebrated communally by women.

Change, my friends, is the only constant in life. In the last quarter century alone, we have witnessed changes such as:

• an enormous battle for social and cultural diversity
• a fight, not yet won, for equality for women in the workplace
• increased global warming that threatens our planet
• frightening terrorism that threatens our very existence, changing how we travel and even how we have to safeguard our children are their schools
• luxury that has gone mainstream with so many seeking a daily java fix, drinking bottled water, using luggage with wheels, and sharing assorted chocolates and wine
• use of the Internet for online purchasing and bill paying, youTube, and Ebay, along with innovative technology that connects us over the miles
• having cash in hand, yet never entering a bank

On the other side of the coin,
• we have reached new, higher stress levels that can be treated with an array of pharmaceuticals that make us mellow or productive, thinner or fatter, take away bloating and increase potential for sexual activity– whatever ails us, there is a pill today,
• AND, finally, during the past twenty-five years,
• the media and designers, particularly those in the fashion industry, have imposed an excessive, unrealistic expectation upon us to remain forever young. Treatments claim to rejuvenate and restore us to a younger self that seems better than when we started. How dare we look our age! Our culture has branded middle and mature years with negativity instead of celebrating the emancipation we should be experiencing with every birthday.

Through these and other changes to our personal and collective landscapes, this organization has endured. We continue to meet the core of our mission: to secure a Reform Jewish future for ourselves and those who will come after us. Our WRJ mission statement reads:

Women of Reform Judaism, an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism,
is the collective voice and presence of women in congregational life.
Stronger together, we strengthen the quality and ideals of contemporary
Jewish life to ensure the future of progressive Judaism in North
America, Israel and around the world.

Does the work of WRJ meet the parameters put forth by our mission statement? Executive Director Shelley Lindauer regularly urges WRJ leaders to test decisions and actions against the statement. Several years ago, WRJ embarked on a Strategic Plan your leadership revisits consistently. What have we accomplished? Where are we going? What remains the toughest issue? I want to share three specific areas on which we have concentrated during these past two years: our district system, technology and leadership.

First: our WRJ districts
The diverse Strategic Planning Committee took a close look at how our districts were functioning. We learned that, in reality, our districts were operating independently, with minimal WRJ oversight. Everyone was making Shabbos for themselves. Together, over several District Presidents Councils held each May, WRJ and its district leadership collaborated on a unified, organizational re-structuring as well as a unified calendar. These were not easy changes. Just ask any of the stakeholders.

Geography presented other challenges. WRJ embarked on consolidation plans to increase the effectiveness of districts. Two district consolidations have taken place to date. Districts 4 and 5 are now WRJ Atlantic District. District 20 was dissolved and part of it was absorbed into the Midwest District. The other part of District 20, along with 15 and 22, were consolidated, creating WRJ Southwest District. Next fall, Districts 1 and 3 will become WRJ Northeast District.

These new districts, along with five others, will now bear names based upon geography, better enabling our members to understand district boundaries. District-sponsored area days have hit the road, bringing WRJ to sisterhoods in local communities. Through our district system, our local affiliates are networking to strengthen themselves and WRJ…Stronger Together!

Second: technology
WRJ has come of age. But we all know that IT is never complete, reinventing itself daily. Our new website is a like a toddler, growing and learning constantly. It is interactive: you can order WRJ materials and download scripts and services. You can learn about WRJ projects and history. You can locate an affiliated sisterhood and districts. One area of the website is protected for leadership only. Have you sent a Uniongram e-card? Did you know that your sisterhood receives YES Fund credit for each e-card you send? In the near future, you’ll be able to send multiples, up to 50 cards at one time. What an easy way to send holiday greetings if you prefer using the computer rather than paper! Watch for the upcoming announcement about multiple e-cards.

Our WRJ listserves connect sisterhood presidents, local past presidents, Judaica Shop chairs, and WRJ Board members and alumni. Women share challenges as well as successes. A president emails a programmatic or administrative question and almost instantly receives twenty responses from others who have traveled that path. Technology has allowed us to create sisterhood intimacy despite miles that separate us.

During the past two years, WRJ’s weekly email, connecting thousands of women just prior to Shabbat, has received enormous positive response. As a local president, do you share this email with your members? It only takes the click of your forward button. Remember, WRJ is your connection resource. Use it, and then use it again and again.

Third: leadership
WNBA President Donna Orender believes that being a leader makes you a touchstone for the people around you. In a recent issue of Newsweek featuring women and leadership, Orender noted a vivid gender difference in leadership styles: women are more collegial and natural team builders who are often not hierarchal. Additionally, women promote mentoring. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, commented that the best mentors are talent scouts who show you how to succeed by modeling leadership themselves and being supportive of very talented people. “Mentors,” Gutmann shared, “don’t just sit and give advice.” In that same issue, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin urged women to offer opportunities to new women, encouraging them to take risks by being a supportive partner in the risk-taking. Clearly, building leadership is critical for all women. Building leadership is especially critical to sisterhood success. You don’t have to attempt it alone. WRJ can help you build and sustain leadership.

As your president, I have been privileged to travel around the globe more than 140 nights during the past two years. I’ve heard similar local concerns repeated: “Where are tomorrow’s leaders?” Actually, I can tell you that I often hear this question, “Where are today’s leaders?” I have good news to share.

An exciting WRJ leadership development program, temporarily named Rising Leaders, is being developed. Originating from the Strategic Plan, this very selective program will solicit outstanding candidates, offering opportunities for personal and organizational growth. A Task Force is creating criteria, budget, programmatic content and locations. An allocation from the YES Fund will partially fund this Special Projects program. Please watch your mail for the program’s debut. Together, we will create and nurture future leaders.

As female leaders, we need to stop apologizing for acting strategically and setting and meeting high expectations. Julie Greenwald became President of Atlantic Records because she dared to innovate, think out-of-the-box, and take power. In the music business, Julie realized that the business needed to “transform [itself] to meet new ways people are experiencing music…tools have changed…but the outcome is the same, people will always buy great music.” For WRJ, the same thinking holds true. People will come, join, and, yes, assume leadership roles when and if they find value, meaning, and community in sisterhood. Only we, you and I, can provide that outreach and significance.

Two years ago, WRJ conducted a survey that told us that when women attend district and/or WRJ gatherings, their sisterhoods network and thrive. Trained leaders undertake their presidential responsibilities armed with a better skill set. Productive connections engage women, empowering local sisterhoods to blossom. But this increased skill set and those connections can only occur when sisterhoods send women to learn and network.

Indeed, WRJ is reaching many, many of our local leaders through the WRJ Leadership Conference, assemblies, district biennials, area days and retreats. But, in reality, half of our affiliates don’t leave their home turf. How we reach those who remain at the fringes presents a great challenge. WRJ Grant Awards, which were instituted for this assembly, have enabled sixteen sisterhoods to send delegates to San Diego. Though only time will tell, I am comfortable making the following assumption based on my own past district experiences: I believe, that after this assembly, the majority of those sixteen sisterhoods will initiate leadership training (attending WRJ and district events) as a line item in their local budgets. After these assembly days, they will know the great benefit attending these events has for a local sisterhood. That budget line item will cultivate future local leadership. This is a win-win for the local sisterhood and WRJ.

Our Strategic Plan has been guiding WRJ like a North Star. But in order to truly thrive, we must address the challenge of declining membership NOW. For nearly twenty years, membership has been declining at a small percentage annually. We’ve given lip service to the numbers, but taken little action. Fabulous WRJ Sisterhood Sunday materials were appreciated, but under-utilized. We all bemoan the loss of both members and leaders, but very few sisterhoods choose to invest the effort required to turn around the numbers.

These membership challenges are not unique to WRJ. They reflect a cultural transformation felt by all many organizations. A recent USA Today snapshot showed that seven out of ten adults who volunteer average 4.3 hours per week. We like to volunteer; it makes us feel good. But, joining, signing the dotted line to become a dues-paying member of an organization, that’s an option of which too many are opting out. In today’s world, joining a gym, a country club, a bookclub or a mother’s circle has appeal. Joining sisterhood has less cache. That needs to change.

How do we stem the tide? Answers are hard to find. WRJ is forming a task force to investigate this challenging issue. Our goal is to evolve, grow and thrive over the next twenty or forty years. Membership holds the key to our future. Most importantly, we want to resonate to all women in our Reform congregations. If we can truly make a difference in their lives, then women will join. They will feel compelled to continue the legacy. But how do we convince them of our value?

Articulating that significance means taking a hard look at how we do what we do. It means shutting down defenses and listening to those who are not supportive. We need to hear from the naysayers, not the cheerleaders. And then we need to take power into our hands, like Julie Greenwald, and transform and revolutionize what we do.

Having solid financials, debuting an incredible publication The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, conducting an international convention with a record attendance, growing the YES Fund to support our institutions and empower professionals and youth, these and other accomplishments point to our fabulous potential. Now is the time to meet it. Alexander Solzhenitzin said, “If you want to change the world, who do you begin with, yourself or others?”

We all know the answer. We must start with ourselves, taking on the responsibility of bringing others into our circle to collectively strengthen our sisterhoods and ourselves. It is a worthy cause because this is God’s territory, and we are God’s partners. Together, ladies, we are stronger. We can do anything. Let’s go and do!

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WRJ 46th ASSEMBLY
December 2007
San Diego, California
Executive Director’s Report – Shelley Lindauer


Let me begin by thanking you all for being here. I hope all had a wonderful time last night at the reception for our historic new women’s commentary. I am so proud of you, of all of us, for making our dream a reality. This has truly been an assembly of firsts.

How incredible is Danny Maseng? And so cute!! A little aside…I first heard Danny last year at the World Union for Progressive Judaism convention in Israel. You can ask Rosanne, but the first time I heard him I practically swooned. I swear, I had the same reaction I had when I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show when I was twelve!!! Okay, so some of you younger than me have no idea who Ed Sullivan is!

All of us are incredibly blessed to have leadership that is passionate, intelligent, and committed to the vision of WRJ. Thank you, Rosanne, for being a president we admire and respect, and one we all strive to emulate. Our vice presidents, treasurer and secretary, our entire executive committee, forgive me for not listing you individually, but I thank you all for your hard work and your diligence. WRJ would not be the organization it is without the work of these wonderful women. I applaud you for being such exemplars of leadership.

I want to speak about leadership today. You are all leaders of your sisterhoods, whether you identify yourself as a leader or not. Of the 70,000 women around North America who belong to WRJ, the 600 women who are attending this assembly represent less than 1 percent of our membership. You are committed, you are curious, you are agents of change. You are here to learn about WRJ, the Reform Movement, progressive Judaism around the world, and perhaps, most importantly, new ideas to engage and energize your local membership.

Leadership is about responding to the challenges and opportunities your women’s group faces today, envisioning the possibilities for the future, and initiating necessary change by being able to persuade your members to rethink the status quo.

A strong leader understands that she is responsible not only for what is happening in the present, but also for anticipating and planning for the long-term future, for the generations of women who will follow us, much as we have followed the generations of leaders before us. How do we this? How do we begin to ensure the viability of our organization for today and for tomorrow?

We certainly need to have an understanding of the past, of what our mothers and grandmothers had intended for Women of Reform Judaism, and what challenges they faced and successes they achieved. We also need a passionate vision for the future, and a certainty that our organization can thrive. But most importantly, we need to have a clear understanding of what is happening – or not happening - in our sisterhoods in the present. We need to become knowledgeable of changes taking place culturally, socially, politically, and economically so that we can respond accordingly.

Let’s talk about the present. What do we know about women in the United States in 2007? During the 20th century, as most of us have experienced, women made incredible strides in working toward gender advancement, yet we are still far from enjoying gender equality. Women make up a disproportionate share of people in poverty. Sex discrimination contributes significantly to the economic predicament of older women. According to the National Organization for Women, nearly 75% of the nation’s elderly poor are women, and the income of older women is approximately half the income of older men. Women still earn less than men for comparable work. In 2007, though nearly half of all workers in management, professional, and related occupations are women, they earn 81 cents for each dollar their male counterpart earns. The Institute for Women’s policy research cites that at the rate of progress measured between 1989 and 2002, women will not achieve wage parity for more than 50 years.

Insurance companies regularly charge women a higher premium than men for the same benefits, or provide them with less protection or benefits than men for the same premium. Women who are lucky enough to receive a pension receive only half as much as men, and they are only half as likely as men to receive a pension at all. Social security benefits have not reflected the societal changes since the system was founded, probably because women are seriously under-represented in political office. 17% of the House of Representatives and 16% of the Senate are women – yet women represent more than 50% of total population. If women’s representation in Congress changes at the rate it did during the last decade, the Women’s Policy Institutes estimates it will take nearly 100 years to achieve equality in political representation.

Sexual harassment didn’t disappear with legislation – the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that from 1992 to 1996 the number of sexual harassment lawsuits has increased by 14%, with Generation X women most affected. And reproductive choice, the control of our bodies, the freedom Baby Boomer women worked so hard to gain, is once again threatened.

Today we know that 59% of all women, and 71% of women with children under age 18 participate in the labor force, with the highest rates of employment during the prime working years of 25 to 54. However, according to researchers Galinsky and Bond, 80-90% of married working women reported primary responsibility for cooking, cleaning, and shopping, and two-thirds had primary responsibility for bill paying as well. 83% of women report taking time from work to address their children’s needs, including illness and routine medical, and are more likely than men to have elder care responsibilities.

Even with these inequities and challenges that women continue to confront, with important and essential work still to be done for women’s rights, there seems to be a sea change happening, a very real dichotomy between the Baby Boomers, women aged 43-60, and Generation X women, who are approximately aged 27-42. Baby Boomer women had high expectations. As the song goes, they brought home the bacon, fried it up in the pan, all the while managing to take care of their man. They repeatedly banged their head on the glass ceiling. The challenge of balancing their children, their households, and business life led to escalated stress and divorce in unprecedented numbers. Nonetheless, Boomers instilled a belief that their Generation X daughters would inherit a world of unlimited workplace opportunities, that due to the work of their mothers’ generation, they would enter the workplace as equals.

So what has happened in the last few years? According to the Census Bureau, there has been a 22% increase in the number of stay-at-home moms since 1994. Kim Clark, Dean of the Harvard Business School, was so concerned about the increase in women opting-out that he did research on the school’s alumna, and found the just 38% of its female graduates in their child-raising years were working full time. According to the Catalyst consulting group, 22% of all women who hold graduate or professional degrees are now at home with their children. These women, however, represent a small and privileged group. For most mothers, there is little choice but to continue to balance work and home life. The approach to work, however, is very different. Gen-Xers don’t want to “make the trade-offs their” Boomer mothers made. “They’re rejecting the stresses and sacrifices.” Gen X women rank personal and family goals ahead of career goals. They also feel, despite the statistics I just reported to you, that the work their mother’s, the Boomers, did, has made them equal in our society.

Now that we have a snapshot of the women in our congregations today, what does this mean for us, leaders of our women’s groups and of WRJ? The first thing we need to know is that until we ask, we don’t know. Are our members Boomers or Gen-X-ers, stay at home moms or working full time, with children or childless, in other words, what are the demographics of our local community? I can tell you that no two sisterhoods will look exactly alike; only you, with research, can determine the make-up of your sisterhood.

Once you’ve identified your constituency, you have to determine what it is they want from sisterhood. You accomplish this simply by asking; Do an informal survey when you have a program that has a lot of women in the room. Make a game of it. Last year, responding to some of our leaders’ suggestions that WRJ create a program for sisterhood women and pre-schoolers, I decided the best way to find out what our women want from WRJ was to ask them. At our board meeting in New York, and at the last Sisterhood Leadership Conference in Tyson’s Corner, obviously an audience of our most committed of our leadership, we played a little game. I asked these women, primarily a Boomer-aged group, to imagine their ideal sisterhood program. The parameters were to assume they had no financial constraints, no shortage of volunteers, and no conflicts with the congregation. That sounds ideal to me!

To our surprise, the responses overwhelmingly came back with suggestions for programming like massage, manicures, spa days, spiritual retreats, and one even suggested the name of a program, Martinis and Midrash. The theme that ran through nearly all of these responses was a clear call for relaxation; an activity that would get them out of the house for pleasure with the focus only on them. While at first glance this seems like we have a bunch of superficial women in organization, I think there is a much deeper message here. Our women are looking for programming that makes them feel good, and that takes them away, for a very short while, from their everyday stresses. They do not want to participate in any program that will feels like they are taking on another chore, another burden, in their already busy lives.

Let me tell you a story. Last year, I suffered for a few months with a tooth problem. Sounds silly, but this little infection turned into a much bigger one, with the infection spreading throughout my system. During this time, I had to write a weekly leadership email to the listservs. Feeling lousy health wise, and of course, being the Jewish woman I am, I was feeling guilty that perhaps I wasn’t being as responsive as usual to our members, and that my work wasn’t being completed as quickly as I would like it to, I sent out an emotional weekly email, explaining to our women what I was feeling, and concluding with the admonition that they each give themselves 10 minutes a day of “me time”. The response to that email was overwhelming. Our members sent dozens and dozens of responses to me, telling me of the difficulties they were facing in the personal life, difficulties of all shapes and sizes, and actually thanking me for giving them permission to take 10 minutes a day for themselves. Imagine that we need permission to do this! This message is the same as the meaning of our Martini and Midrash responses.

This call for a respite from stress and daily problems is why our WRJ/Lilith salons, which you’ll soon learn more about, have been such a resounding success in our sisterhoods. Our women get to participate in discussions about Jewishly based women’s issues, one night every 3 months, with only 2 or 3 short articles to read in preparation. Good food, stimulating conversation, and an evening with interesting women who might be aged from 18 to 80. A perfect way to engage all demographics of your membership.

Your job, as leaders of your sisterhoods, is to find out what YOUR women want. Again, make no assumptions – you have to ask. And, if you have Gen-x-ers, I hope you will be working to educate them that our job is not finished. Don’t judge whatever choice they make – to pursue a professional life or to stay at home with their children. But teach them about the difference between gender “advancement” and true gender “equality”. Help them understand that complacency cannot lead to change, that the future of their daughters will be jeopardized if they accept the status quo. Are they satisfied to wait 50 years to achieve wage parity? 100 years for equal representation in government? Are they working to achieve more flexible workplaces and work schedules for all women at whatever stage of life they’re in? And if they’ve chosen to opt out of the workforce to raise their children, are they working to ensure they will be accepted back in when they decide to return?

It is our responsibility to continue the work that our foremothers began marching for the right to vote, lobbying for female rabbis, marching for the right to choose. Now it is your job as leaders to respond to the religious and social needs of our Generation X women and to educate and inspire them to continue the work. It is you job to continue to care for and respond to our Boomers who are now facing a whole new set of needs, and to begin to learn about and plan for the generation that will follow. It is your job as leaders to empower all of our women and enrich their lives through sisterhood. And remember, in the words of one of the most successful and influential women of our times (like her or not), Oprah Winfrey “I did what I did when I did it because that’s all I knew, but when I knew better I did better.”

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December 7, 2007

27 Kislev 5768

Dear sisters,

This week’s Torah portion is called Mikeitz and begins “At the end of two years time”. How appropriate that this portion talks about what happens at the end of two years as we get ready to attend the WRJ assembly in San Diego, California.

Many of us will be traveling to the 46th assembly of Women of Reform Judaism to celebrate “Women of Torah” from December 11th to December 16th. Together we will:

--study and learn in workshops and seminars

--listen to outstanding presenters

--review and vote on important resolutions about important issues of our time

--worship and enjoy the Shabbat experience

--celebrate the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary.

Since 1977 I have not missed a WRJ assembly. Each time I attend I spend a wonderful time with the many friends and colleagues I enjoy being with as well as meeting new friends from our sisterhood world. I always learn new ideas and techniques, hear about new, successful sisterhood programs and projects, and am exposed to outstanding speakers and presenters. We all spend a most unique Shabbat together with 4,000 Reform Jew from across the globe—praying, singing, eating, and studying together.

The WRJ leadership and staff have worked hard and long to bring the delegates the best information and programs available. They are to be praised and appreciated for their creative ideas, extensive planning, and interesting programming that culminates into a fabulous assembly “at the end of two years.

I hope to see many of you next week in San Diego. Travel safely! Enjoy the assembly and be prepared to take what you heard, learned and saw home to make your sisterhood even more successful.

Wishing you and you families a happy Hanukah!

May the light of Hanukah and Shabbat brighten our lives.

Please share this with your sisterhood members.

Chag sameach,

Helene H. Waranch

WRJ Immediate Past President

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December 7, 2007

27 Kislev 5768

Hanukkah came early this year; suddenly into the midst of our days, so full of the need of others and of ourselves to fit in every task before the calendar rounds out and the days grow shorter.

Where is the time for the sensitivity to the needs of others, for some direction and comfort? Where is the time for the need of our bodies…for fitness and for rest? And where is the need to stand and stare, to embrace the fullness of our lives, and the wonder of all that is given to us of challenge and repose?

Then comes Hanukkah. One light flickers. A second light gleams. Two, and three, and four, and eight. A shammus to lead. In one miraculous moment the candles are reflected in the faces of our loved ones, reflected in our memories of holidays past, reflected in our own full breath of gratitude and joy.

A single cruse of oil strengthened the will of our ancestors of old, as it lighted one oil for eight days.

All the candles remind us that there is a vast community of our sisters who are lighted by their candles as we are bathed in light.

May our candles burn brightly for all those to see, candles of Hanukkah, of Shabbat, and candles of our spirits.

Stronger Together,

Norma U. Levitt

Honorary President

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November 21, 2007

11 Kislev 5768

Dear Friends,

I know you are all busy shopping, chopping, baking, cleaning, and all the other myriad tasks that mean a holiday is at hand.

I hope you will be able to take a moment to read the words of Rabbi Kerry Olitzky from the book Sacred Intentions:

The Pilgrims didn’t realize that they were creating an American institution when they joined with their Native American neighbors at the first Thanksgiving. Little did they know that parades and football games and crowded highways would all grow from their modest dinner. Nevertheless, their celebration emerged out of a desire to express a profound sense of gratitude to God. Armed with an intimate knowledge of the Bible, they recognized that they were not alone. So they took their inspiration from the journey of the Israelites in the desert and their celebration of Sukkot. As with our ancient ancestors, the first Thanksgiving festival followed a bountiful harvest as the celebrants prepared for a long and difficult time ahead. For the Pilgrims, it would be a cold and unforgiving winter. So they paused briefly from their labors to sanctify the moment. They celebrated with a full heart. Today, while sometimes burdened in spirit, we must do the same. In their own way, they helped us understand what the Rabbis had taught many generations before these pioneers found their ways to the American shores: “Rejoicing on a festival is a religious duty.”(Babylonian Talmud)

So this year join together with your neighbors and friends and relatives. Set aside any differences that may have developed over the past year. And, however meager it may seem, thank God for all that you have.”

I wish you all a peaceful, sweet, and safe holiday. “Eat your bread with joy; drink your wine with a merry heart.” Ecclesiastes 8:7

Please feel free to share this email with your sisterhood.

Warmest regards,

Shelley

Shelley Lindauer

Executive Director

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November 16, 2007

6 Kislev 5768

Dear WRJ friends,

This coming Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving – a holiday originally based on the establishment of a community of faith, the Puritans, to follow its beliefs without persecution in the New World. Thanksgiving was also a declaration for diversity, recognizing the fellowship, or at least coexistence, between colonist and Native American.

How does this impact us as modern American Jews – how do we look at this holiday?

I think of our ancestors – many of whom came to this country within the last century, from shtetls of poverty, hunger, and religious persecution or as remnants of the Holocaust – all looking for physical survival, economic opportunity, and religious freedom. They wanted a better life for their children. They were modern Pilgrims.

Look where we are today. The dreams of our ancestors have been realized far beyond what I think most of them could possibly have imagined. As Jews in America we live with more freedom, opportunity, and comfort than in any time or place in history. As a minority, we have been embraced and empowered in this country.

At this holiday time we take joy in preparing special foods and spending pleasurable hours with friends and loved ones. We reflect on our blessings: on the joys of family and friends, on the bounty and freedom we enjoy in our country, and on our ability to worship as Jews without constraint or bias.

Perhaps we should also take a moment to consider the gift of sisterhood; the blessings we give as well as receive. Let us think on the common bonds that shape us as women of Reform Judaism, of the tasks that we do with joy and purpose for our temples, local communities, and global interests. Let us smile remembering the special women we have met on our sisterhood journeys – on the mentors and friends that have helped each of us become who we are as individuals and as Women of Reform Judaism.

We truly have so much to be thankful for.

I wish each of you, your friends, and loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all of our lives.

Please share this with your Sisterhood.

B’shalom,

Karen Sim

WRJ Vice President, Department of Service to Sisterhoods and Districts

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November 9, 2007

28 Cheshvan 5768

Dear WRJ friends,

This week’s parashah is Tol’dot – Genesis 25:19 – 28:9. This is the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their twin sons Jacob and Esau. It is a story of pain and deception that haunts one family caught in a web of relationships from which they cannot escape. This story, whether we can relate to it or not, is a part of our ancestral heritage, a part of our lineage.

As women of Reform Judaism, we are part of many stories; biblical, personal, anecdotal, and global, for our work spans many countries and encompasses many people. Many years ago, when I first became active in sisterhood, a woman whom I did not know very well, invited me to come to Dallas to a biennial convention of what was then the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. I was not only flattered, but intrigued, and off we went to “The Big D”. That trip changed my life. I met women who were doing work for their sisterhoods, who were having some of the same problems of leadership, fundraising , etc . that I was having as sisterhood president, and in discussions throughout the day and into the night, we traded solutions. I met women whom I admired, women who knew so much more than I did, and women who were willing to share. My eyes were opened wide for I met women who were smart, savvy, and willing volunteers! I met women who have become life-long friends.

In a little over a month, we will meet in San Diego for the 46th assembly of Women of Reform Judaism. As WRJ leaders, we will all be there. Let’s try to ask a newcomer to sisterhood, someone just starting out, to come to San Diego with us. You will never know if this woman will come unless you ask. It is so hard to see the bigger picture of sisterhood when you are constantly involved with local and regional issues. It is so easy when you are together with women from around North America and you meet the rabbis who have benefited from our scholarships, the Israeli men and women who talk about our support of the Progressive movement in Israel and throughout the world, and meet the president of NFTY who thanks WRJ for its support of youth programming. It is so easy when your questions get answered by workshop leaders and the conversations continue when you meet at a plenary session, or at a meal, or even at the hotel bar.

All of us have had our spirits raised and our commitment made stronger when we meet every two years. We need to spread the word to make it happen for the sisterhood women who have never been to an assembly. San Diego will be special for we will introduce The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. I can’t wait to see the interpretation of Tol’dot in this new edition. How will Rebekah’s story be told? Will we get to know how Rebekah felt about her twin sons? Let’s find out together.

I am looking forward to seeing you and everyone you bring with you in San Diego. Until then have a restful and joyous Shabbat.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this with your Sisterhood.

Fondly,

Judy Silverman

Past President Women of Reform Judaism

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November 2, 2007

21 Cheshvan 5768

Dear WRJ Friends:

One year ago, this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, Genesis 23:1 – 25:18, was studied by more than 15,000 Reform Jews across North America and around the world, thanks to Women of Reform Judaism. You may remember or may have even participated in one of the Chayei Sarah study sessions that took place in nearly 350 Temples in North America, Israel, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Germany, and Holland. Chayei Sarah was an early introduction to and a sneak preview of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, a fifteen-year work-in-progress, which will be launched on December 13th at WRJ’s 46th assembly in San Diego, California. And if Chayei Sarah’s success is any indication, it seems that this new commentary, the collective work of more than a hundred women – biblical scholars, rabbis, archaeologists, historians, poets, cantors, and philosophers – will bring to Torah study what a steady rain brings to parched fields. Here are just a few of the comments from women who participated:

“The number of participants at Torah Study yesterday was more than double! It was wonderful and people thought that the study materials were insightful...well done!”

“The excitement in the room was palpable as people were asking if we could expect more excerpts before the publication date. Alas, I informed them that we would have to wait until December, 2007.”

“We ordered 60 copies, but some people still had to share! We had an inspired discussion and are very eager to add this as a resource for our study group.”

“About 30 women attended…many of whom don't normally come to Sisterhood events so this was a great introduction to Sisterhood for them…we could have used more than the planned 3 1/2 hours!”

“If the interest and excitement that it created among us is an indication of the Commentary's success, it's a winner!”

“People who never involved themselves found a sense of spirituality in the final exercise and cannot wait to return. What a success!”

“No one really wanted to stop! The Rabbi closed by asking congregants to read two of the poems and relate them to our lives. It was awesome!!”

Imagine. If just one Torah portion had this kind of impact, it is incomprehensible to think how we will measure the impact that The Torah: A Women's Commentary will have on us as present-day women, as Reform Jews, as wives and mothers, daughters and aunts, as friends. And what will the impact be on future generations? What we do know is that it will be significant. And, thanks to WRJ, someday, no one will not know what it was like to live in a time when the voices of women in the Torah were silent.

Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of this moment in history when our matriarchal voices come to life through The Torah: A Women's Commentary at Women of Reform Judaism’s 46th assembly.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom.

Katie Roeper

WRJ Executive Committee

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October 26, 2007

14 Cheshvan 5768

Dear WRJ friends,

This week’s parashah is VaYera - Genesis 18:1 - 22:24. It is a time for Abraham of revelation and re-dedication. Upon personal reflection, I find that this parashah resonates for me in my personal life. In one week, our eldest son will be married. He is the first of our four children to cross this most significant threshold. He has chosen, as his bride, a beautiful, kind, and loving woman to be his life partner. And our soon-to-be daughter has chosen Judaism as they begin their life together.

At this most poignant time, a time of reflection, I recognize that it is a transitional moment. As I look into the mirror of life, so grateful for the wonderful gifts we have received, I realize that it is a time of significant reflection and transition. My husband and I, through this profound event, cross a life threshold. We are now truly the previous generation. We step aside as our children mature, and choose their own life paths. We have become the “elders” (although I do not feel so elderly!). Life’s focus for our children is to look to the future and (hopefully) to the next generation. I face these realities of life. Do we recede, fade into the background of all of the activities in which we have been so immersed? Or, do we rededicate and refocus our energy on the goals that have guided us thus far in our life’s journey?

WRJ offers so much to us in spite of the crossroads we traverse. As experienced leaders, we have much to offer. Clearly, new challenges and opportunities remain on our “to do” list, but how do we move on, maintaining our energy and passion, recognizing that our roles may change? The choice is ours, shall we find reasons to step back, and let the next generation move into our leadership role, or do we recognize that our modeling of commitment and passion must continue to inspire younger, less experienced women, creating partnerships with them? Should we try to mentor and build relationships with new, younger leaders to help inspire and encourage them to find their way on a path of helping to repair the world?

We have much to offer and must not stand idly by. It is, in this way, that we must re-dedicate ourselves, to the passionate and godly work in which we have engaged for decades. WRJ needs each and every one of us to give whatever it is that we can. Stronger together, we must continue our work and partner with our future leaders.

Have a restful and joyous Shabbat. May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten our lives. See you in San Diego.

Please share this with your sisterhood.

Warmly,

Patti Grossman

WRJ Vice President Department Programming and Advocacy

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19 October 2007

7 Cheshvan 5768

Dear WRJ Friends,

How often have you and the members of your sisterhood board tried to think of new programs, different fundraisers, or better ways to increase membership? Do you sometimes feel like you are just recycling old ideas, sort of like redecorating your home by moving the same furniture around but not changing anything else, not even the wall paint?

Well, I may not be an interior decorator, but I do have a pretty good idea of how you can come up with some really fresh ideas to invigorate your sisterhood…and the great news is that it’s all available to you as a result of your membership in WRJ! You have access to world class resources – available in a variety of shapes and sizes sure to fit every sisterhood’s makeover needs!

• The WRJ Website – www.WomenofReformJudaism.org - your portal to an amazing array of resources. Programming ideas, membership tips, scripts, publications, critical issues and advocacy actions, Uniongrams, information about where your YES Fund dollars go…
• The WRJ Speakers Bureau - bringing experienced WRJ leaders to you to address the specific needs and interests of your sisterhood
• The WRJ listservs - providing an opportunity to brainstorm and network with other sisterhood leaders around North America. From intergenerational programs to Circle of Service programs and from “who is a member” discussions to ideas for Shabbatons and seders, the listservs have proven to be a great resource for requesting input and sharing successes and suggestions
• Our WRJ staff professionals - the phenomenal women in our New York office, who provide individual support to address your specific questions and needs
• Our Sisterhood Leadership Conference - an opportunity for WRJ members to experience an intense weekend of WRJ training, networking, education, and spirituality.
• Our Sisterhood Connection Calls from WRJ board members to sisterhood presidents - helping WRJ stay in touch while giving yet another opportunity for each sisterhood to receive individual attention when it is needed
• Our biennial assembly - which brings women together from across the international Reform Jewish community to exchange best practices in membership development, programming, fundraising; to learn from each other; and from internationally recognized speakers on a variety of subjects relevant to our sisterhoods
• Our district conventions, kallahs, interim meetings and area days - which offer similar educational content to our leadership conference and assembly, but in more intimate settings that facilitate building close relationships within your geographic area, often leading to joint programs and local resource networks

So think of this as your Decorator’s Guide to WRJ, and be sure to sample all the fabric swatches, paint chips, flooring alternatives, and furniture styles. Whether you are a Dutch Modern, Louis XIV, Chippendale, or “anything goes eclectic” sisterhood, there’s a resource available that will fit!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Blair Marks

WRJ Vice President for Development and Special Projects

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October 12, 2007

30 Tishri 5768

Dear WRJ Friends,

It’s time to savor the last few bites of round, Challah, French toast and take down the sukkah. The 5768 High Holiday Season is officially over. Now we can return to our regular routines, our usual circles and spheres. There is a wonderful sense of calm and security in getting back into the normal rhythms of our life. And yet…..

Entering the sanctuary on Erev Rosh Hashanah, I always feel a sense of homecoming, a rush of adrenaline as I greet people I haven’t seen in a while, remembering names (hopefully), spotting smiling faces and nodding, lots of kissing and hugging, generally reclaiming my place in my own temple community. On Rosh Hashanah, smiling and hugging, warmly acknowledging people not seen the night before, and noting sadly, the families with fewer seats this year than last. It all feels very familiar and welcoming. Reciting the familiar prayers, singing and chanting melodies of the holiday all help connect the individuals praying in that sanctuary with one another and with those who came before us. We are a community, praying together for the same things from our God.

Fast forward to Kol Nidre, and the scene plays out again, this time with a little less levity, a more somber mood. Then, finally, with the last blast of the shofar on Yom Kippur, we give quick hugs, warm wishes for a healthy New Year, and then head off to break our fasts. And just like that, our community disperses – heading back to the routine. But for those few hours, we felt the power of communal prayer.

Two thousand years ago, Rabbi Hillel said: “Separate not thyself from the congregation.” Rabbi Joseph Hertz wrote that Hillel’s saying means that the individual life must be identified with that of the community. Whether the community is thirty people or 3,000, there is an amazing power in communal prayer. Think about what it sounds like in your temple, when everyone recites the Sh’ma, or the Yahrtzeit prayer.

Now, imagine a convention center filled with around 5,000 Jews, praying together, chanting, and singing together – and that’s Shabbat at the WRJ assembly/URJ biennial conventions. The surroundings fade away, and all that is seen, all that is felt is the ruach, the spirit, of this vibrant community of Reform Jews. Come to San Diego. Rejoice and celebrate as we launch the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. Be part of this special community.

Early bird registration for the assembly ends October 19th. Please go to: www.WomenofReformJudaism.org/assembly07 for more information.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Shabbat shalom,

Susan C. Bass

WRJ Vice President

Houston, Texas

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October 5, 2007

23 Tishri 5768

Dear sisterhood friends:

In this week’s torah portion, Bereshit, we hear the story of creation and about the effects and consequences of man’s actions. We see this with both when Eve eats the forbidden fruit in Eden and with Cain and Abel. Their decisions remind us that there are always choices that we will be making. Our lives are not predetermined. We will make our own path in our lives.

However, with our decisions, there are consequences and we cannot always hide our actions. Hopefully, most of our choices have positive consequences to them. One of the choices that WRJ made was to commission the writing of our Torah. The next logical step is the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary in December.

May we continue to learn from our past, both personal as well as historic, and may we continue to make wise choices in our lives. The consequences are not always severe, as being made to leave Eden, but the rewards are innumerable if we think of our actions before we act.

May this year be healthy and happy for you.

Please share this message with your sisterhood.

Joanne Fried

Executive Committee Member

Metairie, LA

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September 28, 2007

17 Tishri 5768

Mitzvah Corps and Women of Reform Judaism: Healing the World Together

Mitzvah Corps combines the best of Reform Judaism: teens taking action to heal the world and a love for Jewish learning. Women of Reform Judaism’s support of this program through generous grants from the YES Fund (Youth, Education, and Special Projects) have made it possible for more than seventy teens per-summer to tackle the most pressing social issues that are haunting North American cities. Hands-on involvement in at-risk-communities mixed with teenage energy for social justice makes this a one of kind program. In the coming year, the YES Fund will make it possible for even more Reform Jewish teens to make an impact on the world and lives of the people they touch. Most importantly the YES Fund will help many more Reform Jewish teens take part in a life changing experience for themselves, as well. The collective power of the Women of Reform Judaism combined with the energy of Reform Jewish youth will change the world for the good.

Report on the summer of 2007:

Women of Reform Judaism through the YES Fund was vital to the success of the summer of 2007. There were over seventy participants in all of the Mitzvah Corps programs that volunteered their summers to working in camps for low-income children, Jewish Homes for the Aged, a day camp for children with physical and mental disabilities, soup kitchens, and various other projects. WRJ’s support enabled the program attendees to visit museums and sporting events as well as participle in events such as the AIDS walk and a trip to Sacramento and Washington D.C. to understand social justice in politics. The results were energized Reform Jewish teens that have an understanding and responsibility for Tikkun Olam.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood

September 21, 2007

9 Tishri 5768

Dear sisterhood friends,

As I compose this e-mail, Rosh Hashanah has just ended and we are officially in the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur known as the Days of Repentance. This is a time during which we are instructed to take stock of ourselves and all that we have said and done in the past year, to re-evaluate our lives, to work to improve ourselves, and then to ask the Eternal to inscribe us in the Book of Life for yet another year. We are exhorted to choose life, and we do so, hoping that this gift will be granted.

This part of our liturgy came to mind when Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. There was much talk in the media about whether Mr. Edwards would decide to cancel his campaign and stay at home with his wife during her treatment. Elizabeth Edwards came back with a concise answer that essentially said that she and her husband had to choose whether she would begin to die or continue to live. It was a simple choice – together they chose life!

Just as individuals can choose life, so can sisterhoods. As leaders of Women of Reform Judaism, we can take this opportunity to think about our programs and activities, and to try to find ways to plan the year ahead to better serve the needs of our congregations and our members. We must make sisterhood “live” in all of our congregations.

What is sisterhood’s image in your congregation? Do you nominate a representative to the WRJ Board of Directors? Is there a sisterhood representative who can vote on your congregation’s board of trustees? Does your sisterhood appeal to all of the women in your congregation? Start now to plan a year-long program to help make sisterhood an integral part of every synagogue activity. Be certain that the congregation is aware and supportive of sisterhood’s good work.

Does your sisterhood explain and promote WRJ and the YES Fund to its members? Some sisterhoods have YES Fund dinners or luncheons, and use these opportunities to distribute or sell YES Fund materials and cards, and to encourage donations to Circle of Service and Lifeline. Let everyone know what the YES Fund can and has accomplished. You can read all about this on the WRJ website at www.WomenofReformJudaism.org.

Does your sisterhood encourage its members to attend the assembly? This biannual gathering of the Union for Reform Judaism and Women of Reform Judaism will be in San Diego, California, from December 12-16, 2007. Experience has proven that assembly attendance invigorates our members and sends them home anxious to put what they have learned into action. This is a great investment in your sisterhood’s current and future leadership. Check this out on the website, too.

Is your sisterhood involved in tikkun olam? Tikkun olam (repair of the world) or social action can energize and unite your membership and is a major component of our Jewish belief. Opportunities to create social action programming are endless. Whether you simply collect food or warm winter coats, organize a group to serve meals at a shelter, volunteer to work on a literacy project, or help make our voices heard at your statehouse or in Washington, DC, your sisterhood can make a difference to your community.

Does your sisterhood help your congregation’s youth? Sisterhoods can provide funding for a bus to a regional event, create a scholarship for Jewish camping or trips to Israel, or simply offer to chaperone for a youth activity.

Let 5768 be a year of strength, growth, and achievement for your sisterhood, so that its membership will include every woman in your congregation. May all of us, and our sisterhoods, be included in the Book of Life for the year to come.

May the light of the Shabbat and High Holiday candles brighten the world. Please share this message with your sisterhood.

L’shana tova,

Carol Hanover

WRJ Executive Committee Member

September 14, 2007

2 Tishri 5768

August 31, 2007

Dear WRJ friends,

Be there. Be there to share in the pride and the joy as our President, Rosanne Selfon, delivers to the leadership of the Union for Reform Judaism a copy of this historic volume. Be there to celebrate with Debbie Friedman and Danny Maseng at our own publication party, where we will honor the editorial contributors and financial donors who helped coax our voices out of the Torah, onto the page, and into our mouths, that we may sing our own song. Be there to stand together and rejoice in the launch of this historic work!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Houston, Texas

August 24, 2007

10 Elul 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

Lancaster is a relatively small community in central Pennsylvania (city population is 55,000 and the county is 450,000). Let me assure you this not a metropolitan area though the community is far larger than it was when I was a child. We have an historic regional theater, an art school, several colleges and, as you are aware, Amish tourism. We don’t have a deli, and you can’t order lox and eggs in any of our diners.

Lancaster has approximately 800 Jewish families. My congregation proudly boasts 330 of them, and our sisterhood membership will usually reach 160-170. Like other sisterhoods, we enjoy a full range of programs and projects, fundraisers, a retreat, Sisterhood Shabbat, and so forth. We also list a very special committee, our Bereavement Committee, which functions like a well-oiled machine whenever its services are required.

This committee, obviously at a moment’s notice, prepares, serves, and cleans up the traditional bereavement meal following a funeral. We carry plastic baskets of supplies and homemade foods into a congregant’s home and serve the same dairy meal that I might order from a neighborhood deli if one was available.

I am sharing this information because I am very proud of this meaningful service provided by our sisterhood. Most importantly, this tells of the ongoing commitment of our sisterhood to support our members whenever they need us…rejoicing as well as surviving life’s difficult times together.

What does your sisterhood do to share its members’ lives, to be present when needed? May I suggest that we find a route of service that is meaningful for each of our sisterhoods, put it into place, and literally demonstrate that your sisterhood cares, that it stands ready to support every member. After all, it is always personal relationships and connections that allow sisterhood to endure.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten your lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Rosanne Selfon

WRJ President

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August 17, 2007

Elul 3 5767

Dear WRJ Friends:

This week’s Parashat, Shofetim, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9, establishes rules for a just society. It is part of Moses’ closing speech to the children of Israel as they anticipate their entry into the promised land. Although there are dozens of guidelines detailed in this portion, there is one verse that captures the essence of Moses’ message from God, “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you.” These words have been passed down through the generations as a cornerstone to our Jewish lives. Each of us carries the responsibility to contribute to a just society, within our homes, our sisterhoods, our Temples, within our communities, our country, and our world. It is an awesome responsibility – not one that can be satisfied by a single act but rather by incorporating a social justice philosophy into our daily lives. Speaking out at an organizational or civic association meeting when a policy seems unjust; refusing to buy products produced in countries that force unjust practices on its citizens; contributing to funds established to promote justice and equality; and speaking for those whose voice has been silenced – these are just a few ways we are able to apply this divine directive to our everyday lives.

Women of Reform Judaism’s mandate for social justice advocacy is built upon three foundations: the WRJ constitution; its resolutions; and the values expressed in the texts of our tradition. To these ends, the delegates to each biennial assembly, as well as the board of directors and the executive committee, adopt resolutions and statements grounded in Torah and Jewish values. Please plan on attending the upcoming biennial, December 12-16, 2007, in San Diego, California where approximately 700 women from around the world will gather to learn from renowned leaders, discuss policy and resolutions, and honor the work of our sisterhoods. In addition the Women of Reform Judaism Or Ami Awards will be presented to sisterhoods and districts undertaking unusual and significant social action programs, community service, or educational projects.

Most recently, WRJ has advocated providing health care coverage for children, supporting the UN millennium development goals to reduce extreme poverty world-wide, funding international agencies fighting HIV/AIDS, ending the genocide in Darfur, defending against threats to reproductive rights, supporting stem cell research, insuring voting rights, legislating fair taxation policies, and working for security, peace, and religious pluralism in Israel. Opportunities to discuss these and other important issues will be among the many unique experiences provided through the WRJ biennial assembly.

I also urge you to visit www.womenofreformjudaism.org to review In Pursuit of Justice: Resolutions and Policy Statements, to find out more about actions taken by WRJ and recommendations made to sisterhoods for advocacy and community service, and to access advocacy resources to guide programming for sisterhoods. And watch for “To the Point: Critical Issues News from WRJ.” These are e-mail alerts, updates, and reports sent regularly from WRJ to sisterhoods and districts to inform members about a variety of social justice issues.

Rooted in the Torah, this legacy of justice is ours to carry on…through WRJ we are able to touch more lives than ever imagined individually. Thanks to WRJ, we are Stronger Together!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten the world.

Shabbat Shalom,

Katie Roeper

WRJ Executive Committee

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August 10, 2007

26 Av 5767

Dear WRJ Sisters,

This week’s parashah is R’eih, Deuteronomy Chapter 11:26 – Chapter 16:17. Chapter 11, Verses 26-28 states: “See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced”.

Each of us has the option this day and everyday to choose blessing or curse. In order for each of us to SEE (R’eih) our way to a life of blessing, we need to live an ethical life and not be swayed by the idols of our times. By living a life of study, worship, and acts of loving kindness, we can live a life of blessing. WRJ allows each of us these opportunities for blessings.

At the upcoming WRJ Biennial Assembly in San Diego, WRJ will PROUDLY celebrate the much anticipated publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. What better way to honor God’s commandments than by studying together from a book written by and edited completely by women? There is something very powerful when Jewish women study together using commentaries written by women.

Also at the upcoming assembly, WRJ will be providing a new pamphlet, Programming Possibilities. This new publication is filled with many programming opportunities that your sisterhood can use. WRJ and its affiliated sisterhoods work on critical issues to fulfill the spiritual mandate of tikkun olam, helping to “repair a broken world. For further information about advocacy and critical issues visit our website at www.WomenofReformJudaism.org.

P.S. I just came back from the CAJE confernece. Yesterday, Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber, Director of Adult Learning for the URJ led a session on Parashah Re'eih from The Torah: A Woman's Commentary! There were all branches of Judaism in the workshop studying from our new book! She also had order forms available and everyone at the workshop took an order form. An Orthodox Jewish woman said she couldn't wait to get one! I was SO proud to be a member of this fabulous organization!

Please share this e-mail with the members of your sisterhood. May the light of Shabbat candles always burn bright in our lives.

Shabbat Shalom

Jerri Livingston

WRJ Executive Committee

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August 3, 2007

Av 19, 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

I have been watching the WRJ president’s listserv over the past few weeks and there has been a flurry of inquiry about programming for the upcoming year.

As we schedule events I thought of two areas that I hope all of us will include in our sisterhood calendar – a membership event /campaign and a YES Fund program.

Membership recruitment and retention, is key to our success as sisterhoods. We need members to sustain a bonded community of women who enjoy the important work we do and fun we share.

The WRJ membership campaign materials for Sisterhood Sunday are available in the restricted area of the WRJ website. Please ask your president to download this information (or download it yourself if you are the sisterhood president) and tailor this program to your specific needs.

Stronger together so we can be stronger forever - The YES Fund is the way we insure the future of Reform Judaism.

Many of the fundraising programming ideas I have recently seen on the listserv, such as the Mothers’ Day Tea, would be perfect for a YES Fund event. Other fundraising ideas can be found in Fundraising Fundamentals, the WRJ publication distributed to each sisterhood in 2005 and also available for download on the WRJ website.

WRJ will be providing a new pamphlet, Programming Possibilities, at the San Diego Assembly in December. This new publication is filled with many programming opportunities that you can use for either membership or YES Fund events.

Please contact me or the WRJ office for additional ideas or with questions about membership or Yes Fund programming.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom,

Karen Sim, WRJ vice president, Service to Sisterhoods and Districts

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July 27, 2007

12 Av 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

"The love of this land was due to an imperative, not to an instinct, not to a sentiment. There is a covenant, an engagement of the people to the land. We live by covenants. We could not betray our pledge or discard the promise.

When Israel was driven into exile, the pledge became a prayer, the prayer a dream, the dream a passion, a duty, a dedication."

Abraham Joshua Heschel

ARZA and Union for Reform Judaism have announced "ISRAEL at 60 - ARZA at 30", the Reform Movement's year-long celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the State of Israel and the 30^th anniversary of ARZA's formal affiliation with the World Zionist Organization. This is the time to rejoice on the sacred occasion of Israel's 60^th year of independence, to reflect on our loving, and at times complex, relationships with Israel, and to renew our connections to Israel and the greater Jewish people.

There will be movement-wide programming and celebrations on May 9 - 11, 2008. Materials for celebratory events and educational programs will be distributed early in 2008. Already available is a five-session adult education curriculum that is designed to help American Reform Jews develop a special, personal relationship with Israel. Its title is "One Heart-Two Homes: Israel and the Sacred Identity of American Jews." These materials will be available to sisterhoods for their Israel programs.

In 1997 the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued "Reform Judaism: a Centenary Platform" that included the following:

"….Israeli and Diaspora Jewry are inter-dependent, responsible for one another, and partners in the shaping of Jewish destiny…….We believe that the renewal and perpetuation of Jewish national life in Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) is a necessary condition for the realization of the physical and spiritual redemption of Am Yisrael (the Jewish People) and all humanity."

Many of our sisterhood members were born long after Israel fought her battle for independence and survival. For those who lived through those days in spring 1948 there developed an immediate bond of responsibility and shared history with the State of Israel and its people. Today the challenge is to create this same connection to Israel among all Reform Jews, young and old.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom

Connie Kreshtool

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July 20, 2007

5 Av 5767

As we begin the book of Deuteronomy, Moses states that God has multiplied the Israelites; they are too numerous and have increased a thousand-fold. Moses is no longer able to bear unassisted the burden of his people. He tells the Israelites to pick from each of the tribes those who are wise, discerning, and experienced to assist him in this.

WRJ accepted a similar challenge several years ago. A seed was planted in San Francisco to write a commentary that would bring the voices of women to Torah. We are now nearing the completion this task. We have assembled many of our leaders, those who are wise, discerning, and experienced, to write The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. Never before has there been a commentary like this, written by women scholars with different perspectives, including all the parashiot, and the Hebrew text and translation.

WRJ women should be proud and honored that they have raised all of the funding required to publish this historic work. The power of being a woman, and a member of such a group, is inspiring. We need to ensure that this commentary is used in our homes, in our sisterhoods, and our congregations. We will be able to study with those who have the knowledge and perspective to guide us into the future.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten our lives as we continue to grow and learn from others.

Warm regards,

Joanne Fried

WRJ Executive Committee Member

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July 13, 2007

27 Tamuz 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

This week, we complete the book of Numbers as the Israelites conclude their journeys in the wilderness. In Matot-Mas’ey, we read a travelogue citing forty-two distinct places, finally coming to the banks of the Jordan River. For most of those places, we are only told that the Israelites left one place and camped in the next, then left that place and camped in the next. There is a little description given for some of these places; most are simply named, with no further information.

Why? Isn’t it odd that so much emphasis is given to the route of the Israelites, but no effort is made to describe those places?

Jane West Walsh speculated, “Our ancestors knew exactly what these places represented. They had complete stories in mind, having full understanding of the events that took place there (as we do when we hear the name Woodstock, for example). They probably thought those stories would always be remembered by the hearers of the list.” (Torat Hayim, 5757) She suggested that it was therefore essential that we record and tell the stories about our own world and times, especially our Jewish lives, so that they are preserved and remembered.

Through our support of WRJ’s YES Fund, we have the opportunity not only to create today’s stories, but also to ensure the future generations that will remember and retell them. We provide critical resources that strengthen Reform and Progressive institutions and communities worldwide, promoting the education of rabbis/cantors/educators, pluralism in Israel, and the Jewish education of children, young adults, and families.

There are three sources of funding for the YES Fund:

• Sisterhood Contributions

• Uniongrams and YES Fund Product

• E-cards on WRJ website

• Cash Donations

• Circle of Service (COS) – Individual annual “membership”

• 
  

• Lifeline – Contributions that go into an endowment; the investment interest is used annually but the corpus remains intact

If your sisterhood does not currently promote the Circle of Service, please add a COS membership drive or event to your annual calendar. You can educate about the YES Fund and offer opportunities to join the COS and make a Lifeline pledge. For many of our sisterhoods, these annual events are a much-anticipated highlight, used as a chance to honor outstanding members. Awards are given by WRJ at our biennial assemblies to recognize those sisterhoods with the most outstanding achievement in YES Fund, COS, and Lifeline participation.

A thousand years from now, when our descendants are studying lists of the places where Reform and Progressive Judaism thrived and grew in the early 21^st century, let’s hope that they are also able to study how that vitality came to be. Imagine how exciting it will be for them to realize that the YES Fund of 3007 had actually been prominent through more than a millennium, growing stronger every year!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Blair Marks

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Friday, June 29, 2007

13 Tamuz 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

This week’s parashat, Balak, has an important passage about a prophet named Balaam who is traveling on a donkey at the behest of Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites so they can be defeated on the battlefield. As Balaam rides along, the donkey sees an Angel of God in the road with drawn sword, blocking the way. Balaam is annoyed at the donkey and tries to proceed. Only when God allows Balaam to see the angel for himself, does the prophet alter his intentions, blessing the Israelites instead of cursing them and prophesizing that Israel’s enemies will be defeated.

In a sermon two years ago, Jane Marcus, Past-President of Beth Am Women of Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, California found a serious lesson in this parashat about “not being able to see what’s real and how we sometimes need the understanding and involvement of others to help us see clearly again.” Jane bravely went on to relate her personal experience of post-partum depression. She was unaware of the cloud that was enveloping her. Her husband and dear friends noticed the serious change in her personality. With their prodding she sought professional help. Under the care of a psychiatrist she received necessary drug therapy and psychological care that brought her back to normalcy.

Thousands of people in the U.S. have some form of untreated mental illness. Sometimes this fact is highly dramatized such as occurred in the recent shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. In many cases people suffer quietly for years before they ever seek help. Embarrassment and lack of knowledge leave them and their families suffering from unidentified illness.

There is often a genetic component in mental illness, which has become evident in my own family. How many personal experiences do you have among your family, friends, and acquaintances depicting problems associated with the identification and treatment of mental illness?

Beth Am Women chose to focus attention on the topic and they held a conference entitled, “Building a Caring Community: “Yehi Hori: Shining a Light on Mental Health/Mental Illness”. Their entire community was invited to attend. The hope was to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and to understand the causes and treatments for a wide range of serious conditions. We need to overcome the stigma associated with mental illness and change ignorance into compassionate understanding.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood and program committee.

Dr. Fran Smith

WRJ Executive Committee Member

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June 22, 2007

6 Tamuz 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

This week’s portion is Parasha Chukah (Numbers 19:1-22:1). It deals with the law of the red cow and provides instructions for cleansing those who touch a corpse. The Israelites continue their journey through the desert and complain to Moses about the lack of water and their desire to return to Egypt. God tells Moses to take a rod and order a rock to bring forth water. Moses disobeys the word of God, becomes angry with the people, and strikes the rock from which water pours out. God tells Moses that he will not be permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land and Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, die.

God tells Moses that, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore, you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.”

So, is it that Moses’ arrogance motivates him to pretend to have the personal power to create this miracle, diminishing God in the people’s eyes? Or, was it Moses’ exasperation with the Israelite people from their lack of confidence in God which motivates him to strike the rock twice to provide the water?

How often do we pretend to know the “right” path in our lives? Do we ever take credit for results which were the work of a larger group? Do we forget those who came before us, those who provided us with opportunities, training, and mentoring to prepare us for leadership? In the shorthand of our lives, do we forget to thank those who have taught us and provided for us?

Leadership is harnessing the talents of those around us and directing their energy towards a common goal, enabling others to step forth and use their talents and abilities. No one leads alone; we are blessed to have partners to deliberate and determine our direction, and proceed with shared responsibility. God empowered Moses to produce that water from the rock. Moses was unable to acknowledge his divine partner to the Israelites. Let us use all of our resources, skills, and leadership partners to move our sisterhoods to achieve our goals. Together we are stronger and we will provide the water of sustenance to engage our members in our work.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this with your sisterhood.

Warmly,

Patti Grossman

Vice President, Programming and Advocacy

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Memo: Report to WRJ Leadership

From: Rosanne Selfon & Shelley Lindauer

Re: Meeting with government and international leaders

Date: June 20, 2007

Over the past 10 days, WRJ President Rosanne Selfon and Executive Director Shelley Lindauer, both representing WRJ, participated in three separate gatherings with international and American political leaders.

1. At the annual General Meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (“Conference”) held June 4th in NYC, we proudly witnessed June Walker’s installation as conference president. June is only the second woman to lead this prestigious organization (there are fifty-two American Jewish organizations affiliated with the Conference


2. Newly appointed United States UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad talked about containing Iran’s nuclear activities and bringing UN forces to the Darfur region in Sudan. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor thanked the Conference for its ongoing work and support for Israel. Again, he spoke with great concern regarding Iran’s development of nuclear power and its leadership’s disdain for Israel.


3. On Thursday, June 14, Rosanne traveled to Washington, DC, together with forty-eight Conference members to meet with Democratic and Republican House leaders followed by an hour-long face-to-face meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

President Bush spoke animatedly with humor, candor and sincere intent. Post 9/11, he said, his mind was deeply affected, causing him to do what he thinks is right even in the face of not being popular. He believes that a “radical ideology can come home to hurt us….threats we face are real…others use murder to achieve political objectives. Most of Iraq is doing all right except on TV; we are trying to deal with the propaganda. If America left Iraq, other terrorists would fill the vacuum and Iran would become bolder. Iran needs to be pressured and isolated.” His talks with European leaders will “prove helpful, but commercial interests are powerful. Money equals power.”

He continued, “We live in an impatient world. Ideological struggles are not easy. The universality of freedom in not debatable.” At two different moments during the hour long conversation, Mr. Bush commented, “Diplomacy only works if the guy at the table has something you want.”

Bush believes the “United Nations is important but sometimes not very effective. We spend more time trying to tell people there are consequences for their behavior”. People are nervous about doing hard things. Make no mistake, he added, “we are at war.”

4. On Sunday, Shelley attended a meeting of the Conference at which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke candidly to leaders of the Jewish community. The Prime Minister espoused a peaceful solution to the problems in the Middle East, stressing the need for diplomatic efforts. Olmert spoke of the dichotomy in Israel at present: a vibrant economy fueled by worldwide investment in Israel, while at the same time facing extreme unrest in the region proving a significant threat to Israel’s future and its security.

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June 15, 2007

29 Sivan 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

This week’s Torah portion is Korach from the book of Numbers. It is an excellent example of the importance of being “stronger together”, a phrase that has become a powerful motto for Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ).

Korach tells of a band of men led by Korach, who, in an attempt at a take-over bid to lead the Israelites, approach Moses and Aaron and accuse them of making themselves “higher” than the average Israelite. The concept of making themselves higher than the average Israelite, scholars explain, means that Moses and Aaron have been accused of separating themselves from their community and no longer being truly representative of the will of the people. Divine intervention produces an untimely end for Korach and his followers, and Moses and Aaron continue on as leaders of the people.

This same concept of being a part of one’s community comes up again in Pirke Avot, in Chapter 2, Line 5. Hillel cautions the reader not to separate him/herself from the community. Why is this idea so important?

Community means strength in numbers, but it is more than that. Community (or in our case, our sisterhoods) provide an extended family to share in life’s experiences. We turn to our community to share simchas, to lean on when times are tough, or to work together to achieve common goals. Community, in a sense, is a life support system!

WRJ is the lifeline that connects our 500 sisterhoods all over North America, with more than 75,000 members. Established as the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, our organization was created in 1913 by the women of individual sisterhoods who realized that so much more could be accomplished if our individual sisterhoods worked in unison to accomplish an objective or to effect change. There are sisterhoods with more than 800 members and others with barely a dozen, but when we meet together as we did recently at the annual board meeting in New York City, each of our voices is strong. We are a community.

There are few sisterhoods who alone could provide significant funding for rabbinical and cantorial scholarships at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. There are few sisterhoods who by themselves could support rabbinic scholars through the World Union for Progressive Judaism. There are few sisterhoods who alone could fund the scribing of a new Torah scroll, known as Torat Nashim, and then go on to fund the scholarly effort to write The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, due to be published and released at our upcoming Assembly in San Diego in December, 2007. But together, we are able to continue this important work.

WRJ is an incredible example of being stronger together. We are a united community, working together to reach our goals – just like the Israelites, led by Moses with Aaron’s help, doggedly heading for the Land of Milk and Honey. So, too, do we pursue our goals as we have done for 94 years. Let us never forget the importance of community and celebrate our strengths together.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your Sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom,

Carol Hanover

President, WRJ District #1 and

Member of the Executive Committee

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June 8, 2007

22 Sivan 5767

Dear Friends:

Below you will find a letter from one of our board members, Janet Kohen. The message that Janet’s story brings is an important one. Indeed, its lesson is one we learn in this week’s Torah Portion, Shelach-Lecha, when the spies Moses sends to the Promised Land return with frightening and exaggerated reports of what they had seen. Due to their fear and false account, God decrees the Israelites would wander in the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land. The scouts saw themselves as “grasshoppers” compared to the Nephilim and the Anakites they encountered. Because of their poor self-image, the scouts lacked confidence and the ability to act. Caleb and Joshua were the two optimistic spies who God determined had a ruach acheret, a “different spirit”. According to Rabbi Lisa A. Edwards, “as long as we women are not grasshoppers in our own eyes, we can use this Parashah to find within ourselves ‘a different spirit’, the spirit that brings with it the faith to forge ahead despite the obstacles.”

My name is Janet Kohen, and I am privileged to sit on the WRJ Board of Directors. Recently, I was blessed with wonderful news. A mass first diagnosed as ovarian cancer is not (99% sure). Surgery will remove and biopsy the mass, but my doctors feel confident that it's not cancer. So what's a little surgery!

I am sharing this personal information with you because there is an important lesson to be learned: we must be our own advocates when it comes to healthcare. My saga started with ten weeks of infections. I am an RN; I knew my body was sending me a message that something was wrong. Only at my insistence, however, did my doctor refer me to a specialist who ordered a CAT scan. He also said I schedule a cystoscopy (the definitive test for bladder cancer) in six weeks. With the help of my daughter and a second urologist in Baltimore, I was able to schedule that test within one week instead of six. Two days before the scheduled cystoscopy, I had the CAT which revealed, coincidentally, a large pelvic mass that looked suspicious for ovarian cancer.

Having given me the results, the urologist signed off. His area of expertise was finished. He suggested I now see a gynecologist. At that point, I was still reeling at the lack of interest and real help. I called a friend who had had an ovarian cancer scare and learned about the wonderful care she had received at the University of Virginia Hospitals gynecological oncology unit. I called UVA and basically referred myself for treatment.

UVA was not sure what to do with me since there was no doctor immediately involved but I persevered. Within two hours, they arranged an appointment for me to see the oncologist and have several tests. Just a few days of all this waiting had seemed like an eternity.

The lesson for us all: please don't assume that your doctor knows your body better than you do. If you believe something is wrong, be persistent. Find people to talk with; read and ask questions; don't quit until you're satisfied that nothing is really wrong or you get a diagnosis and treatment. BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE.

Thank you, thank you for your thoughts and your prayers. They were powerful and sustained me through those twelve days of waiting. And, they will continue to sustain me as I look forward to surgery and recovery. My sisterhood nicknamed me “How hard could it be?” because that's how I responded to “we couldn't do that.” So a little surgery - how hard could it be?

Janet Kohen

Janet, thank you for sharing your story with all of us. We're so glad you are well.

Shabbat Shalom! May the light of the Shabbat Candles brighten all of our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Warmest regards,

Shelley

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June 1, 2007

15 Sivan 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

This week’s Torah portion is still in the book called Bemidbar, “in wilderness.” In English we are reading the book of Numbers. We are still wandering and we are still counting.

As usual, the Israelites are complaining. They have no meat to eat only Manna. They are not happy and Moses does not know what to do. He says to God in Bemidbar (Numbers) 11:14-11:17, “I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me…Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people…they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone…”

This is the time of year when many of our sisterhoods elect new officers and boards of directors. When these officers are installed, many begin to wonder how they will be able to run this sisterhood alone. As you can see, even our great prophet Moses needed help. He asked the Lord and a great suggestion was given to him. I glean from this that no one is too great to ask for help. No one can run an organization alone. Never hesitate to ask for help. Remember, at one time someone asked you to do something and you said yes. Along the way you may get some refusals but don’t give up. There is always someone who will say yes; If not today, maybe tomorrow.

I once heard that it may take up to five times of asking the same person to do something before you get a yes from them. We are all at different stages in our lives and the first, second, and third asks may not be at the right time. But ask number four or five may be the right time for a yes answer. Don’t give up asking and don’t try to do it alone. If you are unsure of how to handle your position don’t hesitate to call upon WRJ for help. Your district president is there for you as is the WRJ staff in New York.

Good luck to all the continuing sisterhood boards and to all the incoming boards. You are embarking upon a great journey. Although not theoretically in the wilderness at times you may feel like you are wondering as our ancestors did. Do not try to do it alone. Increase your numbers by asking. Seek help as Moses did and you will have a very fulfilling year or two.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm Regards,

Carol

Carol LeBovidge

WRJ Treasurer

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May 25, 2007

8 Sivan 5767

Dear WRJ friends:

We are in the desert! At least, our ancestors were in the desert during this time period. This week in Torah, we read the second portion of the book of Numbers. It really is filled with numbers since lists and censuses are prevalent. Numbers however, is the English word for this book. In Hebrew, it is called Bemidbar – which literally means in wilderness. The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness preparing, planning, traveling, and learning until they were ready to enter the Promised Land.

Let me share some of my recent preparations, plans, travels, and education with you. I just returned from but nearly a week (not quite forty years) in New York where I was privileged to participate in our annual district presidents’ council meeting and the WRJ Board of Directors meeting.

Your district presidents and first vice presidents gathered for a three day retreat at the URJ leadership camp, Kutz Camp, in Warwick, NY. We spent our time together learning and sharing in order to enhance the WRJ-district-sisterhood connection. This year, our primary focus was communication. We are trying to expand all the lines of communication with each and every one of you. We want to continue to build and grow the fabulous programs and projects of WRJ.

From camp, we traveled back to Manhattan to the WRJ office at 633 Third Avenue. The board of directors participated in three days of worshipping, learning, and expanding our horizons. Shabbat services were beautiful and meaningful. We spent time studying and reflecting. We spent time making decisions that will enable WRJ to navigate thoughtfully into the future. We were privileged to have esteemed visitors from the URJ including the president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie. We also learned about several of the URJ departments and how our successful partnerships benefit congregations.

We laughed, we cheered, and we began to anticipate our celebration of the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary at the Assembly in San Diego in December. Think party shoes!

Are you intrigued? Serving on the WRJ Board of Directors is an amazing and rewarding experience. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with interesting and passionate women who give their time, energy, and resources to WRJ. We are truly stronger together and we are making a difference in the world by helping to ensure the future of Reform Judaism.

I wish you all a sweet and restful Shabbat as I head to upstate New York for my youngest son’s graduation from Vassar College. As I look forward to spending Shabbat with all of my family, I contemplate my sisterhood journeys with all of you – and I realize the power of WRJ.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom.

Lynn Magid Lazar

WRJ First Vice President

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Presidential Report

WRJ Board of Directors

Rosanne M. Selfon

New York, New York

May 20, 2007 3 Sivan 5767

Welcome to our annual Board meeting. It’s wonderful to see everyone. I am enormously grateful to each of you for taking time from your hectic lives to be here to fulfill our WRJ constitutional mandate, gathering to determine policy and protocol for Women of Reform Judaism. Your leaders, lay and professional, value your participation, loyalty, and interest.

I first want to acknowledge my partners in our sacred work. They have been generous with time, with resources, and with love. First Vice President Lynn Magid Lazar, whose friendship I value greatly, has guided our district presidents in all their work as well as assuming oversight for the district consolidations. Lynn’s guidance, good humor, and persistence have enabled our districts to function more effectively. Speaking of districts, thank you to our district leaders, presidents, 1st VPs, and immediate past presidents, for their diligence, spirit, and hard work.

To the vice presidents Karen Sim, Susan Bass, Blair Marks, and Patti Grossman: your responsiveness and patience with long monthly conference calls and additional, unexpected tasks is appreciated. Thank you for your leadership.

Linda Henderson, your patient scribing enables WRJ to experience accurate recall from conference calls as well as meetings. Carol, you see numbers better than anyone I know. You are the only woman who probably ever re-calculated a budget, by hand, on an airplane.

To the additional members of our executive committee: Joanne Fried, Jerry Livingston, Fran Smith, Katie Roeper, and Carol Hanover, Norma Levitt, and Helene Waranch, a special thank you for your thoughtful participation and support. You are receptive to change and consistently offer good counsel.

And to our supportive past presidents, all nine of you, I am grateful for your sage advice and good humor.

To Shelley and her staff: day after day, I realize how blessed WRJ is to have you all as partners in the work we do. This small cadre accomplishes what takes far more staff in other organizations. I know Shelley will update us about her staff, but suffice to say that these wonderful women reach out to us and our affiliates with grace, dignity, and professionalism.

Shelley, you bring extraordinary skills to WRJ. You are optimistic yet realistic; you are positive yet cautious; you are funny and yet serious, and you have a Jewish soul. You champion the work of WRJ continuously. The welfare of WRJ is on your mind constantly. Thank you for all that you do, nearly 24/7, with, and for, WRJ.

This year, my report to you will take a more casual tone of a conversation. Over the past year, we have used technology extensively to communicate. You know where I’ve traveled 62 nights since we last met; you know that I served as the representative of the Reform movement on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Nominating Committee (Hadassah’s June Walker will become President June 4- the first woman to hold that position in eighteen years); you know that I proudly represented WRJ at the Consultation on Conscience when I explained, to over 600 people, WRJ’s role in advocacy and introduced Madame Secretary Madeleine Albright. You know decisions considered and made by Executive Committee. And, what you don’t know or perhaps might not recall, we’ll hear and learn together during this meeting.

So, today, I’d like to share some thoughts as well as concerns that sometimes wake me in the middle of the night. Don’t panic. WRJ is strong, but we have to strategically address critical challenges now to secure a vibrant future.

Over the past few months and in particular, in preparing for this meeting, one tune from Broadway’s The King and I kept going through my head. I’m sure it will be familiar to you—no, I’m surely not singing, just sharing the lyrics by the King:

When I was a boy

World was better spot.

What was so was so,

What was not was not.

Now I am a man;

World have changed a lot.

Some things nearly so,

Others nearly not.

There are times I almost think

I am not sure of what I absolutely know.

Very often find confusion

In conclusion I concluded long ago

In my head are many facts

That, as a student, I have studied to procure,

In my head are many facts..

Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!

Is a puzzlement.

Indeed, some of what we do or don’t do as well as how we do what we do could be termed a puzzlement.…only part of which I am sure. Let me explain.

1. About our future: I know that WRJ and our affiliated sisterhoods have value locally and globally as well as individually to women who are actively engaged. The puzzlement remains the delivery of our message. Word of WRJ rarely reaches Suzy sisterhood member, to say nothing of non-affiliated women in our congregations.

If our vision is to connect with every woman in every Reform congregation in North America, we need to pursue that vision with every resource we can muster.

In the nutshell, this is a membership conversation. There is no puzzlement here.

It’s reality check time. Caryn Meinbach has spent a lot of time scouring our lists. Maybe, just maybe we have 500 affiliated sisterhoods today. We’re still waiting for a significant number of our sisterhoods to pay dues for the current fiscal year. How many will be listed as of June 30?

I know, for sure, that I’ve been talking about membership, non-stop, since I chaired the department long ago. But here is the puzzlement. None of us have been able to turn membership attrition around. Sisterhood Sunday materials were terrific, but poorly utilized. Can they be refined? What does WRJ need to do to motivate our sisterhoods to grow their rosters? How can we be more effective?

We need to brainstorm to stem the flow out and build strength and numbers. If we don’t do something now, then at least we need the courage to ask the tough question: will sisterhood be around in ten or twenty or thirty years?

Building membership must become a priority. It doesn’t necessarily carry the cache that programs like our piloted Lilith Salons, which, by the way, motivated forty of you to create salons and recruit nearly 850 women’s participation. Membership does, however, build a future. May I suggest that we convene a think tank to develop a long range, strategic plan focused primarily on membership building? We need to learn the trends, hear what is working, and carefully listen to why women are opting out of our system. With all that pertinent information, we can make credible decisions to move forward.

2. About women: I know that women are marvelous creations of God; we always have been. In 2007, we’re just more open about sharing how terrific we are. Look to your left; look to your right. Fabulous women are seated everywhere in this room. We are able and competent. We are comfortable in kitchens (when we want to be there) as well as courtrooms and hospitals. Certainly, glass ceilings still exist; to deny their existence would be bury our heads in the sand. And, the next generations of women will have opportunities we can’t begin to imagine.

I also know, for sure, that we women try to balance family, career, and even volunteering. We take very good care of those whom we love: our parents, our children, our grandchildren, our friends, and work associates. Many of us are caught in the middle; we mirror the core of a club sandwich. That means, unfortunately, that we take less and less time to care for ourselves unless we are faced a health crisis we can’t be ignored.

I also know, for sure, that women often rank last on their ‘to do’ list. Recently, we asked local leaders what their no-holds-barred ideal sisterhood program would be. They didn’t say study or religious activities; oh, a few did. What was at the top of the list? .…massages, spa days, traveling together, and so forth. Translation, in 2007, our women will turn to a sisterhood for camaraderie and fun. Through sisterhood, they escape life’s daily drudge.

This presents yet another puzzlement. What should we offer? How can we plan? What I know, for sure, is that we need to listen closely so that our programmatic offerings provide members what they want, not what we think they need. That holds for WRJ as well as the local sisterhood.

3. Moving forward: I know, for sure, that publishing this commentary The Torah: A Women’s Commentary offers potential to reposition WRJ in the influential landscape of the movement. This publication can facilitate changing our image if we promote and endorse change. Make no mistake, too many congregants still believe we are women who only do Onegs, make the dinners, play games, and write checks.

This commentary, that we have literally birthed (without us, ladies, there would be no new women’s commentary), this commentary can and should be the vehicle that transports WRJ to a new era. We should get and take credit for the creation of this book. Only WRJ drove the project to say nothing of funding it. Any of us who don’t use this commentary as a means to debut a new time in sisterhood life are missing an incredible opportunity for change.

The puzzlement…will we be smart and strategically ride its success? This commentary promises much. Are we ready to transform ourselves and our sisterhoods and WRJ? That is the puzzlement.

4. Appreciation and Acknowledgement: I know that we women give and give and give. Our mission provides support through service and resources. What I also know, for sure, is that we are far more than check writers. We are donors. You will hear more from Shelley about how WRJ is moving to modify how we give, not what we give, so that we are treated the way we would treat those who are generous and supportive of us.

5. Leadership: I know, for sure, that each of our lives were forever changed the day that we joined our local sisterhood and became active. None of us would be sitting here today without taking that initial step.

I also know, for sure, that some women are workers, some are participants, and a very few are leaders. The great puzzlement: Where are the leaders? Obviously, we often hear that identifying local leadership can be a challenge. But today, I am talking about leadership for WRJ.

Two weeks ago, I emailed you regarding the low number of applications for the WRJ Board of Directors. To date, we have received only twenty. Memory refresh: Nearly half the elected board positions change every two years. Where are the women we can look to for future leadership?

In the board survey (and thank you to the eighty-seven women who replied) as well as responses by personal email, some of you shared, quite thoughtfully, that finances were the main issue. Others commented we expect too much; we are elitist; only the rich can afford to be WRJ Board members. I have to be honest; this all worries me.

I know, for sure, that leadership at every level is self-selective. All leadership comes with an investment of time and resources. I know, for sure, that every leader expends personal funds whether you coach little league and buy the ice cream after a win or lead a sisterhood and bring the snacks. By the way, did you remember that your contributions as well as expenses incurred with attending meetings and assemblies are all tax deductible? Did you remember to tell that to women who were considering serving on the board? And did you remember to tell potential candidates how enriching and personally rewarding your service on the board is?

Ladies, I know, for sure, that women make choices about how they spend disposable income…to buy that latte or magazine or book; to have that manicure; to take that trip, to pay for a course, and on and on. We all make choices, and sometimes they are tough to make. To that end, I am grateful that each of you is here today and has elected to choose WRJ as a recipient of your tzedakah.

But what of our future? This is the puzzlement. More and more women are attending our leadership conferences. As you will hear, the April conference was a smashing success. We need to ask ourselves about the missing link: what we are not doing to cultivate women to take that next step in the leadership ladder with WRJ? How do we engage potential leaders?

I hope that part of our answer resides in asking a very select, small group to participate in a Rising Leaders program. You’ll hear about that program in Karen Sim’s department report. Growing leadership, ladies, is as critical to WRJ’s future as is growing membership.

This Shabbat, we began to read the book of Torah named Bemidbar translated as ‘in the wilderness.' In English we call it Numbers. Bemidbar can be WRJ’s guide. Right now, it might feel as if we are, indeed, in the wilderness. But like our ancestors, we will become stronger because of this wandering as long as we eventually exit the midbar.

In our commentary, Dr. Judith Baskin comments in the post-biblical section for Bemidbar, “. . . that compared to slavery in Egypt, the wilderness experience was luxurious. Furthermore, the midrash continues, God assigned three mentors to sustain Israel in the desert: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Due to the merits of Moses, the people ate manna; due to the merits of Aaron, God encircled Israel with clouds of glory; and due to the merits of Miriam, they were accompanied by a miraculous well.

Fellow board members and WRJ leaders, we are the mentors of WRJ. We will sustain each other in our quest to strengthen WRJ. We will emerge with pride and purpose. We will, together, strategically plan a bright future.

I thank each of you for being a partner in this sacred work of women, and of course, just for being yourselves. Thank you.

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I want to begin by thanking you all for being here. Your dedication and commitment to Women of Reform Judaism is remarkable and sets an important example for your sisterhoods, our future leadership, and your family. I especially want to thank our president, my partner, Rosanne Selfon, for her beyond selfless approach to her presidency. I call her the energizer bunny – just wind her up and she goes and goes and goes. Rosanne and I have a shared vision for Women of Reform Judaism and a shared approach to leadership. Working with Rosanne has been a blessing, and truly my pleasure, as it has also been to work with each and every woman on the executive committee. I also want to thank our officers, who have challenged and helped me to grow as your executive director and as an individual.

Though I get to speak with many of you throughout the year, it seems that our coming together just once a year is never enough. We have policies to implement, programming to plan, challenges to overcome, problems to solve, successes to share, and of course, friends to catch up with.

Larry Bossidy, the former CEO of Allied Signal, understood that a leader could not know or do everything. He said “Being a leader is a humbling job. The more you search, the more you recognize that there is a lot more to do all the time.” I’m glad we’re here together this weekend to search for answers and plan for the organization we all feel so strongly about.

This has been quite a busy year. The plans that you made last year for WRJ were significant and comprehensive. Throughout our time together this weekend you’ll be updated on many items that were on our “To Do” list for this year including:

The new website <

• The WRJ/Lilith Salon Project The Torah Study Day for Parashat Chayei Sarah
• Our trip to IsraelA Women’s Journey Uniongram Week
• Sisterhood SundayThe Sisterhood Connection Project
• The Sisterhood Leadership Conference
• And, of course, the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary

That’s quite a list, given our very small staff of eight full-time and two part-time women who are charged with the planning, production and implementation of these programs, along with their “regular” work. I want to thank our staff, Linda, Caryn, Helene, Carolyn, Lindsay, Sharon, Joyce, Pat, Judy, and Joan, for the incredibly great job they all do. I recently described our staff to someone as a well-oiled machine, a fantastic team that works incredibly hard and cares about – and for - each other. I must have given us a kinahorah, because we’ve just found out that Caryn will be leaving us as she’s moving with her husband to Florida. Caryn, after witnessing your terrific work this weekend for District Presidents’ Council, we all realize what a loss your leaving will be for WRJ. Lindsay, thank you for sharing your beautiful voice with us during services yesterday.

The Executive Committee has also made some changes over the past year, most notably, as Rosanne mentioned yesterday, how we will be funding our YES Fund recipient organizations. In other words, how we will be giving away our money. To properly achieve the recognition WRJ and our member sisterhoods deserve, we have asked that our donations be honored with named programs. For instance, our gift to the Union for Reform Judaism will now partly be used to name the NFTY Mitzvah Corps, the WRJ NFTY Mitzvah Corps. As you heard yesterday, our grant to Hebrew Union College will establish 7 named WRJ scholars each year. From this point, we are making it policy that our name be attached directly to the programming our larger grants support. This is an important message for you to take back to your sisterhoods and congregations – your members will be seeing more tangibly the results of their hard work on behalf of the YES Fund.

Another naming opportunity has arisen that we will consider together. I recently sent you all an article about three rabbis being ordained in Germany for the first time since the rabbinical college was shut down by the Nazis in 1942. Rabbi Walter Homolka, a former YES Fund scholarship recipient, is President of the Abraham Geiger College that graduated these students, two of whom received WRJ YES Fund Scholarship support. Rabbi Homolka has developed a plan with the Breslauer-Soref Foundation to begin a Jewish Institute of Cantorial Arts. We have the opportunity to become a founder of this exciting new institution in Europe, and have the Music Library of the new Cantorial College named for Women of Reform Judaism. These future cantor/educators will be able to fill the professional role in hundreds of congregations in central and Eastern Europe without rabbis. According to Dr. Homolka, the cantorial role is seen as less clergy, more cultural, and so would attract students not necessarily willing to take on a rabbinate. These cantors will be a strong link between these congregations and the Progressive Movement.

Yesterday, we learned from Parashat Bamidbar, from the book of Numbers, about Moses being charged by Adonai to count the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 21, 22, NahMANides points out that this census took place after the pestilence and plague. He points to the moral of Jewish history: we have not succumbed in spite of decimation through suffering and persecution. On the contrary we have increased and multiplied.

WRJ has been facing membership attrition for more than a decade and we are now at a point where we must find a way to reverse this trend; find a way to have our membership increase and multiply. Through our history we’ve always had membership peaks and valleys; we seem now to be at a watershed. Our 94 year legacy is one of survival through cultural, social and sociological change. What was important to our membership 10, 20 or 30 years ago is not necessarily meaningful to them today. We know the lifestyles of our members have changed; nearly all are working; nearly everyone has limited time. We have to reverse the decline in our membership numbers, and we must show our congregational women that sisterhood is as relevant, as meaningful, today as ever. And, perhaps, more necessary. Last year, when I was troubled with an irritating health problem for a few months, I sent a Friday email to the listservs explaining the guilt I felt because I wasn’t 100% “there” for my family, my friends, and for WRJ. I told our members that through this problem, feeling my energy wane and at first feeling guilty, I had finally learned I could not be all things to all people all the time. I reminded our women to be kind to themselves and find even 10 minutes each day which belonged only to them. I got more responses to this email than to any I have ever sent; woman telling me their day to day challenges, describing their very sad personal tragedies, and thanking me for giving them permission, as many said, to selfishly think about themselves for a few minutes each day.

Women today are living with the stress of caring for young children while working full time; of caring for their aging parents while caring for their children, and yes, these women, too, are working. Younger women are confronted with the difficult choice of staying home to raise their children, or continuing their careers without a childcare safety net. If they stay at home, they’re reminded they face the possibility of divorce and statistically an old age of financial challenge. If they choose to work while their children are young, then they’re made to feel they’re not nurturing mothers and are harming their children. What about our empty nesters who are coping with being childless for the first time? Women who are newly widowed or divorced? Our grandmothers who now have to unexpectedly care for grandchildren or are forced to continue to work past retirement age because of financial constraints? What about women in interfaith families? These women need to find a meaningful sanctuary in sisterhood. We can provide the community, the respite from daily stresses, women are desperately seeking.

But, we cannot become what Charles Pollard calls “arrogantly ignorant” – assuming that we, as leaders, know what our sisterhood members want and need – we have to get out among our congregational women, listen and learn from them. And success can only come, Bossidy tells us, when the leader realizes that others have to share the load. Get you board and committed sisterhood members together and make the phone calls to congregants who are not sisterhood members; find why they don’t belong; ask them about what’s going on in their live and what they would want from sisterhood. Ask your current membership what they love about sisterhood and why they belong. Ask them what the y DON’T like about sisterhood. Caucus with your rabbi and temple leadership and find out how sisterhood can help them; work with the new member committee to ensure that new women feel welcome in and educated about sisterhood and the congregation. Open the lines of communication. Build the relationships; one phone call or invitation is not enough – be persistent. Not in an obtrusive way, but in the warm, caring, and engaging way that women are. Listen. Respond. Communicate. Show the value of belonging to sisterhood by being responsive and planning programming that will be meaningful to your constituents. Show them the power of being part of an organization that speaks with one voice for nearly 75,000 women.

We are instructed in Pirke Avot to participate in the work of the community. You have certainly contributed to the task, and, as we are taught, are not responsible for its completion. But you are responsible for ensuring that there will be women behind you to take up the work you have begun. Much as our foremothers worked to ensure that we would be here 94 years later, will our great grandchildren be working to ensure the future of Reform Judaism 94 years from now? This is our challenge – and our obligation. As Larry Hoffman said yesterday, this is a revolution, and we can be part of it, or we can sit on the sidelines and hope that someone else will take action. I talked to Larry after he spoke with the group and he asked me to relay a message to you. He said, “If anyone can ensure the future of our movement, it will be the women.” Ladies, let’s join the revolution. We can do this – let’s make it happen.

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May 18, 2007

1 Sivan, 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

At this time of year installations occur, boards change, and we transfer the safekeeping of our sisterhoods to a new group of women. They must often be transformed from dedicated members, wonderful though they may be, into visionary leaders, entrusted with the future of our sisterhoods, a holy covenant.

It happens that this week we begin to read the book of Numbers. In Hebrew this book is B’midbar, literally "in the wilderness." The rabbis of the Talmud tried to understand the significance of the wilderness as the place where most of the Torah occurs. We are taught that we all received the Torah in the wilderness at Mount Sinai because we are a continuous generation of the Children of Israel. Perhaps if we think of the Torah as a metaphor for leadership, we can understand this better.

Torah (Leadership) is the gift that comes from wilderness, say the rabbis. They taught that you must "make yourself like a wilderness" in order to receive Torah; but, how?

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser of Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA writes: “To the ancients, the wilderness was a place beyond the borders of a people or nation. The wilderness was an ownerless no-man's-land and was free for all to pass through. The wilderness also was an unknown land of danger.”

Perhaps the rabbis meant that to receive Torah (the mantle of leadership) you must release yourself from attachments, shake yourself loose from the illusion that you are owned by or that you own anyone, anything, or any idea. To be a leader you must make yourself truly free.

Perhaps the rabbis also meant that you must be open to receive the Torah (to take on a leadership role). Only when you are willing, like the wilderness, to have all people and all ideas pass through you, will you truly be a leader.

Finally, the rabbis warn that receiving Torah (accepting leadership) involves danger – the danger of being vulnerable to the unknown. To be a leader, you must confront your fears and do battle with personal demons. It is sometimes a time for deep introspection, and that can be frightening.

In these three understandings – freedom, openness, and vulnerability – leadership means releasing yourself from the external demands of others, and from your own pre-conceptions, and cultivating independent thought. (Nowhere is it written in the Torah “we’ve always done it that way!”)

The Torah in the wilderness is like leadership you achieve when you empty yourself of material expressions of success and open yourself up to possibilities of Godliness. Becoming a wilderness yourself means laying aside the ordinary and allowing the holy to enter.

May you walk into your own promised lands transformed with new vision, and may the work you do in your sisterhoods bring you closer to God.

Transform yourself with other WRJ leaders at our next Assembly in San Diego, December 12-16, 2007 as we learn, lead and laugh together!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Warmly,
Ronni Udoff
Program Co-Chair
46^th WRJ Assembly

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May 11, 2007
23 Iyar 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

Shabbat greetings! Aren't we blessed to have 24 hours to breathe...to stop and catch our breath after the hectic weekdays? God magnificently planned life…this resting motif has merit!

But before you turn off your computers, hold the mail, let the phone ring, and on and on, I have a question for you. Torah, the core of Jewish life, is filled with stories and lessons. We have centuries of commentary as well as midrashim that provide additional insights into each parashat. So, one could ask, why do we need another commentary? To be specific, why do we need The Torah: A Women's Commentary?

I've been asked that question during my quest to raise the $1.5 million to fund the publication. Those of you who fundraise know what I mean when I jokingly say that people see me and head for the hills! They often don't say “hi”; they simply ask how much the conversation will cost. And actually, that's fine with me because I am passionate about this commentary. I know that it will change the face of Bible study.

Telling the commentary's fascinating history is a privilege. Since 1993, WRJ has worked steadily to publish this women-authored commentary that will endow Biblical women, present and missing, with voices. Utilizing the extraordinary talents of clergy, archeologists, academicians, historians, and poets, our editors and the URJ Press, our publishing partner, are now ready to bring this historic volume to each of you.

At the recent Sisterhood Leadership Conference in Tyson's Corner, more than 140 women studied with Associate Editor Rabbi Andrea Weiss. Andrea guided us through a discussion of Parashat Shemini when Aaron was silent in the face of his son's tragic deaths. Commentators have always felt challenged to explain Aaron's behavior.

In the section called Contemporary Reflections in Shemini, our editors included an essay by Blu Greenberg, a feminist in the Orthodox community. Her words share her very personal response when her 37-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident. Essentially, Blu wanted and needed silence during shiva. Though words were meant in kindness, she needed silence to find her own pathway to accepting this great loss. She understood that Aaron needed silence because she too needed it. Reading her words and feeling deep compassion for her needs made each of us aware, in a new way, that Torah can speak to us relevantly today.

Ladies, I urge you to order your copies of the commentary. Present them as gifts; give them to your Temple library and study classes; honor adult b'nai mitzvot; give them to your children and grandchildren; and stock your Judaica shop. Save now with the pre-publication pricing schedule that can be found on our website www.WomenofReformJudaism.org on the Torah Commentary page. The deadline for this special pricing is June 1.

Friends, as part of WRJ, you are part of history. This commentary is the most anticipated religious publication of the decade. Catch the excitement. Celebrate the debut of The Torah: A Women's Commentary at the launch party in San Diego in December at WRJ’s 46^th assembly.

Oh…don't forget, you can still support this historic publication with your own and your sisterhood's contributions. Yes, I'm still making those calls and visits!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten your lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,
Rosanne M. Selfon
President

PS. A final request….Serving on the WRJ Board of Directors ranks at the top of my personal list of incredible opportunities that have come my way in my life. I invite you to submit your application for the Board TODAY. I know you will enjoy special personal relationships, grow in spirit and knowledge, and enrich your own sisterhood.

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May 4, 2007

16 lyar, 5767

Dear WRJ Friends:

This week’s Parashat focuses on time, specifically, how we are to spend our time in observation of sacred occasions. But what about all the other days of our lives – the six days that link one Shabbat to the next – the days that pave our journey between Rosh Hashanah, Tu B’Shevat, Shavuot? I would suggest that we are as much defined by how we spend an ordinary moment as we are by how we acknowledge the sacred ones and that it is actually the daily collection of ordinary moments that ultimately shape our extraordinary lives.

While clearly the greatest gift that God has given us is life, perhaps the second most valuable gift given to human beings is choice. And if we make the right choices, we can see the divine in every moment of our life, not just those that have been calendared as sacred, but in all of the ordinary moments that are sandwiched in between.

This, I believe, is exceedingly difficult in a world that gives us multiple choices every minute. There are more ways to spend our time now than ever before…and tomorrow new opportunities will be added. So how do we decide to spend an hour, a day, or even a weekend contributing our talents to an organization like WRJ? How do we balance our family, job, spiritual life, and still have time to volunteer? How do we decide, for instance, to serve on the WRJ Board, when there is so much to do in our own Temples, in our own communities, in our own homes? How do we commit to one more thing? Did God mean for us to be this busy?

I asked myself these very questions when I first considered serving on the WRJ Board of Directors. My answer was found in the wisdom of Hillel, “If not now, when?” Now, having served for nearly two years, here is why I believe it was the right choice. WRJ Board service helps me to bring together family, career, spiritual life, and a sense of giving back as a volunteer in ways that no other organization can. As a board member, I have become a part of a larger family…a family of Jewish women from across the United States and Canada… compassionate women who have expanded my mind to better understand the need for resolutions that speak out against global poverty, economic injustice, and adolescent self-destructive behavior. I have sharpened my skills in strategic planning and organizational development, which have translated to stronger leadership in my Temple, in my sisterhood, and in my career. I have seen first-hand the magic that each sisterhood creates in this world when they contribute to the YES Fund. I have had the privilege of helping to determine how those contributions are distributed – a tremendous responsibility when the need is always greater than the resources. I have emerged from meetings with a sense of awe, for the collective power of Reform Jewish women from over 500 congregations – Stronger Together.

There is an opportunity before each of us with every moment of our life. We can choose to wait or we can choose to act. Sometimes acting pushes us out of our comfort zone – it may mean traveling to a place we have never been – it may mean walking into a room without a familiar face – it may mean learning a new skill. For me, deciding to serve on the WRJ Board meant all of these things. I did it though, because I thought that it was the right thing to do. But the truth is that my family, my sisterhood, my Temple, my community, my job, and I have all benefited in ways I never could have imagined. When I made the choice to serve on the WRJ Board, I made the right choice; and I know that because of my service to WRJ, I have found the divine in thousands of ordinary moments. I invite you to do the same.

Nominating forms for the WRJ board of directors are due May 17. Please make the choice to nominate a qualified member of your sisterhood for this honor or ask your sisterhood to nominate you. Information about board responsibilities and requirements, as well as the application, can be found in the leadership resource section (accessed only when you sign in) of the website at www.WomenofReformJudaism.org.

May the divine that you discover in the lights of Shabbat, continue to shine in your ordinary moments throughout the week.

Shabbat Shalom.

Katie Roeper

WRJ Executive Committee

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April 27, 2007

Iyar 9 5767

Dear WRJ Friends:

From April 15^th –17^th my husband and I joined several hundred Reform Jews in Washington, DC for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s Consultation on Conscience. Our first Consultation, two years ago, compelled us to continue this new tradition of learning more about social justice from those whose influence impacts our actions

The schedule was packed with speakers from “both sides of the aisle,” each of whom had at least one issue or cause upon which “we” agreed as a bridge for increasing understanding and collaboration.

On Sunday evening WRJ President Rosanne Selfon introduced Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State, and shared WRJ history and activities with the audience. She made us so proud with her warmth and grace!! Ms Albright, who proclaimed herself an “idealistic realist”, and Rabbi David Saperstein, RAC Director, engaged in a conversation about the US economy, the war in Iraq, the Middle East, her vast experience, and so much more. To me, her message was that humanity is good and that God is on our side and that we need to be on God’s side as we deal with all of the issues facing our world

On Monday we listened to Reverend Jim Wallis, president and executive director of Sojourner/Call to Renewal; Tommy Thompson, former Wisconsin Governor; David Kuo, Washington Editor of Beliefnet.com and a former Special Assistant to President Bush and the Office of Faith-Based/Community Initiatives; Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL); Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY); and His Excellency Sallai Meridor, Ambassador of Israel to the US. We also participated in round table discussions and Q & A’s with most of the speakers. Again, and again the message was that we must take care of our planet; take care of the health, safety, and economic well-being of people; pay attention to what is right and wrong, not to the right and the left; make good choices, and encourage others in our world to make sensible choices.

On Tuesday we to the Capitol and continued to hear speakers on important issues. We were welcomed by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), then we were thrilled to hear Representative Nancy Pelosi, the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives, and were energized by the words of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Our enthusiasm continued as Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA); Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH); surprise guest Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jewish mom and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL); Andrew Natsios, Presidential Special Envoy for Sudan; and Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) spoke on topics of immense concern to our movement and to each of us.

Not surprisingly, the Torah portion for this week, Acharei Mot/Kedoshim, Leviticus 16:1-20:27 reminds us of the same messages: to take care of what God has given us and, in a larger sense, that our world family is vulnerable and that our Jewish ethics include kindness and humanity as we desire to pursue justice.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood

With warm regards

Linda

Linda Henderson

WRJ Secretary

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April 20, 2007

2 Iyar, 5767

Dear WRJ Friends:

Our Torah portion this week is Tazria-Metzora, Leviticus 12:1 - 15:33. It focuses on the rituals of purification for women who have just given birth, for recognizing and treating skin diseases, how to purify those who suffer and those who come into contact with individuals with these afflictions, and whether or not to separate them from the community. Although this portion offers some insight about the human condition when knowledge of medicine was in its infancy, it shines a light on challenges and concerns of our ancestors during ancient times.

As Rabbi Nancy Wiener tells us, “This portion reminds us of essential questions we must ask ourselves as individuals and as a community: Is the progress we perceive real if it is predicated on removing individuals from our midst? As Reform Jews, we affirm the importance of inclusion. Our communities are open to those who would like to join us.” Like the priest in this week's portion, each of us can be the embodiment of holiness. We can move from within the community of which we are a part and reach out to those who are on the periphery, knowing that our personal status will not be negatively affected and that the status of the entire community will be thereby elevated. Like our ancestors in the desert, we must remember and be responsible for reminding others that none of us makes progress unless all of us participate, unless all of us matter."

WRJ hosted an extraordinary Sisterhood Leadership Conference this past weekend in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Sisterhood leaders from across the country joined together to celebrate Shabbat, to study Torah, and to learn from each other. In so doing, we shared our skills, learned together, and developed strategies about meeting our challenges to grow our sisterhoods and to engage all members of our community. Stronger together, we seek to embrace women in our congregations who might be on the periphery of sisterhood involvement and not pass them by. As we reach out to our less involved members and enable them to participate, our entire community benefits. Every woman of the congregation should be a member of sisterhood and each woman has gifts, capabilities and wisdom to share, enriching our collective experience.

Share your gifts and wisdom with your sisterhood. Offering others the opportunity to become involved is a gift you may offer which will perpetuate your sisterhood’s vitality and growth.

Have a restful and joyous Shabbat and may the light of the Shabbat candles brighten our lives. Please share this with your sisterhood.

Shabbat Shalom,

Patti Grossman

WRJ Vice President Department Programming and Advocacy

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April 18, 2007

Over the past week, many WRJ members have been busy meeting, planning, and learning. Let me update you with information about three different meetings.

With your support through dues and growth in our YES Fund, WRJ will be able to serve our sisterhoods and support the causes which we consider near to our hearts. We thank you all, our sisterhoods and individual supporters, for your continued and renewed participation and sustenance…doing holy work does, indeed, require financial support!

Many elected officials spoke to the group including Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tom Harkin, Henry Waxman, Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, and Sherrod Brown, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Representatives Keith Ellison, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Mark Kirk, and Charles Rangel. His Excellency Sallai Meridor, Ambassador of Israel to the US, also talked.

Warm regards,

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April 13, 2007

Just four weeks ago, I was celebrating Shabbat in Jerusalem during “Connections 2007”, the 33^rd International Convention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. You have received many glowing reports of this outstanding event, and I do not want to be repetitious. However, the occasion underscored my long-held belief that, just as our weekly Shabbats, with their respective parashot, mark our journey through the Torah, my own Shabbat experiences reflect my journey through more than fifty years of sisterhood life.

But perhaps the most meaningful such Shabbats are those I have spent with you and the women of your sisterhoods in your individual congregations and districts, at conventions, meetings and retreats, sitting together in large sanctuaries or at camp, joining hands, voices and hearts in expressions of our shared faith. Although too numerous to count, these experiences are forever etched in my memory for the special bonds which brought us together, the special community of warm, caring women we created, and the special feelings of spiritual uplift we took away with us.

Friday, April 6, 2007

18 Nisan 5767

Dear Friends:

As Passover is mid-way through its cycle, I am reminded again of one of the reasons I decided to join WRJ – my concern for Jewish continuity. The theme of continuity is clearly and simply expressed in the Haggadah: “In each generation every person is obliged to feel as though he or she personally came out of Egypt.”

This theme seems to be resonating for me since our recent trip to Israel and the World Union for Reform Judaism Convention. There, I was touched by the passion of liberal Jews from all around the world who are working to build or renew Jewish communities decimated (or forbidden) in the last century. We tend to take for granted the ease, freedom, and comfort with which we live our North American Jewish lives. Though we deal with the challenge of integrating a diverse population into our communities, concerns about interfaith marriage, and how we can make our synagogues more relevant, most of us have a free and open religious life.

In Israel, I met with liberal Jews from the Czech Republic who have no rabbi, but continue the traditions of our faith with a fierce dedication, commitment, and energy, though it is often difficult for them to do so. I met Jews from India who were intensely proud of (and were honored for) the longevity and faithfulness of their very small congregation, though they, too, have no full time rabbi. I met young adults from the former Soviet Union infused with joy and an enthusiasm for Progressive Judaism that I rarely see in daily life among our own children.

Passover is the time when, as Rabbi von Bacharach said, “Jews who have drifted from the faith of their fathers…are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears.” So, as I go through this week of Passover, hearing the sounds of my family around the Seder table, preparing for our upcoming Sisterhood Leadership Conference attended by those who work hard to maintain and advance congregational and sisterhood life, and frying up yet another batch of matzo brie (!), I am comforted knowing that Reform Judaism continues to flourish, not only here in North America, but throughout the world.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Shelley Lindauer

Executive Director

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March 30, 2007

11 Nisan 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

Next week will begin Pesach. Each year at the Seder we celebrate Judaism—its past, its present, and its future. We remember to tell the story of the exodus, the bringing forth, of the Israelites from Egypt. In the present we enjoy being together with our families and friends and we are reminded of our Jewish future when we say “next year in Jerusalem.”

I have just returned from the fabulous WRJ trip to Israel and from participating in the 33^rd Convention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism where we, too, celebrated the past, present, and future of the Jewish people, especially of Reform Judaism. As a new member of the Executive Committee of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, I would like to tell you about the past, present, and exciting future of Progressive Judaism across the globe.

The World Union was established in London by Lily Montagu and Claude Montifiore in 1926 as the international umbrella organization uniting progressive Jewish communities. Today the World Union consists of 1200 Reform, Liberal, Progressive, and Reconstructionist congregations with over 1.7 million members in forty-two countries on six continents. It “strengthens Jewish life in Israel and worldwide by establishing and supporting modern, pluralistic congregations and institutions, developing Jewish communal life and youth leadership, and advancing social justice.”

Over the last fifteen years seventy new congregations have emerged in the Former Soviet Union with only six rabbis, all recipients of WRJ scholarships, to serve them. The Czech Republic has ten fledgling congregations with only one part-time rabbi from Germany (also a WRJ scholarship recipient) serving them and Germany has twenty similar congregations. I was fascinated by the stories that so many told about how their congregations are struggling to survive, to provide their children with Jewish experiences and a Jewish identity, and to train lay people to teach their children and conduct services.

The Israel Movement of Progressive Judaism has twenty-five congregations and is ordaining several rabbis each year from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Israel to serve them. Unlike the Orthodox rabbis of Israel, our Progressive rabbis do not receive salaries from the Israeli government. These congregations often serve as community centers, providing preschool education, helping less fortunate Jews in their communities, offering bat mitzvah celebrations, and educating all age groups.

The World Union strives to sustain and grow these struggling communities and congregations with its limited funds and staff members as well as coordinating the efforts of the Netzer Olami, the World Union’s international youth movement and offering Jewish camping opportunities for younger children from across the world.

As members of Women of Reform Judaism, we must all be proud of our continued support of the World Union for Progressive Judaism since its very inception. Through your personal contributions to the Circle of Service and by becoming Lifeline members, and your sisterhood’s ongoing support of the YES Fund, WRJ continues to be a significant annual contributor to the programs and services of the World Union. We give scholarships to many overseas rabbis, contribute to the Israeli rabbinic program, and support special projects and programs through our newly established YES Fund grants. When your sisterhood makes its annual contribution to the World Union, the money is sent to help maintain these overseas Progressive communities.

Together Women of Reform Judaism and each of you are helping to ensure the growth and development of Progressive Judaism throughout the world. You are helping many to have the opportunity to explore their Jewish identity for the first time. You are supporting new, struggling Jewish congregations who are so anxious to develop permanence and to offer religious services and education in their communities.

As you celebrate Passover and enjoy being with your families and friends at your Seders, remember the importance of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the role of Women of Reform Judaism which helps provide hope and a future to Progressive Jewish people around the world.

I wish you a most joyous and meaningful Pesach.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives across the globe. Please share this with your sisterhood members.

Happy Pesach and Shabbat Shalom,

Helene H. Waranch

Immediate Past President

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March 23, 2007

Nisan 4 5767

This week we begin reading Leviticus, known as the Book of Sacrifices. For many of us, it is a difficult journey through this Book, as it describes in great detail the various sacrifices the people were instructed to make in the beautiful Tabernacle. This week's portion includes the details of various types of sacrifices: burnt, meal (flour), first grain, peace, sin (private and communal), guilt sacrifices (varied upon one's ability to pay), sacrifices for inadvertently expropriating something sacred to G-d, and also to help atone for dishonesty.

This past weekend a dear friend, a former rabbi of our congregation, was visiting. I mentioned to him that I had been asked to write this week’s Shabbat message from WRJ, and I was having some difficulty connecting sin offerings to sisterhood! In his usual way, Rabbi Schaktman suggested that I look more deeply in the Hebrew root for “sacrifice” – and there might find inspiration for this message.

The Hebrew root kof-resh-bet, of the word korban or sacrifice, is the same as the root of the word karov or near. Thus, offering a sacrifice was a form of drawing near to the divine presence.

Re-reading the parasha with that in mind, it occurred to me that really, “drawing near” to God is what WRJ is all about. Whether we are planning programs, studying Torah, preparing the Oneg, or writing letters to our military men and women, we are helping the women in our congregations draw nearer to God. Everything we do has a spiritual component. We offer the women of our congregations an opportunity to find their own special connection to God. Everything we do is in that context.

How do we accomplish that goal – to help women draw nearer to God? Let’s go back to this week’s parasha. Va–yikra, "And the Lord called”. Rashi says that God always called to Moses before speaking to him, just as we call out the name of our spouse or children so that we are sure that they are paying attention. But perhaps there is another interpretation. Perhaps Moses was hesitating to enter the tent, and God called out to him to encourage him to enter.

As sisterhood leaders, it is our responsibility to “call out” to the women in our congregations, encouraging them to enter our “tent” – the warm, caring community of sisterhood. We are an organization of over 75,000 women, whose collective voice is raised in advocacy of issues that affect women and children across the globe. We are truly, stronger together.

How can WRJ help you to encourage women to not only join sisterhood, but be active, committed members? We have several ways, from a fabulous web site (www.WomenofReformJudaism.org), to an active listserv, to an incredibly responsive team of women in the WRJ office. But there is another, more immediate way that WRJ can help – our district structure.

For the past several years the WRJ board has been looking at the way our districts operate and how we can make them more “user friendly”. With the help of the district leadership, we have codified the district leadership positions, written job descriptions, and set measurable goals and objectives for our district leadership. Perhaps the most far reaching decision that the WRJ board made in this regard was to approve the consolidation of several sets of districts and also to approve the naming of districts by geographical area, rather than number. For example, the districts which were formerly 4 and 5 are now the Atlantic District.

The district exists to serve as a liaison between the local sisterhoods and WRJ and to offer immediate, hands-on assistance to you, our sisterhood members.

Your district leadership is ready, willing and able to offer such assistance in every area of WRJ life. These women are often past leaders of their own sisterhoods, familiar with the sisterhoods in your area and well versed in WRJ programs and projects. Your district leaders will come to your sisterhood and conduct board training, give a Shabbat sermon on Sisterhood Shabbat, or conduct an installation service. They are available by telephone or e-mail for questions, large or small. Each district has chairmanships which correspond to the WRJ structure, along with some specific to that district. District leaders organize area meetings with interesting and informative speakers. Each district holds a biennial meeting, during which new officers are installed. These biennial meetings are an opportunity for local sisterhood presidents to network with other sisterhood leaders, hear words of inspiration from well known rabbis and cantors, and meet outstanding WRJ leaders from the WRJ board. Give your district president a call – you’ll be glad you did!

God called to Moses and encouraged him to enter the tent. We too must encourage women to enter our tent, the tent of sisterhood, using all of the tools WRJ has to offer.

Shabbat Shalom!

May the light of the Shabbat Candles brighten all of our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

-fredi Bleeker Franks

Houston, TX

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March 16, 2007

26 Adar 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

Greetings from Israel! I can't believe it was 8 1/2 months ago that I wrote to you in this column about how I was daydreaming about the WRJ trip to Israel: "Israel, A Women's Journey." After a long overnight flight, twenty-one of us arrived here tired but eager to go.

On Monday we visited one of 30 Mechinot across Israel. Machina is a gap program between high school graduation and army service. The one we visited in Jaffa is supported by the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) The teens split their time between volunteering and study. They prepare for army service by traveling throughout Israel. The emphasis of their training is mental. moral and emotional. They are all very enthusiastic and bright. Out future is in very good hands.

We also visited Beit Daniel Synagogue and heard about their conversion school. They work with 100 adults per year compared to 1000 in the Orthodox community. Maria, one of the converts told us her very interesting story.

Both of these programs are supported by your YES Fund contributions.

In this week's Parasha, Vayakhel/Pekude, the Lord tells Moses to tell the Israelites to bring gifts to the Lord. They shall bring gold, silver, copper, fine linens, yarns, animal skins, wood, oil, spices, and precious stones. The Lord states "everyone whose heart so moves him shall bring" gifts for the Lord. He then states that "all among you who are skilled, come and make all that the Lord has commanded". The Israelites then bring all that they have to the artisans so that they can build the Tabernacle. So much is brought that Moses has to ask them to please stop bringing these goods because they have more than enough to build the Tabernacle and all it's accoutrements.

Today we are asked to contribute to the best of our ability to help our communities. We do not bring tangible goods. Rather we give monetary gifts. After seeing the good that our gifts to the YES Fund bring to the two programs mentioned above, I know that we can never say that we have given enough. These are just two of the many programs that we support. Although these grants do so much good for the organizations that we give to there is always a need for additional help.

After visiting the Machina program and Beit Daniel and seeing what an impact our dollars have on them I would encourage all of you to let your sisterhoods know that what they give to YES Fund does indeed have a profound impact on the grantees. I hope that everyone's heart moves her to give, for the more that we give the more that WRJ can grant and the more these grantees can do for their constituents.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

May the light of the Shabbat Candles brighten all of our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Carol LeBovidge

WRJ Treasurer

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March 9, 2007

19 Adar 5767

Dear WRJ Friends,

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves unto Aaron and said to him: ‘Up, make us a god who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.”

(Ki Tisa-Exodus 32:1)

According to the rabbis in the Midrash, Moses arrived six hours later than expected. They derive this from the usage of the word boshesh in the Hebrew narrative, which means delayed, but sounds like bo shesh, meaning came at six. Thus the Israelites did not even give themselves more than six hours to be concerned and agonize about what might have happened to their leader before they gathered to demand a replacement. This most shocking passage is among the most revealing ones about the complexities of human nature. Moses is but a few hours late and they, without much hesitation, with little reservation, unashamedly re-write history: this calf is your god that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Moses the prophet and architect of the exodus from Egypt; Moses the courageous spokesman and valiant fighter for their freedom; Moses the teacher and lawgiver, is all but forgotten. Now, this is their god, the Golden Calf. How swift and how shocking! How typical of mass psychology. They, the masses, must have a leader. What a gap between Moses and a hand-made calf! But to them this gap does not matter. “Make us a god who shall go before us!” They are ready to follow blindly any leader, be he a Moses or a Golden Calf.

When Moses was late in returning and the people of Israel were in need of a leader, they turned to Aaron to make them a new leader to replace Moses. Why didn’t Aaron come forth to assume leadership in the place of Moses? And why, didn’t the people of Israel request of Aaron to assume leadership and step into the place of Moses? Aaron, after all, was a person they knew and loved; he was always at Moses’ side from the earliest stages of the campaign for freedom. Was he not the most “natural successor to Moses? The fact that the Israelites did not appoint Aaron, but turned instead to a Golden Calf, teaches us that people seek someone from the outside, even if he is but a senseless calf, rather than choose one from among themselves, with whom they are well-acquainted, even if he is as great and experienced as Aaron, their acclaimed high priest.

What kind of a leader are you? What would your sisterhood do in the case of a lost leader? Would they succumb to pressure? Would someone come forward to accept responsibility? Are your leaders strong like Moses? Would your sisterhood choose from within or choose from outside?

This weekend my daughter, Rebecca, will become a bat mitzvah. Ki Tisa is her parasha and I, along with Rebecca, have learned from this passage. I know I will be in awe as I watch Rebecca lead our congregation as a bat mitzvah. I am proud of her learning and her dedication to Judaism. I am proud of her choosing to be a junior sisterhood member. I am proud that she wanted to attend our local biennial to see her Bubbe, a past sisterhood president, receive the Woman of Valor award. I am proud that Rebecca wants to follow in my path as an active participate of WRJ. Rebecca is choosing the road to leadership and the serious responsibilities that it incurs.

On April 13-15 there is a Sisterhood Leadership Conference in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia where you can become the person your sisterhood would be proud to include as their leader. The Conference promises to be filled with educational opportunities, spirituality, and schmoozing with women from all over North America. It is a unique opportunity to be with other sisterhood leaders, to share and learn from each other. I look forward to seeing you in April at Tyson’s Corner. Let us learn to lead like Moses.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all of our lives.

Please share this e-mail with your sisterhood.

B’Shalom,

Sharon K. Benoff

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February 23, 2007

5 Adar 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

Earlier this week, nearly 1,600 Reform Jews met in Philadelphia. Who were these dynamic, energetic people? They were NFTYites, youth workers, and dedicated URJ staff members who traveled from all over the United States and Canada to come to NFTY Convention 2007. I was there too…and it was, as the kids say, “amazing”!

For an inclusive fee plus transportation (many of our sisterhoods helped to finance delegates), NFTY teenagers engaged each other in constant dialogue; imagine 1,200 teens talking without taking a breath, morning, noon, and night! Soaring song sessions energized even the hotel staff. Workshop tracks included leadership, social action, Judaic studies, Israel, and the arts. Elections for 2007-08 NFTY leaders were held after delegates heard speeches and caucused by regions.

And then there was Shabbat…we should be so proud of our kids! They read and chant Hebrew with finesse; they competently lead services. They celebrate Shabbat with extraordinary joy. They are proud Jews.

Actor Scott Wolf (Party of Five, Everwood, The Nine) spoke after receiving the 2007 NFTY Social Action Award. Scott, who grew up in West Orange, NJ, where he became a Bar Mitzvah at a Reform congregation, now applies Jewish values in his adult life. The Chier Foundation, which he helped create, sponsors Sudanese refugees’ attendance for a semester of higher education. “There is no more important value to me than the idea that we are all created in the image of God. That is why we have started this foundation,” he told a crowd Saturday night. His words resonated with NFTY which contributed $1 per delegate to the foundation.…and Scott’s adorable looks (think huge dimples) got rave reviews from everyone, young and old alike.

I was privileged to address the convention at lunch on Sunday. They cheered as I was introduced as WRJ President. They knew that we, the women, had founded NFTY. They were appreciative of the nearly $100,000 given to the URJ annually, funds designated to benefit our youth. They expressed gratitude to local sisterhoods who had urged them to become involved TYG members. Long Island delegate Laura Oestrecher commented, “The best thing about NFTY Convention is the people!”

I also spoke briefly with the 180 congregational youth workers. I suggested that we, WRJ and local sisterhoods, are willing partners in their youth work. Sisterhoods, I shared, could be advocates for our youth and their programs around the temple board table. I asked them to remember that we are more than check writers. Sisterhood women want to be partners in hearts, minds, and dollars. And, for the record, they received our new YES Fund brochure, a Circle of Service donation card, and a WRJ bookmark with our website information. Never pass up a chance to promote our YES Fund!

I was honored to represent WRJ at this event. Kudos to the women of WRJ Atlantic District who volunteered countless hours assisting the staff. It was very special to light NFTY’s Shabbat candles with WRJ Atlantic President Joan Blum.

They came in all shapes and sizes...inclusive…funny…respectful…passionate…energetic…articulate. They are proud, public, young Jews. They value NFTY for providing an arena where they can “just be kids, not Jewish kids”. They believe that the connections they make through NFTY are “forever and life changing.”

“And the old shall dream dreams and the youth shall see visions”…

work with your local teens to make a difference in your life and theirs.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten your lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Rosanne

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February 16, 2007

29 Shevat 5767

This week’s parashah is Mishpatim, Exodus Chapters 21-24. Ten weeks have passed since the Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. They are congregated at the base of Mount Sinai, having just received the Ten Commandments. The community is trembling in anticipation of what is going to happen next. Now God is speaking to Moses, who will serve as the intermediary between God and the people. Rabbi Plaut describes this sidrah as a self-contained law code.

A major theme of this parashah can be stated in the phrase Naaseh v’nishma, “we will do and we will hear”. Visiting our exciting new website at www.WomenofReformJudaism.org is one of the ways we can promote all that WRJ has to offer to our membership. From e-cards to services, from membership materials to outstanding program ideas, our website can serve as the catalyst for all WRJ women to Naaseh v’nishma. As we continue to access our website to promote WRJ and assist our members, more women will hear about all that sisterhood has to offer them. Through that process we will all become STRONGER TOGETHER.

May the light of Shabbat candles continue to brighten your lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Jerri Livingston

WRJ Executive Committee

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February 9, 2007

21 Shevat

The buzz is getting louder every day as the members of the Reform Movement throughout Israel prepare to greet the delegates to the WUPJ Convention March 15-20. Volunteers are signing up on all the dotted lines to greet, and meet, and feed everyone. The red carpet is ready to be rolled out in front of Beit Shmuel, the WUPJ headquarters in Jerusalem. The program promises to be fantastic.

More than 20 women have already registered for our WRJ A Women’s Journey trip to Israel March 10-15, which then joins the WUPJ Conference March 15-20. There is still a seat on the bus for YOU and we’d love to have you join us.

So what’s the fuss all about? What’s so special about coming to this small island of democracy in the Middle East? In one sense, the Zionist dream has been fulfilled. Israel exists. In a more compelling sense, Zionism remains an unfulfilled dream because the reality of our Jewish State has not quite reached the idealistic goals of being a model country guided by Jewish Values and laws.

Truth be told, not everything is exactly perfect around here. There’s a little issue with the President, Moshe Katsav, who is no longer quite the President. And the Minister of Justice, Haim Ramon, made a bit of a mistake with a rather indecent kiss. And Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, enjoys a level of support that is right down there with that of President Bush. And I hear that some guy in Iran named Ahmadinejad not only has an interesting view of history that denies the Holocaust, but also believes that the world’s problems would be solved if Israel were just wiped off the map.

So we have not quite achieved the dream. We want the State of Israel to be strong, democratic, pluralist and a central expression of our Judaism. We believe that strengthening Reform Judaism here in Israel will strengthen the State and bring society closer to realization of the Zionist dream. The WUPJ, ARZA, and IMPJ strive to help us achieve this goal.

Last Shabbat was Tu B’Shevat. Some of you participated in Sederim, some of you sent money to JNF to plant trees in Israel, and some of you planted trees in your own gardens or in Synagogue gardens. I participated in a baby naming ceremony for a friend’s granddaughter. We drove down to the south of Israel from the hills of Jerusalem, past the Dead Sea, through a dry, brown, mountainous landscape of sand and stone. We planted trees in a new orchard in the Arava in honor of the baby. A few millimeters of rain fell during the weekend and we returned north driving though the same route. Now the hills were covered in green. The miracle of the instantaneous blooming of the desert after rain was there before our eyes.

May your celebration of this Shabbat be like the experience of desert rain. May you close your eyes as you light Shabbat candles, and then open them to see the flourishing State of Israel in a new light.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

B’shalom from Jerusalem,

Resa Davids

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26 January 2007

7 Shevat 5767

Dear WRJ friends,

This week in Parashat Bo we learn of the final plagues on Egypt, one of which was the plague of darkness.

For three days people could not see each other. The Israelites, however, had light in the areas where they lived. (Exodus 10: 23)

I can’t help but wonder - what was that light?

My beloved aunt has just lost her eyesight to a cause the doctors do not yet understand. You might think that she would have a hard time finding anything positive in her situation. Yet even as we sat together in her hospital room last week, she said, “You know, this has been a very good day. I got to spend time with my nieces and nephew, and to really talk with them.” That got me thinking…

Maybe the light the Israelites shared in the darkness that descended on Egypt was the light of time spent with families and friends, sharing their love for each other in an otherwise dark time.

As WRJ members, we have the opportunity to support each other in so many ways. Even as we plan our fundraisers and programs, let’s be sure that we are truly connecting with each other in a personal way. A fundamental reason many of us joined our local sisterhood and became involved with Women of Reform Judaism was because in so doing we become part of a larger community, one with common purpose but one which also provides extraordinary support in difficult times. We need to take the time for Good and Welfare at our meetings, stay in touch with our members, and reach out when one of our sisters is struggling with darkness in her life.

WRJ’s Covenant series of poems, prayers and meditations includes words of inspiration or comfort for almost every life situation. I think the following excerpt from Covenant of the Soul speaks to the light the Israelites shared during Egypt’s days of darkness:

Let us not walk sightless among miracles, unseeing

Adonai, give light to our eyes…

Awaken us to the beauty of the blessing of love

Families who are precious

Friends who are dear…

Awaken us, Adonai, to You

As we learn to see and rejoice in the blessings of Your everlasting love.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Blair Marks

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January 19, 200

29 Tevet 5766

Dear WRJ friends,

Like many of you, my preparation for weekly Torah study often gives me new insights into family dynamics and individual behavior, most frequently, my own. So it was with some dismay, as I read through the portion of Exodus for Uniongram Day, that the person whose actions I most identified with was - Pharaoh!

How often had I heard about the wonders WRJ was doing with our YES Fund (Youth, Education, and Special Projects) donations, how we were helping insure the future of Reform Judaism throughout the world. But, like Pharaoh, I refused to really listen.

Even when I saw the positive impact NFTY, supported by YES Fund dollars, was having on my granddaughters’ life, I hardened my heart. When I received comfort and spiritual guidance from my rabbis, graduates of YES Fund supported rabbinic education, I promised myself to give some money and then conveniently, just like Pharaoh, forgot my promises.

It always seemed I had a very good reason not to give more, do more. I’d send a few Uniongrams, but not many; make a small donation to Circle of Service, but not attend an event and as for starting a Lifeline, that was out of the question.

Yet, there finally was a time when I began to change from being Pharaoh. I, with the guidance of some WRJ “Miriam’s”, was led out of my narrow place and into active support for the YES Fund and all it provides. I realized I could personally make a difference “For Today And Tomorrow…” by making the difficult financial choice to donate money for my Lifeline, supporting Circle of Service, by sending Uniongrams and now online e-cards from the WRJ website.

As this Shabbat approaches, I hope all of you have read the new YES Uniongram Day booklet from WRJ. Try some of its creative ideas; educate yourselves and your membership as to what WRJ support with our donations. And then, unlike Pharaoh, I hope your sisterhoods, and each of you individually will join with a full heart in the support of YES.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Denny Norris

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January 12, 2007

22 Tevet 5767

With all the talk about the past and future elections, combined with helping to plan the upcoming WRJ District 1 Biennial, I found myself thinking about how leaders are developed, selected, and engaged in WRJ activities.

This week’s particularly rich and beautiful parashah Shemot tells the familiar story of God’s selection of Moses to be the leader of the Jewish people. Many times we have heard the miraculous story of the burning bush that was not consumed. When Moses came upon this strange sight in the desert, he was literally stopped in his tracks. Nevertheless, when God tells him that he is to be the leader of the Jewish people, he is astonished, and very reluctant.

How, then, do any of us become sisterhood leaders? Certainly there are no dramatic signals akin to a burning bush! There are no campaign speeches or television commercials. In my experience, nominating committees simply meet and consider the possibilities for boards of directors, then usually make phone calls that are sometimes not nearly as effective as God’s “call” to Moses. It is truly an honor to receive one of these phone calls, because it indicates a belief by a committee of your peers that you, like Moses and so many other men and women in our more than 5000-year history, are devoted to the Jewish people and would be willing to commit precious discretionary time to the work of Women of Reform Judaism.

Think about how you would receive a call from a WRJ nominating committee. Will you shake your head and say you have no time or will you recognize this call as the honor that it is?

Serving WRJ at any level – local, district or worldwide – is an opportunity to advance the important work that we do. If WRJ does not raise funds for the education of our rabbis, who will? If WRJ does not provide programming and leadership materials for our sisterhoods, who will? If WRJ did not envision our youth groups so many years ago, and helped make them a reality, who would have done so?

Remember the words of Hillel (Pirke Avot, 1:14) when you are asked to volunteer for WRJ: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? When I am for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” Moses put his life on the line. WRJ only asks for your time!

If you receive a call from a WRJ nominating committee, take your place in the long line of leaders of the Jewish people, because even a small task will make you just that – a leader of the Jewish people! It is up to each of us to make all of us “stronger together.”

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhoods.

B’shalom,

Carol Hanover

First Vice President, WRJ District #1

Member, WRJ Executive Committee

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January 5, 2007

15 Tevet 5767

This week, we turn another calendar page and try to train ourselves, and our pens, to write “2007.” This week, we set aside time to go through our files, setting some aside for storage, some for purging, and some for, well, we’re not quite sure. This week, we will finish writing thank you notes for holiday gifts and parties. This week, we….

Sometimes, it seems that our “To Do” list grows longer every time we get to cross something off as “done.” How on earth will we ever find the time to do all that we need to do, all that we want to do, all that others expect us to do? Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” Most of the women I know are organized (some more than others) and committed…over-committed in some cases. Why is this? How many times have we said, “Yes,” then hung up the telephone wondering when and how we were going to be able to fulfill that commitment?

Resource management is one of the tools we use to get things done. It’s not just as individuals, but also as an organization that we must thoughtfully allocate our precious resources to ensure that we get the best possible results from our “investment” of time, people and dollars. This week, you have the opportunity to see the initial results of our investment. The new and improved web-site for Women of Reform Judaism (www.womenofreformjudaism.org) is up and running, thanks to the dedication and tireless work of our New York staff. Shelley Lindauer, our executive director, and Helene Dunbar, manager of Marketing & Communications, worked diligently with our web design firm, through unexpected roadblocks and a myriad of other challenges that sometimes accompany these types of projects. Every person in the WRJ office spent countless hours deciding what to include, inputting data, reviewing copy, all in addition to their regular job responsibilities. The fruits of their labor are now available for all of us, yes, but equally important, they are there for others to use and to learn more about us and about our good work.

So, take some time to explore our new site. It doesn’t yet do all that we want it to – but that’s coming. We listened to your ideas, your criticisms, and your wishes, and we hope that what you see will please you and make you want to come back time and time again. We’re here for you, you busy, committed (or over-committed) women, who serve your congregations as naturally as you breathe. We offer you resources, information, and products (e-cards!) via the convenience of your own computer.

This week, check us out – then tell other women about our new web-site. We want to know what you think. Let us hear from you!

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives.

Please share this email with your sisterhood.

Warm regards,

Susan

Susan C. Bass

WRJ Vice-President, Marketing & Communications