Chai Lines
International Northeast Region
Women's League
for Conservative Judaism
Networking to Engage, Enrich and Empower
Conservative Jewish Women 
February 22, 2018                                                            Volume 2, Issue 74   
SAVE THE DATE FOR SPRING CONFERENCE 2018 save
 
INR SPRING CONFERENCE
"PORTRAIT OF SISTERHOOD"
WHEN: April 29 and 30, 2018
WHERE: Temple Beth El, Rochester, New York
WHO: All Sisterhood Members from IN Region 
WHY: Time to Meet and Learn from Each Other 
WOMEN'S LEAGUE CONSULTANT: Michele Garber 
CO-CHAIRS: Marcia Nabut and Ruth Shapiro
 
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
SUNDAY
12:00-1:00    Pre-Conference Lunch (optional, extra charge)
1:00-1:30      Registration; Greetings
1:30-3:00      CHOOSE ONE
Presidents' Session (available to all): Michele Garber 
Ask the Expert:  Various Topics:  Toby Maser  
3:15-4:00    Torah Fund: Marilyn Cohen
4:15-5:15    Putting Your Program Together Panel­­--
Regularly Held Large Events and Rummage;   
It's All Small Stuff 
5:15-6:15    Hotel and Get Ready
6:30-7:00    Installation    
7:00-7:30    Mincha/Maariv    
7:30-9:30    Dinner
Keynote Speaker: Michelle Garber 
From Rochester With Love-100 Years of Film:  Lois Silverman 
9:30    Party at Hotel for All
MONDAY
8:00-9:00      Shacharit
9:00-9:15      Torah Study with Rabbi Bitran
9:15-9:45      Breakfast
9:45-10:30    Community Service/Education-PAD Initiative
10:30-10:45  Sisterhood Displays : Community Service
10:45-11:15   Shop to Learn: Where did you get it?
Judaica Shop-Lynda Axelrod 
11:45- 12:30  Rosh Hodesh Sampler: Tevet:
Dr. Joy Getnick, Terri Rosenhouse, Barb Savage      
12:30-  1:00   INR Board Meeting
  1:00  1:30    Lunch and Wrap Up

For Conference details including meal costs and hotel reservation, click here.
 
MEET THE CONFERENCE CONSULTANT Consultant

FROM THE REGION PRESIDENT President

I am looking forward to seeing you at our Region Conference 2018 in Rochester, NY. If you are still unsure about attending, let me share with you a few good reasons why you should.
 
You'll be inspired - nothing gets your intellectual juices going like mixing with your peers, hearing what's working elsewhere, and thinking about how you can apply new ideas to your sisterhood. Just one good suggestion is often all it takes to return home energized.
 
You'll feel connected - there are many sisterhoods trying to do exactly what yours wants to do. Being at Conference will allow you to make and rekindle the person-to-person connections that are so vital in our work. You will be able to give and receive advice in an atmosphere of genuine camaraderie.
 
You'll become better known - many of us work in our own silos without many opportunities to express our ideas or opinions to outsiders. Being at Conference will allow others to hear your voice and consider your input. This is the ideal setting to network and develop contacts.
 
You'll strengthen your Jewish soul - I guarantee that hearing dozens of women chant in unison the morning, afternoon, or evening prayers will fortify your sense of what it means to be Jewish women. Our conferences provide a new sense of what a "mishpacha" can be.
 
You'll learn - no matter how much we already know, there is so much more to learn. At Conference, you'll be exposed to new viewpoints, fresh information, and enlightening face-to-face conversations.
 
You'll have fun - getting away from your regular schedule, meeting new people, and being in a new environment are all ways to ensure that attending Conference will be an enjoyable experience. And don't we all deserve a little fun!
 
And one last thing - Calendar diaries will soon be available. If we order more than 50 collectively the unit price will drop to only $8.00 US. Let me know how many your Sisterhood would like and I will have them for you at Conference.
 
So, reserve your hotel room and send in your meal payment. For more Conference information, go to INR's website. CLICK HERE

Shabbat Shalom,  
Eleanor
514-458-6204
 

FROM THE REGION EDUCATION VP, LOIS SILVERMANeducation 
 
In 2014 Women's League for Conservative Judaism passed a resolution at its convention about sensible gun control in the United States. It was prepared in consultation with the Rabbinical Assembly, and it read:
 
WHEREAS, the U.S. Congress has failed to pass any legislation on guns with regard to assault weapons, the numbers of bullets allowed in magazines or stricter background checks for private-party sales at gun shows and online;
 
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
that Women's League for Conservative Judaism encourages its members to lobby their local, state and federal lawmakers to support required background checks on all public and private gun sales, bans on military style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and legislation making gun trafficking a federal crime with severe penalties. 

 
This resolution is as relevant today as it was almost four years ago because nothing in the US gun debate has change and nothing has been done to alleviate. Today people in the US are being killed in almost monthly incidents. When such an event happens the internet explodes with horrid, but those who have the means to prevent the carnage continue as if nothing has happened taking funds from the special interest group that supports uncontrolled gun ownership. So those in power prefer to advocate the Second Amendment while forgetting the first rights the US demanded for their citizens, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Without life there can be no liberty, happiness, or gun ownership.

Canada doesn't have the same problem as the US. WHY? Not the percentage of people disavowing religion which is about the same in both countries. Not the percentage of divorces or broken homes which is about the same. THE DIFFERENCE: fewer guns and the enforcement of strict gun restrictions in Canada.

We hear the American leaders saying their thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Thoughts and prayers are important for healing of the survivors, but what's more important for the healing of the whole nation is action by those who can prevent further massacres.

Today my daughter who has two young children sent me a posting that read: "When my child hits another child with a stick, I don't blame the stick, but I still take the stick away." What a common sense beginning in a pursuit of a solution!

May the teens who are today hurting the most lead the way into a better future. May they shame their elders into action.

Shabbat Shalom
FROM WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM WLCJ fromWL
 

Networking to engage, 
enrich and empower
Conservative Jewish women 
  
 
   
 
 
Shabbat Message:
"Viewing Loneliness from the Rear-View Mirror"
By Vivian Leber, Vice President and WL Reads Chair

As an only child, who had no grandparents (taken in the Holocaust), and who was shy, I see in retrospect that I was often lonely. I filled blocks of time with books, graduating from The Bobbsey Twins to Nancy Drew, then to Dickens, and, around age 13, to literature that was not always age-appropriate (Nabokov's Lolita ,  Steinbeck's East of Eden , and Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover ). Now, I've come full circle in terms of my reading adventures. After a busy past decade, when reading novels had to wait for vacation time, I've lately immersed myself in great works of fiction and nonfiction as Chair of Women's League Reads, and I'm loving it! Reading now is much more of a communal than solo activity, as new friends share book-talk.
 
Loneliness was probably rare for our biblical or diaspora forebears. Private moments of lonely struggle occurred, but people mostly lived in tight communities where duty to God, family, and work took up all one's spare hours.
 
In recent decades, pervasive loneliness has been well-documented, attributed to the fraying of the social fabric. Record numbers of American adults live alone, teens substitute online contact for live interactions, and older seniors live in designated facilities far from family. 
 
Recently, Rabbi Martin S. Cohen, my rabbi at Shelter Rock Jewish Center (BQLI Region), remarked about a news article that startled him: Great Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May had announced the appointment of a Minister of Loneliness, whose agency would combat citizens' feelings of alienation. She had justification: medical evidence links loneliness to greater health problems and mortality. In fact, an M.I.T. study found that, in people who are isolated, the brain triggers hormones linked to depression. The most severe punishment in our prison system is "solitary confinement" for good reason. Rabbi Cohen points out that our Jewish community, by offering a structure of caring community and friendship, might well instruct the Minister of Loneliness in how to build parallel civic solutions.
 
I had a second stretch of loneliness in my life. After having a second child, I became a stay-at-home mom. I found myself going entire days with only babies for company. Friends who still worked were out of reach, other friends had drifted away, and I had not yet discovered a new community.
 
Yet I have hardly ever felt lonely or socially awkward in these last two decades, which I attribute to pushing myself to do more as a volunteer and volunteer leader in three organizations, despite other commitments.
 
There is no single cure for loneliness. We can be proactive at any life stage to seek out new bonds when old ones dissolve. My peers and I now experience community through Women's League sisterhoods, our synagogues, service to charities, teaching others, book or study groups, and more. Those with little free time to spare at present, due to job and family, might try some targeted commitments to service and community - and thereby drop some early seeds on the path towards deeper community ties once time opens up and new interests may flower. 

Ramah Sports Academy is Registering for 2018!
Attn: Athletes! Register now for the inaugural  Ramah Sports Academy, opening in June 2018! Grants are available for first-time campers at www.onehappycamper.org, and Women's League  has $250 awards for tuition available for interested sisterhoods! Contact [email protected] for more information on how your sisterhood can offer these awards or hold an info session for prospective campers. Three two-week sessions are available for athletes at all skill levels, with 2-day breaks for campers who enroll in more than one session.
Train on top-level collegiate athletic fields and facilities that include gymnasiums, an indoor pool, fitness and conditioning facilities, and a variety of additional recreational programmatic resources. Campers in grades 4-11 will live in a dormitory designated exclusively for RSA in a beautiful, wooded, private area of the campus, and can choose an individual focus from baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, and soccer. Learn more about Ramah Sports Academy here.


 
Stay Connected...Join our online chat groups!
PREZNET - A discussion group for sisterhood Presidents
WLCJNet - A discussion group for members
American Mothers of Israeli Olim - A discussion group for those with friends and family living in Israel
Judaica Shop - A discussion group for Women's League Judaica shop managers
To join any of these discussion groups, contact Lois Silverman at [email protected].
 
Women's League Reads
WL Reads' new featured book is  
The Weight of Ink, and an Interview with  
author Rachel Kadish is planned for  
Monday, February 26, 2018 at 8:30 p.m. EDT. WL Reads members may listen to the live Interview by phone or by Weblink (to be posted).

By popular request, we are giving WL Reads members more time between announcement and interview dates, especially because it's a long book. The historical novel has received rave reviews for its stellar prose and portrayal of two intellectual women, one a Jewish history scholar from our time, and one a scribe and self-educated Sephardic Jew in 17th-century London. Each woman, with poise and passion, must face soul-piercing internal conflicts and external enemies. 
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
RACHEL KADISH is the award-winning author of the novels From a Sealed Room and Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story, and the novella "I Was Here." Her work has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times online.
 
To become a WL Reads member, write to Lois Silverman, WLCJ Internet Services Chair, at [email protected] with your Sisterhood's name and town, and your name and e-mail address.  
 
Distance Workshops
 
Distance Workshops
The next free Women's League Distance Workshop is "Family" on Monday, March 12, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.


Register here. Call-in information will be e-mailed the day of the workshop.

Registration is also open for the next Distance Workshop, "Sisterhood Region Relationships, Sisterhood WLCJ Relationships" on Tuesday, April 17, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. Sign up here. 
FROM THE TORAH FUND VICE PRESIDENT
MARILYN COHEN

 
Contact me with any questions concerning the Torah Fund Campaign 2017-2018:
Marilyn Cohen
VP Torah Fund - International Northeast Region
416-5 18-1860  
 
Check out the New Torah Fund Guide and all the other materials to run a great campaign!
   
FROM ACROSS THE REGIONkvell
TORAH FUND PROGRAMS TO KVELL AND SHARE
The Best Torah Fund Programs in Our Region

This space is being reserved for Torah Fund programs that have worked for YOUR sisterhood.  Please send Lois Silverman at [email protected] a summary of what you have done to support Torah Fund.  It just might inspire other sisterhoods to do similar events.
 
NEED HELP? help
HELP IS AVAILABLE ON THE WLCJ WEBSITE.

Programs, membership ideas, education material, and more available at wlcj.org