Chai Lines
International Northeast Region
Women's League
for Conservative Judaism
Networking to Engage, Enrich and Empower
Conservative Jewish Women
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March 22, 2018 Volume 2, Issue 76
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TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
FROM THE OFFICERS AND BOARD OF THE NORTHEAST REGION OF WLCJ
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IN THIS ISSUE
Click on name of article to go to that article.
Editor's note: Pictures from Convention 2017 have been posted to INR's website.
Click here to visit our website.
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MAZAL TOV TO:
*Corinne & Mark Hammerschlag on the birth of their granddaughter
*Bette & Donald Siegel on the birth of their grandson
*Cheryl & Mitchell Patt on the engagement of their daughter
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ARE YOU COMING TO SPRING CONFERENCE 2018?
GREAT SPEAKERS!
GREAT SISTERS!
GREAT CONFERENCE!
SO WHY NOT COME?
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.
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FROM THE REGION PRESIDENT
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I wrote this article two years ago for our Region's newsletter. I have updated it to include our family's extraordinary Passover blessing.
When I was a child, Passover in our home really began with the emptying of the kitchen cupboards and drawers and filling them with the freshly washed Passover dishes, pots, pans ,and utensils that had been stored in the basement. Then, and only then, would my mother and grandmother work together to create the wonderful and delicious meals that we would enjoy for our Seders.
Our Seders were led by an uncle who sat at the head of the table with a pillow at his side. He read from a traditional Haggadah in Hebrew, and except for the four questions and a few choice songs, there was little participation. And of course, in those days, the evening might have easily been interrupted by a Stanley Cup playoff game.
Although we still eat delicious homemade food, our Seders are large, noisy affairs, the Seder plate has an orange, and the table setting includes Miriam's cup.
We have made changes to the Seders of my youth, but we still try to honour and respect the traditions of our ancestors.
We will be four generations sitting around the table. We will sing, participate, ask questions and discuss. Each of us will have the opportunity to read from the Hagadah - in English or Hebrew - and to question the meaning of what was just read. We will discuss the world's refugees and our responsibilities as Jews to those who live in exile. And we will consider the Exodus and the meaning of freedom.
But most incredibly, this Passover our family will rejoice in the engagement of my cousin's daughter, who was just a year old when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. We are looking forward to celebrating her happiness and the wonder of miracles.
Hoping to see you all at our Region Conference in Rochester, NY.
Wishing you and your family a Chag Pesach Sameach!
Shabbat Shalom,
Eleanor
514-458-6204
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FROM THE REGION EDUCATION VP, LOIS SILVERMAN
Here is a discussion you can add to your seder or use for a sisterhood meeting during Passover. It is from Ritual Well--an initiative of the Reconstructionist Movement:
Happy Passover and
Shabbat Shalom
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FROM WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM
Networking to engage,
enrich and empower
Conservative Jewish women
Shabbat Message:
"Tradition and Change: Creating a Meaningful Seder"
 Growing up in the 1950s, everyone I knew went on a pilgrimage on Seder nights to the homeland of our ancestors, Brooklyn, New York. Always in a new spring dress and coat to match, we piled in the car and went to our grandparents' home for Passover dinners.
Yes, they were long, boring and seemingly endless, until we finally got to find the afikomen. But they were special, too. We sat in the formal dining room in huge old-fashioned chairs, overlooking a beautifully set table with grandma's finest china. Perhaps the Seder wasn't that "relevant" to children, but the sheer presence of my grandfather at the head of the table reading from this little book with words I barely understood still remains one of my favorite memories of my youth.
Today, there are hundreds of articles and books on creating new and more interactive Seders. Tables are decorated with frogs, masks of the plaques are worn, and some even wear costumes to their Seders and reenact the story of the Exodus. Tables are adorned with all the traditional ritual items that now include Miriam cups, oranges on the Seder plate, tambourines, and a variety of charoset.
No longer does every home use the infamous Maxwell House Haggadah . We use the Ktav yellow-and-black ones. Why? Because it's the one that my father-in-law, of blessed memory, used for decades, filled with his handwritten notes, plus lots of wine stains. There are over 3000 editions of Haggadahs catalogued at the library at JTS. We certainly have enough choices.
Today there are women's Seders, interfaith Seders, and third Seders. This year, the Jewish Labor Committee is hosting a National Faith Labor Leadership Passover Seder in the Memphis sanctuary where Dr. King and the Memphis sanitation workers organized to secure the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Each of these Seders weaves in the stories and circumstances of others who have experienced oppression or continue to today. These Seders give voice to the silenced and marginalized.
By doing so, the ancient story of the Exodus becomes a story of the present. Passover is perhaps the best example of how we embrace the traditions of a holiday, as well as the changes that make it as meaningful and relevant today as it was to my grandparents and theirs.
Shabbat Shalom and a Zissen Pesach,
Margie Miller
International President
Program Idea of the Month:
Challah Bake
Combining a Multigenerational Program with a Tikkun Olam Project
"We have done several Challah Bakes at our Shul. They are always a big hit and bring a multi-generational group....from kids to moms and grandmothers. We've even had some men attend. We have led them ourselves on Thursday nights so that they would have fresh challah for Shabbat. Several of our women that bake a lot lead the class and give hands on instruction on the prep and fun ways to braid etc. We provide the bowls, supplies, and the printed recipe and charge a minimum amount around $12 a person. Everyone makes three challahs. They take two home to bake for their families and donate their third as a Mitzvah project. We cover those with saran and store in our kosher fridges overnight and have another team come bake them Friday in the morning. They are then delivered to our women that are hospitalized, recuperating, or in nursing homes and to families in need through the Jewish Family Service."
Houston, Texas
Thank You for Supporting Israel!
T
his week, the following sisterhoods and region have contributed to the
Masorti WL Days of Study in Israel. We encourage every sisterhood to
join this growing list. ALL contributions are welcome. Supporting our Kehillot in Israel, as well as the fabulous Days of Study, enriches the educational experience for our Israeli sisters.
Congregation Ahavat Olam Sisterhood, Howell, NJ
2018 Israel Days of Study
This year's February Days of Study in Israel, presented by the
Schechter Institutes and Women's League, were held at Kibbutz Hannaton, Kehilat Hod V' Hadar, Kfar Saba, and Kehilat Eshel Avraham, Beersheva. Check out photos from the sessions below! For more information on how you can join Days of Study, contact
Announcing Our Next Book Club Pick!
Women's League Reads is pleased to announce its latest pick:
Eternal Life by Dara Horn. An interview with the author will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 8:30 p.m. EST.
The novel's protagonist, Rachel, lives the first of her many lives in Roman-occupied Jerusalem and witnesses its destruction. She's imagined here as the mother of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, whose disciples sneak him past Roman guards in a coffin so that he may establish the continuity of Torah study in exile. Rachel's desperation to save him from a fatal illness as a toddler leads her and her lover to take a vow in the Temple-the child will live but the pair is cursed with the unbearable weight of immortality.
Reborn in each life as an 18-year-old Jew, Rachel raises hundreds of beloved but mortal children. Her old lover stalks her through the centuries, in a torturous but mutually needy relationship. All the while, Rachel desperately tries to escape the roulette wheel of immortality.
By turns philosophical, funny, satiric and heart-rending, the novel depicts how women experience life as an ever-renewing cycle. For Rachel, every cultural trend repeats, and every generation's favorite child has an earlier doppelganger. Author Geraldine Brooks found this novel to be "An elegant musing on sacredness, history, and purpose that is at the same time, a deliciously romantic, highly suspenseful page-turner."
Dara Horn is an observant Conservative Jew and mother of four. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Comparative Literature, with a specialty in Hebrew and Yiddish modern fiction. Join Women's League Reads here. Visit Dara Horn's official website here, and l
earn more about
Eternal Life
from
Jewish Book Council
and
Publishers Weekly
Distance Workshops
 The next
free Women's League Distance Workshop,
"Top 10 Questions about Torah Fund," will be held Tuesday, April 17, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. Learn more about the Torah Fund pin and the five fabulous seminaries it supports.
Registration is also open for "WLCJ - An International Organization" on Wednesday, May 16, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. Find out why Women's League is more than just your local sisterhood. Reserve your spot here.
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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!
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FROM ACROSS THE REGION
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.
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NEED HELP?
HELP IS AVAILABLE ON THE WLCJ WEBSITE.
Programs, membership ideas, education material, and more available at wlcj.org
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