Chai Lines
International Northeast Region
Women's League
for Conservative Judaism
Networking to Engage, Enrich and Empower
Conservative Jewish Women
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December 14, 2017 Volume 2, Issue 67
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IN THIS ISSUE
Click on name of article to go to that article.
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HAPPY HANUKKAH
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL NORTHEAST REGION
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SAVE THE DATE FOR SPRING CONFERENCE 2018
INR SPRING CONFERENCE
"PORTRAIT OF SISTERHOOD"
WHEN: April 29 and 30, 2018
WHERE: Temple Beth El, Rochester New York
WHO: All Sisterhood Members from Inr
WHY: Time to Meet and Learn from Each Other
THIS NOTICE COMES TO YOU FROM YOUR LOYAL CO-CHAIRS:
Marcia Nabut and Ruth Shapiro
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FROM THE REGION PRESIDENT
This week Montreal received its first significant snow fall. The city looks beautiful, clean and fresh, and I particularly enjoy my walk home from work. The sky is dark and the snowflakes look especially pretty against the bright city lights and the multi-coloured Christmas lights, Santa Clauses, reindeer, and Christmas trees that decorate the houses that I pass on my way home.
When I was young I helped decorate the homes and trees of my non-Jewish friends. I even attended midnight masses at the church where the father of a good friend was the Anglican Priest. Today I attend numerous holiday parties, sing along to every Christmas carol and hymn, and purchase gifts and cards for friends and colleagues.
But as much as I participate in the Christian festivities of the season, there is always a part of me that is standing on the perimeter looking in. I have my own miracle to celebrate--my own festival of lights--so I have no need to suffer from Christmas envy. Neither do I decorate our home with banners, a Hanukkah bush, or put inflatables on our front lawn.
My husband and I give Hanukkah gelt to our children, play dreidel games and eat latkes and sufganiyot. We get together with family and friends; recite the brachot upon lighting the candles each night, and sing songs to the light of the flickering flames.
And each evening, I am reminded to take pride in my Jewishness.
May this holiday of illumination and re-dedication inspire us to bring light where there is darkness, freedom where there is servitude. May hope and faith be magnified.
SAVE THE DATE: April 29-30, 2018 - Portrait of Sisterhood
INR's Spring Conference in Rochester, NY
Chag Urim Sameach!
Shabbat Shalom,
Eleanor
514-458-6204
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FROM THE REGION EDUCATION VP, LOIS SILVERMAN
We live in a time of hyperbole. For example: many politicians call everything they do the biggest, the best, and the most outstanding ever done by anyone before. These same people cry out that their opponents are the worst, the least truthful, and least honest people in world history.
At this time of year we see large displays of holiday lights; we are exposed to advertisements for products we are urged to buy but don't need; and we view endless movies evoking a nostalgic time that never was.
How does one keep things in perspective at this time of year? By remembering what Hanukkah is all about.
The following is a reprint of an article first posted years ago in Chair Lines.
Small Favors and Small Miracles (excerpted)
by Lois Silverman
My mother often said "Be thankful for small favors!" This old saying was her way of keeping life in perspective especially when things had been going wrong for a long time. One child after another in our family got the mumps, but they didn't get the chicken pox which was also going around--"Be thankful for small favors!" As I grew up and saw what was going on around me, I remembered my mother's words and started using them more and more....
In the world around us, adjectives, like the dollar, are inflated. Movie personalities are no longer "stars"; they have become "superstars," and I've even heard some stars called "mega-stars." Food markets are no longer just "supermarkets" but are, like the market near my home, "hyper-markets." We are certainly becoming a society preoccupied with the big, the giant, and the enormous. But what about the "small favors?"
We Jews are not immune from being caught up in this national obsession with the inflated adjective. This is more apparent during December as we endure yet another commercial rush which makes Christmas a "mega-holiday." And how should we react to this national obsession with Christmas? We certainly can't ignore it; Christmas promotion now starts at Labor Day when products appear on the store shelves and the airwaves. Often we as Jewish parents react by offering a Jewish alternative to Christmas-Hanukkah. But we do a disservice to our children if we equate Christmas, this "Hyper-holiday" with Hanukkah, a minor festival of the Jewish year.
Cynthia Ozick, in an article for the NY Times Sunday Magazine a few years ago, speaks of the beauty in the smallness of Hanukkah. Traditionally Hanukkah is not the time of big celebrations and extensive gift-giving. Rather it is, like many Jewish holidays, a time to spend at home and a time to reflect. The lights of the hanukiyah (menorah) are small, barely overcoming the darkness of the mid-winter night; but they are there to remind us of a small miracle that affected only a small group of people who was as weak as our Hanukkah candles. But this small miracle is still remembered over 2000 years after it occurred because this miracles, small as it was, has an importance which we can see when we put value and events into perspective. The miracle at Hanukkah showed that no matter how apparently small a group is its beliefs and customs are important; beliefs and customs are important to fight for because no matter what the odds one can win such a fight; no matter how small a group may be assimilation into the larger group is not the way to happiness and success.
Hanukkah is a small, minor holiday and yet it still has religious importance. To say Hanukkah is anything but that will make us like our neighbors who have lost their perspective about what should be for them the foremost spiritual holiday of the year. We should not equate our celebration of Hanukkah with the commercialized rituals of the people around us who have allowed Christmas to grow bigger and bigger in commercial importance as they have let the holiday lose its real reason for being. Certainly to inflate the importance of Hanukkah does nothing but feed our era's passionate need to exaggerate. We should celebrate Hanukkah as a religious holiday-not with bigness, but with the beauty and meaning of the small miracle. After all, we all should be thankful for small favors.
Shabbat Shalom
Happy Hanukkah
LOIS
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FROM WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM
Networking to engage,
enrich and empower
Conservative Jewish women
Women's League for Conservative Judaism
wishes youand your loved ones
a Happy Hanukkah this Holiday Season!
We hope that you will continue to support the Women's League mission.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT OF WOMEN'S LEAGUE
LIGHTS
Starting with the opening chapter of Genesis, we are introduced to light. "Let there be light." We cherish the sanctuary's Ner Tamid, with its artistic physical form and its symbolic meaning. God is Eternal. We begin and end each Shabbat lighting candles. Yahrzeit candles memorialize the loss of our loved ones.
This week we light the Hanukiah. No matter how our family is configured, standing alone, with our partner, surrounded by children and/or grandchildren, or with our friends, we light our ceremonial menorah. We rejoice in the light.
When I was in high school, I took an honors chemistry class. The first day, our entire period centered around one assignment. We had to stare at a burning candle and write 40 characteristics that we observed. At first glance, you notice the candle, the flame and the colors. Forty-
five minutes later,
you see so much more. Of course, training us to be observant was the goal of the assignment. We had little time to appreciate the aesthetic but its beauty was not lost.
What does light mean to you?
Do you have a primitive reaction to the sight of fire? Are you comforted by its physical warmth? Is it spiritually uplifting? Is the flicker mesmerizing? Are you intrigued by the symbolism of the light? Does the light lead you to other thoughts or actions?
To me, the joy of the lights is totally about the continuity of faith. May the lights you light this Shabbat and Hanukkah glow strong and embrace you with the spirit of the holiday.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah!
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah!
Margie Miller
WLCJ President
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
The next free Women's League Distance Workshop is on Wednesday, January 10, at 8:30 p.m., Eastern Time:
"Zoom Call with WLCJ President Margie Miller."
This call is open only to sisterhoods with membership over 100 members and limited to the first 20 to register. Register
here
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$100 for 100 Years...Continue the Legacy
2018 - the culmination of our first 100 years - promises to be a huge year! In looking ahead to our many centennial celebrations, we invite you to join us in ensuring the future of Women's League for Conservative Judaism:
$100 for 100 Years.
We invite all members and Sisterhoods to support the next 100 years of Women's League by contributing a minimum of $100 to the $100 for 100 Years Campaign. Donors will receive a Women's League kippah as a thank you gift.
With your participation, Women's League will continue to provide innovative programs, personalized leadership development, direct sisterhood support, and accessible resources to benefit all members of our dynamic network.
All donations can be sent to:
Women's League
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 820
New York, NY 10115
Donate:
online at bit.ly/support-wl,
by sending a check to the Women's League office,
or by calling Razel Kessler at 212.870.1260, ext. 1263, and providing your credit card information over the phone.
We thank you in advance for your generosity!
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FROM THE TORAH FUND VICE PRESIDENT
MARILYN COHEN
Contact me with any questions:
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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