Chai Lines
International Northeast Region
Women's League
for Conservative Judaism
Networking to Engage, Enrich and Empower
Conservative Jewish Women
|
|
May 31, 2019 Volume 3, Issue 24
|
FROM THE PRESIDENT--JOAN LOWENSTEIN
On May 15, 2019, I had the pleasure of traveling to Montreal to attend a joint Torah Fund event with the Sisterhoods of Shaare Zion and Shaare Zedek. The evening was enjoyable and informative with a program about the Indigenous people of Canada, and I found it so riveting.
The program was entitled "Pushing against Prejudice, A Conversation with Indigenous Leaders." One of the speakers we heard from was Nina Segalowitz (Seqaluit), a Sixties Scoop Survivor. We learned that the Sixties Scoop children were Indigenous children taken from their families by Canadian child welfare authorities, placed in foster homes, and adopted out to white families in Canada and the United States. In the process, the children lost their names, languages and a connection to their heritage. Nina has dedicated her career to working with the Indigenous community, especially with victims of violence.
We also heard from Joseph RaronhianĂ³nha Deom, Bear Clan, Mohawk. Joe works to preserve the Mohawk language and culture and to promote and protect Native rights. He headed the committee that launched the Kindergarten Mohawk Immersion School, one of the first Indigenous Language Immersion schools in Canada.
Many thanks to Linda Shohet, Caryn Roll, Dorothy Tonchin, Lorna Gerson-Goldig, and Eleanor Diamond for inviting me to share in such a special evening. I hope to visit more Sisterhoods in the future and meet more wonderful women. Just let me know of any upcoming events you would like me to attend!
Wishing you all a meaningful and peaceful, Shabbat!
L'Shalom
Joan
|
|
MORE GOOD NEWS WANTED
Toot your own horn.
Tell us what is going on in your Sisterhood.
Tell us what is successful in your Sisterhood.
Email Lois Silverman, Chai Line editor, at
and she'll share your news.
|
|
ANNOUNCING THE NEXT WLCJ LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
Our next Leadership Institute will be July 28-29 in New York City! Learn more about the program and register here!
|
FROM THE REGION BOOK CHAIR--RUTH BORSKY
Come Back For Me
by Sharon Hart-Green* is an engaging novel set in the late 1960's in Toronto, Ontario, and throughout Europe and Israel during World War II and thereafter.
Artur Mandelkorn's journey begins in Szombathley, Hungary near the Austrian border when he is fourteen years of age. He leaves his parents and older brother when Nazi forces come to their town in 1944. He takes his twelve year old sister, Manya with him. As they become separated in their journey after being captured and sent to a concentration camp, Manya pleads with Artur to promise to "Come back for me." Artur is steadfast and yet haunted by this promise as he survives the war and goes to Israel.
Both Artur and Suzy Kohn of Toronto, Ontario, find their inner strengths and fortitude as each faces life's journey. Suzy is a rebellious teenager of the '60's as she battles and yet accepts her Jewishness by trying to "fit in" with her friends and respect her parents and family.
The novel turns on several happenstance meetings that are surprises to the reader. Most of these twists in the novel happen to Artur as he accepts his plight as survivor, pioneer, father of two sons, and brother in his family. It is Suzy who holds onto her family and eventually becomes their strength when unfortunate events beset their lives.
These seemingly unrelated characters eventually meet. This is a worthwhile read for members of our Sisterhoods.
*NOTE: Ms Hart-Green will be a guest speaker at the INR Conference this Sunday-Monday.
|
FROM WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR
CONSERVATIVE
JUDAISM
Networking to engage,
enrich and empower
Conservative Jewish Women
Shabbat Massage:
"Gaining Strength from Transitions"
By Barbara Ezring
WLCJ Education/Program Team Coordinator
Hazak, Hazak, v'Nit'hazeik
This Shabbat, we will all make a transition. We'll read Parashat Bechukotai, the final portion in the Book of Leviticus/Vayikra. We will transition to the Book of Numbers/Bamidbar. Transitioning can be challenging. I think we can become stronger as a result of change.
In 2017, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D.* wrote in Psychology Today that there are 10 ways to manage transitions:
- Recognize that transitions hold a special place in your life memories.
- View stress not as a threat, but as a challenge.
- Appreciate the benefits of change.
- Remember the times you've successfully navigated a previous transition.
- Turn to your support network.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare.
- Use a transition to reflect on where your life has been and where it's going.
- Focus on the positive aspects.
- Use role models to inspire you through this transition.
- Realize that change is inherent to life.
Five years ago, my husband and I made the decision to begin a transition in our lives. He signed his final contract as rabbi of Temple Israel in Charlotte, North Carolina. We realized that this transition could cause stress, or it could bring us strength. It's all in our attitude. We chose to prepare for a new adventure. My husband decided to change his career path. He began to learn about the role of interim rabbis, talking to colleagues who had made this change, reading books, and taking the class offered by the Rabbinical Assembly. Finally, after 25 years, he began looking for a new position as an interim rabbi. I remember the day he realized that he would not need resume paper - it's all done digitally now. And I remember the day I realized that it had been 25 years since I had gone to a synagogue for a Shabbat weekend as the "rabbinic spouse." (During the last 25 years, I spent many weekends at synagogues other than my own as a Region President or as a Consultant for WLCJ). The first part of our transition has brought us strength; it has reminded us of the challenges and successes we faced in 41 years of rabbinic life, especially in the last 25 years in Charlotte.
This Shabbat, the Ezring family will begin the second phase of our transition. We will gather together with extended family, longtime friends, and Charlotte friends at Temple Israel to celebrate 25 years. We will eat, pray, and learn together. We will find strength in our memories. We will find strength in being together. We will find strength from learning and sharing new ideas together. We will end the last month of our Charlotte years with a journey to Israel with members of our Temple Israel family.
When we return from Israel, we will begin the final phase of this transition. We will move to Norfolk, Virginia and become part of the Congregation Beth El family. We will begin to make new friends, new memories. We will all reflect on our pasts and focus on a positive future. We'll call on our colleagues who have been down this road before for support and suggestions. We will all realize that change is inevitable; it is part of life.
This Shabbat, it is comforting to know that the entire Jewish community will make a transition with us. We will all transition from Vayikra to Bamidbar. We all will transition to a wilderness. Each day that we face something new in our lives, let us be strengthened.
On Shabbat, as we complete the Book of Vayikra, we will all stand and say together: Hazak, Hazak, V'nit'hazeik - Be strong, Be strong, We will be strengthened.
May we find strength in the memories of our past and become stronger as we create new memories in our future.
Shabbat Shalom!
Women's League Reads Announces
Women's League Reads is excited to announce our next featured book and author interview,
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas. An exclusive, WL members-only author interview will be held on Wed., July 17, at 8:30 p.m., Eastern time.
WWOT - Weekly Words of Torah
To inspire, guide, engage, enrich, and empower Conservative Jewish Women
By Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields, Executive Director, Women's League For Conservative Judaism
This week, with the Torah reading of
Parashat Bechukotai, we complete the reading of
Sefer Vayikra, the book of
Leviticus.
Parashat Bechukotai, which means "my laws," commences with a promise and a curse. If the Israelites follow God's laws and commandments, God will bless them, and their land will be fertile, and there will be peace, and their enemies will not bother them. However, if God's commandments are not followed, they will be punished. One section of
Parashat Bechukotai is referred to as the
tochechah, warnings or reproofs. Throughout
Sefer Vayikra, the book of
Leviticus, the children of Israel are told to be holy. We are now told the consequences of obedience and disobedience. The blessings are in 10 verses, and the curses are written in 28 verses.
Have you ever noticed that, after a conversation, meeting or event, people might offer compliments, but the only comment you might remember is the complaint? Or, how often do you receive complaints from people, and yet the statements of praise seem lacking?
Let us all remember that we catch more bees with honey than with vinegar and, if we want to interest people in being active and participating, we should be positive in our behavior, speech, and attitudes. Let us all see and provide more blessings each day.
Thank You for Your Contributions!
The following have donated recently to Women's League and its many initiatives. All contributions are welcome -
Donate here or send checks to Women's League made out to "Women's League for Conservative Judaism."
Please indicate the name of the program you are donating to in the memo line of the check (i.e. "Masorti").
Masorti WL Days of Study
Sisterhood Shelter Rock Jewish Center
Save the Date!
WLCJ Convention 2020
Sisters Journeying Together
Sunday, July 12 - Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Hyatt Regency Schaumburg in Schaumburg, Illinois
(Suburban Chicago)
We look forward to seeing you there!
|
|
ANNOUNCING WLCJ'S JEWELS IN THE CROWN AWARDS
The Women's League for Conservative Judaism's
Jewels in the Crown Award
was established ten years ago, in 2009, in order to recognize our sisterhoods who have demonstrated excellence in education, cultural programming, and social action, and who exhibit a strong Women's League identity. There were more than 215 total sisterhood recipients at the 2014 and 2017 Women's League Conventions. These sisterhoods offered hundreds of interesting and successful programs that reflected a wide diversity of subjects, issues, social action projects, celebrations, and personal enrichment activities. Learn more about the program at
http://wlcj.org/2014/07/jewels-in-the-crown-awards/
.
Now is the time to start collecting your programs to be submitted for Jewels in the Crown Awards for the 2020 Women's League Convention. Please appoint a sisterhood member to be responsible for completing and submitting the application to us. We will be looking at your programs from September 2017 until June 30, 2020.
Download the 2020 Jewels in the Crown application here!
Each Sisterhood must be current with their 2019 and 2020 per capita, and must participate in Torah Fund in order to be eligible to participate in Jewels in the Crown.
Become a shining jewel in the Women's League crown! Please share this letter with your current executive committee and feel free to contact us with any questions.
B'shalom,
Meryl Balaban (mbalaban@wlcj.org)
Madeleine Gimbel (maddy_gimbel@yahoo.com)
Convention 2020 Jewels in the Crown Co-Chairs
Margie Miller (mmiller@wlcj.org)
WLCJ President
Sisters Journeying Together
|
NEED HELP?
HELP IS AVAILABLE ON THE WLCJ WEBSITE.
Programs, membership ideas, education material, and more available at wlcj.org
|
|
