NCJW September 2019 News and Events
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As the kids go back to school, so do we! There are so many opportunities to learn with NCJW this year. See our upcoming events below and Click here for a printable calendar of our programming year.

Also, a clarification of our office: while our mailing address is still 5 Revere Drive, Suite 200 Northbrook, IL 60062, we no longer maintain a physical office there are are not able to accept donations of items for Luggage for Freedom or JCAST at the office. If you have items to drop off, please email luggageforfreedom@ncjwcns.org or gayle@jcastchicago.org to make arrangements. Also, please be sure to always include the suite number (suite 200) when sending us anything through the mail to avoid mail being returned to you. Thank you for you understanding!


Membership Renewal
All NCJW annual memberships run from July 1 through June 30. If you haven't renewed your membership for the 2019-2020 membership year, you can do so either by clicking the link below or sending your check for $50 to NCJW, 5 Revere Drive, Suite 200, Northbrook, IL 60062

As an NCJW Chicago North Shore member, you will impact your community and the world at large by becoming part of a growing grassroots network of courageous and compassionate individuals who improve the lives of women, children, and families every day.

Your support makes it possible for NCJW to create meaningful social change for women, children, and families locally, nationally and internationally. Together with you, NCJW will empower women to educate their communities, mobilize the grassroots, and advocate for fundamental rights and freedoms.


Volunteer Opportunities
Membership Committee: Needed 3-4 committee members to develop an on-boarding information packet for new members and to provide a report to the Board of Directors that includes a “new member” and “potential member” follow-up protocol. Ideally, this committee should be a mixture of both “seasoned” and “new” NCJW members. This is a short term committee position. Report to the Board needed by November Board meeting. For more information on the committee’s responsibilities or to volunteer contact president@ncjwcns.org.

Take Action Tuesday: Needed an editor or editors for our weekly action newsletter. The editor compiles advocacy action items from a variety of online sources, such as NCJW’s National website, coalition partners, and State Policy Advocacy Committee members. Compiling and writing action items requires on average 2-1/2 hours a week. Take Action Tuesday must be ready for distribution by 9:00AM every Tuesday. Two or more people could share this position and alternate weeks. For more information or to volunteer contact president@ncjwcns.org.
Tributes
An NCJW Chicago North Shore Tribute is a thoughtful way to acknowledge a life event while supporting NCJW’s many valuable projects. You may purchase an individual tribute or packages of tribute cards.

To purchase Tributes visit

Recent Tributes
To Pam Zlotnik
From Arlene and Ray Handler
In honor of Pam Zlotnik receiving the NCJW volunteer of the year award

To: Arthur Stadlen and Family
From Phyllis & Ray Blum
In Memory of Ilene Bercovitz Stadlen

To Carole Levine
From NCJW Board of Directors
Message: Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

To: Joan Zahnle
From: Lynne Bright
Message: You are an inspiration. B'yididut, Lynne

To Robbie and Scott Schreiber
From NCJW Board of Directors
In Memory of Elizabeth Schreiber

We Need Your News!
Whether you are celebrating a simcha or sharing your sorrow, your NCJW friends want to know! Email  info@ncjwcns.org.

NCJW Chicago North Shore Expresses our Condolences to:
  • Julia Forgash on the loss of Rae Forgash
  • the family of our member Joy Elder
  • Robbie and Scott on loss of Elizabeth Schreiber
May their memories be a blessing

Please welcome the following new members to NCJW Chicago North Shore:
  • Rachel Bikshorn
  • Bonnie Braverman
  • Natalie Cabell
  • Sydney Esbitt
  • Cynthia Goldberg
  • Betsy Jacobson
  • Rebecca Janowitz
  • Roselind Lindau
  • Tracy Madansky
  • Joan Marks
  • Susan Moss
  • Ellen Royce
  • Judy Seigel
  • Holly Smith
  • Eugene Sollo
  • Rhea Swider
Upcoming Events
Hannah G Solomon Award Dinner
Monday, September 23, 6:00 – 8:30 pm
East Bank Club, 500 North Kingsbury Street, Chicago
NCJW Chicago North Shore is honored to present the Hannah G Solomon Award, NCJW's highest honor, to Donna Gutman, a trailblazer In leadership and equal rights for women and girls. The event also features keynote speaker Heather Booth —activist and founder of the Jane Collective. For information and to make your reservation visit https://ncjwcns.org/hgs/. Proceeds go to continuing the social policy and activism work of NCJW Chicago North Shore

Her Story Theatre Presents: Invisible
Sunday, October 6, 3:00 pm
Stage 773 Box Theater, 1225 West Belmont, Chicago
Her Story Theater presents the world premiere of INVISIBLE, written by Mary Bonnett, as its Fall 2019 production. INVISIBLE imagines a woman in a small Mississippi town in 1925 who is forced to reconcile her involvement in the modern Women’s Ku Klux Klan movement with her religious beliefs and sense of decency. Wrapping their anti-immigrant mission in a cloak of patriotism following the passage of women’s suffrage, Mabel Carson’s neighbors have convinced her of the justness of their cause, but the arrival in town of a Chicago newspaper reporter just as their WKKK chapter is gaining momentum forces Mabel to question her beliefs. Ticket includes a post-show discussion. Click here to purchase your ticket .

Dinner and Dialogue
Tuesday, October 22, 6:00 pm
Curt's Cafe, 2922 Central Street, Evanston
In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness month, join NCJW at Curt's Cafe as we hear from Pat Davenport, Executive Director/CEO of A Safe Place who will inform us about domestic violence from the prospective of a service provider. A Safe Place provides services to survivors of domestic violence that support them in their efforts to transform their lives after domestic violence. Visit https://ncjwcns.org/nkoct2019/ for information and to register.

Luggage for Freedom Pack and Delivery Day
Sunday, October 27, 2019
LOCATION CHANGE *our regular location is no longer available! We will announce the new north suburban location as soon as it is confirmed. Thank you for your patience and support.
Volunteers will be needed to sort items and pack suitcases and backpacks and then deliver donations to local domestic violence shelters. Ages 4 and up are welcome. Donations of new sheets, new towels and ziplock bags are accepted on that day at the event. If you have other items to donate – such as luggage, please email luggageforfreedom@ncjwcns.org.
Take Action Today!
Tell your senators: we will not be silent in the face of Trump’s attempts to gag patients and providers
Over 50 years of bipartisan support. 4 million patients served annually. Free or low-cost access to physical exams, prescriptions, STI testing, life-saving cancer screenings, and contraception. All of this hangs in the balance thanks to the Trump administration’s domestic gag rule. Case in point: Planned Parenthood – an organization that serves nearly half of Title X patients – was forced out of the program last week.

It’s time for Congress to step in to defend the nation’s only family planning program. The House of Representatives has already approved an appropriations bill authorizing a historic funding increase for Title X and blocking enforcement of the domestic gag rule. Now, the Senate must do the same. Click here to contact your senators today to speak out against this dangerous, unconscionable, and illegal policy!

McConnell's Inaction on Guns Leads to More Devastation
“Labor Day weekend should be a time when families and communities come together to celebrate our nation’s workers, and instead we are mourning the 7 killed in Odessa, Texas and heartbroken for the teenagers injured in the shooting at a high school football game in Mobile, Alabama.

“At the rate we are going, it is only a matter of time until the next mass shooting occurs. It will not end until our lawmakers prioritize people over guns, and gun safety laws over the gun industry. The House of Representatives took action this year, passing two common sense gun measures to expand and lengthen the time for background checks. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to bring either bill – or any gun safety bill – to the Senate floor for a vote. In the 185 days he’s waited to take action, there have been 235 mass shootings in the United States. We ask Mr. McConnell: how many more people have to die before you will act?" Click here to read the full NCJW press release.

Learn how to grow our movement
There is power in numbers. Growing our movement will strengthen our impact. Join us for a series of three calls focused on membership growth. Learn how to recruit, engage, and retain new members, supporters, and advocates. Save the dates for the entire webinar series:

Growing Our Movement: Tools for Recruitment Webinar
September 17 at 1:30pm ET and September 19 at 7:30pm ET
Growing Our Movement: Tools for Engagement Webinar
October 29 at 1:30pm ET and October 30 at 7:30pm ET
Growing Our Movement: Tools for Retention Webinar
November 19 at 7:30pm ET and November 20 at 1:30pm ET
Click here to register for the Growing Our Movement webinar series!
NCJW News
A Legacy Organization Can Transition: NCJW, A Case in Point
In 1893, Hannah G. Solomon, a visionary woman Jewish leader was invited to bring volunteers to the Academy of World Religions during the Chicago World’s Fair, but led a “walk-out” because when they arrived the job they were given was to pour the tea. Hannah G. Solomon returned to her native Chicago community of wealthy Reform Jews and declared: “Jewish women can do more than pour the tea.” Solomon decided she would organize Jewish women “to go into the world and do what their convictions demand. She believed then, and it is still true to this day, that Jewish women can take their particular Jewish values and put them into action in order to repair this very broken world. So, Hannah G. set about organizing groups of women into “sections” that would identify needs in their local communities and go about developing programs and policies that address the most pressing problems impacting on those communities.

Thus, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) was launched and became the first open membership organization for Jewish women whatever their religious practice might be. Sections across the United States were formed and they created Jewish study circles for women to learn about Jewish values and to put those values into action by creating projects to aid immigrant women, children and families. NCJW’s first convention in 1895 was so successful that police had to turn away hundreds of women. The press, at the time, referred to it as an “epoch-making event.”

Since its inception, NCJW has been on the cutting edge of major social change in the United States and post-1948, in Israel as well. Click here for the full article.

Abortion Access is a Jewish Issue
...The Guttmacher Institute released the results of a study that should frighten all of us. “Predicted changes in abortion access and incidence in a post-Roe world,” an analysis by Caitlin Myers of Middlebury College and collaborators from the Guttmacher Institute and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), revealed that the average woman in 2019 (ages 15-44) lives 25 miles from the nearest clinic providing abortion care. If Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States, is overturned (and right now, it’s looking really bad for Roe), 100,000 residents in the Southern and Midwestern United States would be unable to access an abortion. 

If you’ve been paying attention to news, you know that states like Alabama and Ohio are seeking to eliminate abortion access. Other states, like South Dakota, have only one abortion clinic in the entire state, making it basically impossible to get to that clinic if you happen to live far away, require childcare, time off from work, and lodging. Laws restricting abortion, like waiting periods, make getting an abortion even more complicated, and effectively render the right to abortion as null and void: if you can’t actually obtain an abortion when you seek it, Roe is just a theoretical... 

If that’s not compelling to you, consider this: Jews get abortions. Jews need financial help accessing abortion. (If you think this isn’t true because all Jews have access to wealth, please take the necessary time and space to work that enormous falsehood out, and then return to the world once you’ve dealt with it.) The fact the abortion rights are essentially being dissolved by Christian hegemony should worry you, and Jews everywhere, enough to take action.  Click here for the full article.

Jews, outraged by restrictive abortion laws, are invoking the Hebrew Bible in the debate
When Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed into law in May one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans, she invoked her faith. 

“To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey said in a statement. 

This is a familiar argument for the Republican Party when it comes to abortion access. In January, Kirk Cox, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, cited biblical scripture when he came out against a proposed bill that would lift late-term abortion restrictions. 

"You knit me together in my mother’s womb,” he said, quoting Psalm 139. “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.” 

But for many leaders in the Jewish faith, such interpretations are problematic and even insulting. Click here for the full article.
Other Events of Interest
*The following events are not hosted or co-sponsored by NCJW but may be of interest to our members. As such, they are listed here for your convenience.

Dinner and Dialogue
Tuesday, Sept. 10, 5:30 p.m., UCAN, 3605 W. Fillmore St., Chicago
Join JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council and the North Lawndale Historical and Cultural Society for a film screening and discussion about the intersection of race and economics. We will watch the documentary film “The Shame of Chicago,” which focuses on the story of how Black residents were prevented from accumulating wealth through homeownership and the history of the Contract Buyers League. After the film, small-group discussions will feature the researchers who quantified the amount of money extracted from Black homeowners on the city’s South and West sides through home contract sales and produced the report “The Plunder of Black Wealth in Chicago: New Findings on the Lasting Toll of Predatory Housing Contracts.” Dinner will be provided. RSVP by emailing JakeChernoff@juf.org or calling 312.357.4771.

The Fight for Immigrant and Economic Justice in Our Own Backyards
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 7:00-8:30 PM, Am Shalom, 840 Vernon Ave, Glencoe
The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs' North Suburban Organizing Team presents an evening to discuss systemic and economic issues facing immigrant communities in our neighborhoods. We'll make connections between what we see within our community and what we see happening across the state and the country. We'll think together about how to take action to support immigrant communities and move towards economic justice for all in the Northern Suburbs. Please RSVP at: http://bit.ly/jcuasept17.
 
Jewish Community Coalition in Support of Refugees and Asylum Seekers 
Thursday, September 19th, 8:30 – 10:30 am
JCFS Chicago’s Cooper Center, 6639 N. Kedzie (Chicago)
A light breakfast will be served. Click here to RSVP. Together, we will: learn more about and discuss issues impacting refugees and asylum seekers; engage in robust advocacy on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers; connect with volunteer opportunities to support refugees, asylees and other immigrants in Chicago and surrounding communities; and strategize around how best to shape this Coalition moving forward to have the greatest impact.

8th Annual Interfaith Potluck For Peace Hosted by Children of Abraham Coalition
Saint Viator High School, 1213 E Oakton St, Arlington Heights
Stand united for a nation based on interfaith respect and reverence. All welcome. click here for more information and to register here: http://bit.ly/coacregister.
Support NCJW
Chicago North Shore has several new ways to support our section. As always, you can make a one time donation or purchase a tribute (links are below), but we now also have a lovely, hand-crafted necklace you can purchase for yourself or for a gift. Net proceeds from the sale of each  necklace   supports NCJW's mission.

You can also support NCJW as a Sustaining Advocate.   Complete and print this form    and mail it to our office, 5 Revere Drive, Suite 200, Northbrook, IL 60062 and your scheduled monthly donation will ensure the viability of Chicago North Shore for generations to come. Your support makes it possible for NCJW to create meaningful social change for women, children, and families in the US and Israel. Make a difference for women, children, and families by giving a generous gift to NCJW through a variety of options:

Put your dollars to work immediately by making a fast, secure online donation. Become a Major Donor by making a donation of $500 or more. 

Honor a family member, colleague, friend, or loved one by giving a gift to NCJW. A handwritten NCJW tribute card with a message of support, celebration, or sympathy will be sent to the honoree or the family of the person you wish to remember.

Canadian jewelry artist Hilary Druxman has handcrafted a beautifully designed necklace and has partnered with NCJW Chicago North Shore to bring her design to our members and supporters. Overlapping triangles come together to form a star, reflecting our belief in advocacy and action. Each necklace costs $44 ($40 + $4 sales tax) and can be shipped anywhere in the US. Net proceeds from the sale of each handcrafted sterling silver necklace support our mission.

NCJW is recognized as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. Contributions to it are tax deductible to the full extent provided by the law. 

Create a Legacy!
Want to ensure NCJW's legacy for years to come? Are you a life member and want to extend your support in perpetuity? Have you thought out a bequest to NCJW?
Click here    for a sample form. It's that easy!

Already have a bequest to NCJW?  Please let us know that you put us in your will so we can acknowledge you!! Email    melissa@ncjwcns.org .