Dear Central Great Lakes,

There is a magic about children. It’s like getting a Ph.D in exuberance. From pausing to look up at a plane, stooping to watch a ladybug on a leaf, or a patch of dandelions, or a cloud formation that looks like a rabbit, the world is full of wonder when you look at it through their eyes. Everything is worth a full whisper of “Wow!” Pure abandonment!

My youngest granddaughter loves to collect small things -- very, very small things: a ceramic heart from a school fair, a “beautiful” rock she found on a walk, very small soaps from Disney World. She keeps everything she discovers in a treasure box and will excitedly show them to me explaining the story behind each. Simple, sweet, full of awe at what she has found!

It’s their sense of wonder, their imagination, their joy that is pure delight. Children are flat out open to the world around them – and thankfully they share. They can give voice to our inner child of astonishment, surprise, and just pure happiness, when we see the world through their eyes. The challenge is to find a way to refocus and see this world of ours through a bright lens of amazement.

But what do we do? There aren’t any webinars on 5 Easy Lessons to a Sense of Wonder! With our lives so busy, isn't adding “Find Wonder” to our To-Do list a bit daunting? I hear you!

The reality is that it’s not complicated. Heschel gently teaches that we simply need to allow ourselves to experience our world and everything in it with a sense of wonder and deep appreciation. To be in the moment with a sense of gratitude ignites a light to guide us on this journey of ours with a lighter step. Because, as Heschel notes, a sense of wonder leads to an awareness of the presence of G-d and this connection is a golden lifeline to steady us through the challenges we all face. This encounter can grow so deep and true in our hearts that no words can express it – except perhaps that whispered, child-like “Wow.” Certainly now,  as we approach the New Year 5783, with all its possibilities, we can use a bit of wonder along the way!

A few years ago, Margie Miller, Past International President of WLCJ, posted a poem on our WL’s website that touched me deeply. The poem beautifully reminds us of the new light, new hope, and new opportunities that each day of the New Year holds for each of us. I wanted to share it with you, my CGLR Sisters, along with my wish that you and your loved ones be blessed with a year of peace, health, happiness, and wonder!

I am the New Year

I am unused, unspotted, without blemish

I stretch before you three hundred and sixty five days long

I will present each day, in its turn, a new leaf

In the Book of Life, for you to place upon it, your imprint

I am the New Year

Each hour of every day I will

Give you sixty minutes that have

Never known the use of humans.

White and pure, I present them,

It remains for you to fill them;

With sixty jeweled seconds of

Love, hope, endeavor, patience and

Trust in God.

I am the New Year,

I am coming, but once past, I can never be recalled.

What I am depends on you.

You choose – and choose well,

What I am depends on you.

by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

Shabbat Shalom and L’shanah Tova Tikatevu,

Pam

Pam Schlosberg

CGLR President

847.433.7546 (h); 847.691.8991 (c)

Special Note: 

The Ukraine War Continues - The  Suffering Continues-- Masorti Olami Support Continues --

Our CGLR Support Continues

We dedicated our social action initiative for our Spring Conference 2022 to Ukraine. Our dedication and advocacy continues.

We can extend our sense of renewed hope and send our light forward by a donation via The Schechter Institutes, Inc. www.schechter.edu/donate or

via Masorti Olami: Support Our Work (masortiolami.org)

Jewels in the Crown is an opportunity for your Sisterhood to be honored for exceptional programming and participation.

See below for information and application.

Application and supporting materials must be submitted to Women’s League by

March 2, 2023.

For more information email: jewel@wlcj.org

Whether you’re celebrating the joy of a simcha or remembering a loved one who passed away, please consider donating to our CGLR Leadership Fund today.

Your gift provides support for those women in our region who may need financial assistance to participate in one of our educational programs.  We will send a lovely card to the recipient acknowledging your gift. 

Donations in any amount are welcome. There are two ways to donate:

• Click the “DONATE” button below. Then, please send acknowledgement information to: cglrpresident21@wlcj.org.
• You may send a check (Payable to Women's League for Conservative Judaism) to:

Pam Schlosberg

144 Whistler Rd

Highland Park, IL 60035

Please include: the occasion, your name and address plus the name and

address of the recipient.

Your caring will help keep our future strong - and we thank you!

         Visit our CGLR Website -

Your Resource for all Things CGLR



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Dear Friends,

Hi! As we are diving into our Chazak v’Ematz campaign I challenge each of you to be strong and courageous. Think out of the box for new ideas in how to raise Torah Fund dollars. There is a lot of change and unknown ahead of us, but I know we can all plow ahead. It will be a great year to celebrate the 80th year of Torah Fund. Please start by coming to our region Torah Fund event on October 23 at 8:00 PM ET/7:00 CT (See the flier below). It is free to everyone and all the Torah Fund dollars raised will go to each affiliate's goals. Plus, it will be a fun and entertaining evening.

There are many ways to celebrate Torah Fund’s 80th birthday. One way is to make

an extra $80 donation. Al those making an extra $80 donation will be recognized

at convention.

Each affiliate should have received their pins. If you didn’t receive your pins

please contact the NY office. Please know I am available for questions or just to

talk about an idea. Also, I would love to attend your Torah Fund events if I am

available. Please send me an invitation and I will do my best to be there.

Be Strong!

Shalom,

Rebecca Goldwasser

CGLR Vice President of Torah Fund

rebeccatorahfund@gmail.com

New Digital Torah Fund eCards Available NOW:

Send a greeting with ecards and support Torah Fund! Make your gift more meaningful by using our ecards for every occasion!

Mi Sheberach for

Marlene Ostrow

CGLR Member Support

Susan Steinberg,

Southern Region President

Ruth Harris

InterContinental Region President

We wish them Refuah Shlemah - A complete and speedy recovery

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

With sadness we advise you of the passing of Dodi Fishman Tobin z'l, daughter-in-law of Janet Tobin, Past International President of WLCJ and current President of American Friends of Neve Hanna - the Masorti children's home in Israel.

Funeral services and Shiva were held in Israel.

Messages of condolence may be sent to Janet at her home address 27 Burbury Lane Great Neck, NY 11023 ---Jpastpres@aol.com.

We extend our condolences to Janet, her husband Irwin, their son Marc and his children. We pray that they will be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

My husband, Mark, and I never knew our grandparents—all were Holocaust victims. My late father-in-law was one of only seven Holocaust survivors among 5,000 Jews in his town in Poland. That drew us, over Labor Day weekend, to view a critically acclaimed documentary, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, in Manhattan, which has won an award from Yad Vashem for Cinematic Excellence in a Holocaust Documentary.

This remarkable film had its origins in a grandson’s search for a home movie that he knew his late grandfather, David Kurtz, had made in August, 1938. When Glenn Kurtz found it in his parents’ closet in Florida, the 16 mm reel was in a state of advanced decay. Recognizing its historic significance as a visual record of ordinary people soon to disappear in the maw of the Holocaust, Glenn donated it to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which arranged to have it restored. He also tracked down clues from the film to research and write a book; through luck, he even found a survivor, a boy seen in the film, who helped to identify some of the townspeople.

The elder Kurtz had come to the US as a young child, prospered here, and returned on a grand tour of Europe. This included a visit to his birthplace, the small town of Nasielsk, in Poland. Using his new handheld movie camera, he recorded a silent film in color, which was intended, along with all footage from his tour, only for his private viewing. In the three-minute recording in Nasielsk, as the camera pans the buildings, some of the town’s 3000 Jews steal the scenes, mostly youngsters who tussle to be captured by the new-fangled gadget. We also see a big crowd spilling out from the town’s synagogue onto the street.

There are an infinite number of ways to retell the Holocaust and parse its meaning, and this film contributes a unique and moving record of that vast story. British Jewish film star Helen Bonham-Carter is the main narrator, interspersed with others, including Glenn. As the three minutes are closely dissected, we catch glimpses of the living spirit of those doomed souls. We learn of the Nazis’ invasion and tortuous capture of the town’s Jews, and their subsequent deportation, which occurs 16 months after they had stood, smiling, before the camera. Only 100 of the town’s Jews are known to have survived. My husband and I never grow tired of fresh new takes on personal Holocaust stories. We’re missing so many details of our own family story that this visual evidence through film feels to us as an homage to our own lost relatives.

I’m grateful that, through my role as Chair of WLCJ’s Personal Conversations, I was introduced in June to WLCJ Southern Region Treasurer, Marsha Raimi (West End Synagogue Sisterhood, Nashville, TN). Marsha told me about the film and explained her personal connections to it.

"In preparation for our 2018 trip to Poland with our husbands, my sister suggested that I read Glenn's 2014 book "Three Minutes in Poland," because our father was mentioned in it as having come from Nasielsk. This was a revelation to me. Dad was an Auschwitz survivor who spoke of it often and recorded testimony for the USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem, but he only ever talked about his town of Mlawa. I realized that his father (my grandfather) was born in Nasielsk and moved to Mlawa when he married. My grandmother's last name was the same as the people in Nasielsk who owned the button factory described in the film. As in the movie, the details of my ancestors' lives came to life for me, and I had to know more. I joined Glenn's Facebook page for the descendants of Nasielsk’s Jews, and I began doing genealogical research. When the film premiered at Sundance, I watched it online. So when Glenn arranged two days of events related to the film's premiere this May in Poland, I felt compelled to return. Now, Holocaust remembrance, reconciliation with our former Polish neighbors, and prevention of future genocides is my mission." To hear more of Marsha's story, go to this podcast by her local Jewish newspaper: https://www.jewishobservernashville.org/our-podcast/conversation-with-marsha-raimi-journey-into-the-past.

The documentary was written and directed by Bianca Stigter, who points out the power of the film medium to memorialize ordinary people—lost, not only to time, but in this case, also to horrific violence. Reviewers have given the film their highest ratings. Runtime is 72 minutes. Go to https://superltd.com/films/three-minutes-a-lengthening for the official trailer, reviews and current theatrical screenings. It is expected to be on several digital platforms beginning September 20th. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Vivian Leber

WLCJ Personal Conversations Chair

WLCJ Board Member

vleber@wlcj.org

Parashat Ki Tavo

Submitted by Rabbi Margie Cella, WLCJ Educator, mcella@wlcj.org

Moses again exhorts the people to keep God’s commandments “with all your heart and soul” (26:16). Just as “You have declared the Lord to be your God,” he says, “the Lord has declared you to be [God’s] special people… set high above all other nations” (26:17-19).

This parashah contains both curses and blessings. Curses apply to anyone who: makes a graven image; dishonors father or mother; hinders the blind; perverts the judgment of strangers, orphans, and widows; strikes their neighbor secretly; takes a bribe; does not maintain all the words of the Torah. 

Observing the commandments will bring blessings: in the city and field; with abundant fruit of body, ground, and animals; coming in and going out. Israel’s enemies will be defeated, and they will be established as a holy people.

Not obeying the commandments will be equivalently cursed in all the same areas. Additionally, gruesome curses will be suffered by a disobedient nation, including but not limited to: pestilence, sickness, rain and drought; defeat by enemies; madness and blindness; exile; famine so severe as to cannibalism of family members; plagues on them and their children; fear; enslavement. Instead of numbering as the stars of heaven, they will be left few in number.

Still, the parashah ends on a positive note. Moses reminds the people of all that they have seen that God did for them, from the plagues and subsequent deliverance from Egypt to forty years in the wilderness when their clothes and shoes did not wear out, and God provided manna for them to eat; when attacked, they defeated the kings of Heshbon and Bashan.

The parashah ends with this exhortation from Moses: “Keep therefore the words of this covenant,… that you may prosper in all you do” (29:8). Be the recipient of blessings, not curses. Hazak v’Ematz.

Sunday, October 2 - TIME TBD---SAVE THE DATE - Reverse Tashlich Event

Sunday, October 23 @ 7:00 pm CDT / 8:00 pm EDT (Zoom) - CGLR Torah Fund Event-Celebrating 80 Years of Torah Fund's Global Growth

Monday, October 24 @ 7:00 pm CDT / 8:00 pm EDT (Zoom) CGLR Membership Workshop for Membership Vice Presidents /Chairs

Wednesday, November 16 @ 7:00 pm CDT / 8:00 pm EDT (Zoom) - CGLR Rescheduled Opening Event- Just for Laughs



Thursday, November 17 @ 7:00PM ET - WL Reads interviews Randy Sue Meyers, author of the book, Fashion Orphans.