Greetings!
This month's special event is a virtual tour of The Legacy Museum located in Montgomery, Alabama. Using unique technology, the museum allows us to explore the history of racial inequality and its relationship to a range of contemporary issues from mass incarceration to police violence.
We hope you'll join us.
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WRS Presents
The Legacy Museum
Monday, June 14
5:00pm via Zoom
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Join us for the
Equal Justice Initiative
virtual tour of
The Legacy Museum.
The Legacy Museum is situated on a site in Montgomery where enslaved people were once warehoused. A block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from an Alabama dock and rail station where tens of thousands of Black people were trafficked during the 19th century
Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and best-selling author of Just Mercy, the museum works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is committed to changing the narrative about race in America.
Learn about The Legacy Museum here.
THIS VIRTUAL TOUR IS FREE TO ALL MEMBERS.
Your discretionary donation is most appreciated to support WRS programs and meaningful social actions.
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Shop at the WRS Judaica Gift Shop |
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Wonderful gifts for those
special graduates in your life.
Shop online for a great selection of Judaica for Shabbat, Havdallah, simchas, and all special occasions.
If you are shopping for a talit, you can make an appointment by email to come in to the shop, or if you don't see what you're looking for in the Judaica Shop, please ask Ingrid for assistance by email.
Ingrid will help you find just the right item, and your purchase will help fund the programs of the Women of Rodef Sholom.
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Rosh Chodesh
A Special Holiday For Women
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The Rosh Chodesh Group
Tuesday, June 8
2:00pm
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“Whoever blesses the moon in its time welcomes the presence of the Schechina (female Devine presence).”
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Rosh Chodesh marks the beginning of each month by the appearance of the new moon. The talmud records this as a special holiday for women.
Be part of our Rosh Chodesh group which meets each month to share women's perspectives on Torah, politics, ritual, music, prayer, and much more in an intimate setting.
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WRS Book Club
Wednesday, June 23
7:30pm
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The WRS Book Club will discuss
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lipman this month.
The next book is Sadness is a White Bird
by Moriel Rothman-Zecher.
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WRS Board Meeting
Tuesday, June 1
5:30-7:00pm
Our meetings, the first Tuesday of the month, are open to all members and to the public.
Send your name and email to wrs@rodefsholom.org if you would like to attend this month's WRS Board meeting or future Board meetings.
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WRS Programming Team Meeting
Tuesday, June 15
5:00 - 6:30pm
Help us develop and plan virtual programming for the coming months. RSVP with your name and email to wrssisterhood@gmail.com, and the Zoom link for the meeting will be emailed to you. If you attend a meeting, you will be added to the distribution list for future meetings. We meet the third Tuesday of each month.
Join us! We are stronger together.
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THANK YOU WRS PROGRAMMING TEAM:
Amy Friedricks, Angela Giacomini, Laura J. Giacomini, Antoinette Golbus, Susan Goldwasser, Antoinette Grimes, BettyAnn Kram, Barbara Kraus, Sheri Langer, Jen Levine, Alissa Ralston,
Fanny Stein, Sheila Wheeler
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Message From Our President |
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Dear Women of Rodef Sholom and friends,
It’s hard for me to believe that this is my last letter from the President. None of us could have known two years ago, when I was installed as the President of the Women of Rodef Sholom (WRS), that we would face such unprecedented events of pandemic and social unrest. I absolutely could not have been successful, or, honestly, even sane, without the amazing creative support of the entire WRS Board of Directors and our wonderful Congregation Rodef Sholom clergy and staff. With their energy and ingenuity, I am proud of our ability to remain connected and to provide interesting, fun, and spiritual programming, essentially all virtually, for the last 15 months. We “traveled” to New York to visit the Tenement Museum, we partied for Purim, we celebrated Shabbat, “gathered” for film and book discussions, meditations, yoga, and music, and we engaged in tikkun olam (repairing the world). Despite the isolation of COVID-19, we even met new people, some simply because of the accessibility of the new online world. I thank you all for making these events so special.
Please join us at the Women of Rodef Sholom spring general meeting on Tuesday, June 1, at 5:30PM Pacific, where you will have the opportunity to vote on the slate of highly qualified WRS officers up for election. We would love for you to see what we have in store as in-person events become possible again, and I hope we never stop including virtual capabilities that have opened up the world to us. Better still, join us on one of our terrific committees or as an entry-level Board member to help PLAN those upcoming activities! We are definitely stronger together as these past months have clearly illuminated.
I attended my second-to-last Congregational Board of Directors meeting in May, AND WE MET IN PERSON! It was glorious! In this last letter to you, I also want to honor the incomparable Michael Kamler, Congregational Executive Director extraordinaire, who also retires at the end of June. He has been an invaluable partner to the Women of Rodef Sholom throughout his tenure at Rodef Sholom, and we will miss him greatly. Of course, we are so happy for him and his family for this next phase of his life.
I am looking forward to continuing to serve this magnificent community on the WRS Board as the Immediate Past President. Thank you again for your support. Continue to reach out for dog walks, meals and coffee, or just to chat. Visiting with and learning from the inspiring women of this group is my favorite part of this work.
Lastly, I invite you to join us for a virtual tour of The Legacy Museum at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration on June 14. I am compelled to learn more about the challenging experiences of my fellow Americans and to be part of the solution.
Thank you again for the honor to serve as your President.
And remember, without you, we are one woman short.
Jen Levine, President
Women of Rodef Sholom
(she/her/hers)
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In Partnership
Social Justice and Civic Engagement
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View WRJ Events for June 2021 here.
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Marin Organizing Committee (MOC)
and Congregation Rodef Sholom
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Marin Organizing Committee (MOC) is an organization of institutions, mostly religious and non-profit groups, formed to create relational power that can build and strengthen each member organization, as well as shape Marin County’s public policy for the common good.
Only a small fraction of the rental assistance funds have been distributed because of eligibility limitations and access barriers. We need more time to distribute the rental assistance funds authorized to prevent evictions.
The next MOC Leaders Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14 at 7:00 pm to plan summer and fall house meetings and actions.
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Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
For more than six decades, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) has worked to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Reform Jewish Movement to advocate for social justice.
Freedom to Vote and Lobbying Training
Thursday, June 10
8:00 PM EDT
Register for this Freedom to Vote Campaign training where you will learn more about deliberate barriers to voting, two federal bills that protect the right to vote, what Reform congregations and communities can do to help pass these bills, and how to effectively lobby your U.S.Senators.
California’s (RAC-CA) top priority is SB 731 Time Done. SB 731 will restore opportunities to people who have prior convictions. It is part of a movement to undo the damage done by a series of policies that have created both mass incarceration and ongoing punishment even after people complete their sentences despite the fact that these policies are not shown to improve public safety. SB 62, the Garment Worker Protection Act will also be supported, to hold the garment industry responsible for paying minimum wage to over 40,000 garment workers in our state, who are predominantly immigrant women.
What can you do?
Sign up to participate in lobby meetings at RAC.org/CALobby2021. (Meetings will include a brief training so that all participants will know what to do.)
Contact RAC-CA Lead Organizer Julie Saxe-Taller at jsaxe-taller@rac.org with your questions or ideas.
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Congregation Rodef Sholom
Community Fridge
Congregation Rodef Sholom is partnering with Venetia Valley and Old Gallinas Children's Center to host a Community Fridge. The fridge will provide food for all of our communities. We are looking for volunteers to help stock and clean the fridge.
Help support community supported agriculture program and connect with congregants (socially distanced, of course!) on Shabbat mornings from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Volunteers' tasks include distributing farm boxes during pick-up at the temple, and delivering produce boxes to congregants' homes in Marin.
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WRS virtually toured the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) located in San Francisco. We enjoyed this opportunity to see and discuss the paintings of William H Johnson and to learn about this artist’s life and art.
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