Chai Lines
International Northeast Region
Women's League
for Conservative Judaism
Networking to Engage, Enrich and Empower
Conservative Jewish Women
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August 23, 2019 Volume 3, Issue 28
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FROM THE REGION PRESIDENT--JOAN LOWENSTEIN
Endings and beginnings. On Sunday August 18, I picked up my daughter from her last summer at Camp Ramah in New England. To say it was an emotional day is an understatement. She has spent the last eight summers at this wonderful Jewish institution that helps to instill the beliefs and identity we so wish for her while providing so much fun. During this her last year she was also provided an opportunity to perform many leadership skills with the younger campers. I am so very thankful for the directorship of Rabbi Ed Gelb, Assistant Director Joshua Edelglass and the entire staff of Camp Ramah that I chose to use this forum to publicly thank them.
Today I turned around and sent her off to begin her week at USY Regional Encampment. I look forward to next week when I have her home for more than a minute and I can hear more about her incredible summer at Ramah and her week at Encampment. I am eternally grateful for all of our Conservative/ Masorti institutions but especially those that help develop our Jewish youth.
Wishing you all a meaningful and peaceful, Shabbat!
L'Shalom
Joan
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MORE GOOD NEWS WANTED
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Email Lois Silverman, Chai Line editor, at
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FROM WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR
CONSERVATIVE
JUDAISM
Networking to engage,
enrich and empower
Conservative Jewish Women
Shabbat Message:
"Lovingkindness of Strangers"
By Anise Parnes
BQLI Region President
It was Martin Luther King Day and my husband and I were driving home from a
bat mitzvah and over-the-top post
Shacharit party. This was the fourth such family celebration we had attended within an 18-month period and it motivated him to share, "I want to do something for Jack."
Translation: He wanted to acknowledge that our developmentally disabled son, who lived at a residential school in rural New Hampshire, would be reaching the milestone age of 13 in the coming summer. He wanted Jack to have a family get-together just as his cousins had when each of them reached 12 or 13.
My immediate thought: What would be appropriate for a tween who isn't able to read and write English, or Hebrew, and doesn't understand Jewish rituals?
In a short amount of time, I learned of a "local" rabbi, the spiritual leader of a synagogue about 35 miles away, who made occasional trips to the school. I called him and asked what he would suggest. To my surprise, the rabbi mentioned that he had met Jack, and he thought Jack should be able to learn the opening verse of the Shema.
And Jack did. On our monthly visits, we practiced the Hebrew verse with him, and we relied upon the assistance of an aide in Jack's group home to work with him daily so that he would be prepared for his big day.
Seven months later, on a balmy summer New Hampshire day, a small Jewish community welcomed our family, our son's roommates, schoolmates, and staff, as we celebrated Jack's recitation of "Shema Yisrael..." a week after reading Parashat Vaetchanan, the source of the Shema, and the mitzvah to teach it to our children.
Personal Conversation August 27
Lawyers Autumn Katz and Emily Nestler from the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York will discuss the status of reproductive rights challenges in this country, They will provide an overview of the current landscape of abortion access, with a particular focus on how access to reproductive healthcare throughout much of the South and the Midwest - where people already face extreme barriers to health care - is under attack. In addition, Autumn will discuss the current case in Texas challenging a state law requiring that all embryonic and fetal tissue from a miscarriage or abortion procedure be buried or cremated - to facilitate a discussion on the diversity of religious beliefs around abortion, miscarriage, and personhood.
 Autumn Katz
(pictured) is Senior Counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights' U.S. Legal Program. She is currently litigating multiple cases in state and federal courts across the U.S., including challenges to mandatory waiting period laws in Florida, Oklahoma, and Tennessee; a challenge to Texas' requirement that fetal and embryonic tissue resulting from an abortion or miscarriage to be buried or cremated; and challenges to state prohibitions on a common abortion method. Prior to joining the Center in 2012, Autumn was a litigator at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, where she devoted a significant amount of time to pro bono matters involving civil and constitutional rights. Autumn has also served as a State Strategies Fellow for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, providing legal analysis and advice to ACLU affiliates on legislation affecting reproductive health and rights.
Emily Nestler
is a litigator at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she leads lawsuits that challenge federal and state government-imposed restrictions that seek to eliminate or undermine reproductive rights, including rights to abortion and contraception. Prior to joining the Center, Emily served as a Trial Attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she defended federal agencies against constitutional challenges to federal statutes, regulations, and programs. Among other things, Emily defended policies supporting transgender rights under Title IX and Title VII, including regulations interpreting the nondiscrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
Members can download materials from previous Personal Conversations by logging into the Members Only section.
More Personal Conversations for 2019-2020 will be announced soon. For more information, click here or contact Barb Levin at barbl11@aol.com.
Applications are now open for the Convention 2020 Jewels in the Crown Awards!
Sisterhoods who met the criteria of a wide range of activities - those developed and sponsored by Women's League as well as home-grown programs and initiatives - have been acknowledged as the glittering jewels in the Women's League crown. Women's League will honor these exceptional programs with the Jewels in the Crown Awards at Convention 2020.
Women's League Reads - Video Now Available!
Convention 2020 is Coming!
Sisterhood Program Showcase
The Sisterhood Program Showcase is our newest way to highlight the innovative programs our Sisterhoods are creating in their communities. The first week of each month, we will introduce a Sisterhood program from one of four categories:
General Programs
Jewish Family Life
Social Action
Fund Raising
We encourage you to use these program ideas in your own Sisterhood. Feel free to adapt them to meet your needs. If you make changes that you think other sisterhoods can benefit from, let us know.
We also encourage you to share your unique programs with us so that we can Showcase your Sisterhood Program. Please send your program outlines, flyers and photos to Marsha Strongin at
Together we will engage, enrich and empower our Sisterhood members.
20 Years of Days of Study
We're excited to share this video retrospective on Masorti Women's Study Day in Israel - keep checking for the next Masorti Women's Days of Study dates. Click the photo below to watch!
Mishnah Berakhot Updates!
 Rabbi Pamela Barmash, Ph.D., has served on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly since 2003 and on the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative Movement since 2008. She is co-chair of the new Disabilities Inclusion Committee of the Rabbinical Assembly. She served as the rabbi at Temple Shaare Tefilah, Norwood, Massachusetts, for eight years, and she taught at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem for many summers. She received her B.A. from Yale, rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Harvard. Rabbi Barmash is professor of Hebrew Bible at Washington University in St. Louis and has served as director of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies there. She has been a fellow at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. In her rabbinic writing, she wants to inspire more Jews to observe more mitzvot, and she is the author of teshuvot (rabbinic papers) on contemporary issues in Judaism. In her academic scholarship, she addresses issues of law and justice in her book Homicide in the Biblical World and shows how Jews have transformed the story of the Exodus and the celebration of Passover to meet changing needs and concerns in Exodus in the Jewish Experience: Echoes and Reverberations.
No previous study will be needed to join the Zoom calls, just prior registration. Call-in information will be sent upon registering - Please refrain from joining the call until a half hour before the session. This program is open to registered Women's League members only.
Not a member yet? Become an Individual Member here!
Make sure to register for all individual sessions in order to take the full course.
Mishnah Berakhot, Chapter Four: Livin' on a Prayer with Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields will be on Thursday, November 21, 2019, 8:00 p.m., EST - Register for this session here!
Just Announced! THREE new sessions have been added to Listen, Pray, Think: A Journey through Mishnah Berakhot!
Videos of all previous sessions are available under the Members Only section of our website.
Weekly Words of Torah goes PC (Parashah and Chesed -
Parashat Eikev 5779
Parashat Eikev discusses the relationship between God and the children of Israel, which is grounded on the foundation of love and a covenantal relationship. On behalf of God, Moses promises a blessed land to the children of Israel, and the Torah reading discusses the glory of the land of Israel. The Jordan is crossed and we read about the wooden Ark and the new Tablets. Our reading teaches us the relevance of the commandments to the Land of Israel.
A few well known passages come from Parashat Eikev, such as the second paragraph of the Shema, V'haya Em Shamoa (Deuteronomy 11:13-21), and the verse recited in the Birkat HaMazon, the Grace after Meals, V'achalta v'savata oo'verachta et Adonai Eloheicha al haAtretz hatovah asher natan lach, "When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the Lord your God for the good land which God has given you." (Deuteronomy 8:10). A Chesed project for the week of Parashat Eikev can be a food drive. In addition, as a Sisterhood, plan a time to go to a local food kitchen to cook and serve a meal.
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FROM THE TORAH FUND V.P. -- MARILYN COHEN
"
Atid" (future) was the theme for the Torah Fund campaign that just ended on June 30, 2019. The design of the
Atid pin proved to be very popular and helped increase donations. The Torah Fund office is processing all the donations they received before June 30, from the 13 Regions, for the 5779 campaign. Thank you to all our donors in the International Northeast Region (INR).
The new theme of the 2019-2020 Torah Fund Campaign is Chesed, symbolizing the heart of kindness. The word can also be translated as "lovingkindness," to convey the deep love that motivates Jewish acts of kindness, done without thought of reward. Rabbinic tradition makes chesed one of the three central pillars of Jewish life, as Shimon HaTzaddik taught. "The world rests on three things: on Torah, on service of God, and on deeds of kindness." (Pirkei Avot 1:2)
Al haTorah, V'al Ha'Avodah, v'al G'milut Chasadim.
The 5780 Torah Fund pin depicts a heart surrounded by three circles, each one larger than the next. This symbolizes the heart of kindness in ever-widening realms of generosity: from family, to community, to the larger world. Or from North America, to Israel, to the entire world. Or from Sisterhood, to Region, to our international Women's League for Conservative Judaism.
Suggestions to Torah Fund and other event planning officers:
- Know your synagogue's deadlines for submitting TF materials/articles.
- Include a picture of the Chesed pin in your materials.
- Have tzedakah boxes at all meetings, especially your opening event.
- Have a display board with all Torah Fund cards on it at each meeting.
- Donate the remaining 5779 pins to a nursing home... or use them in a craft project.
- Check dates of Region events before setting your dates, to avoid conflicts.
- Put a Torah Fund program/event on your 5780 calendar.
- Invite the Region President and me to attend!
I am looking forward to another great year working with so many wonderful volunteers who are dedicated to Torah Fund. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Marilyn Cohen, Torah Fund VP
International Northeast Region
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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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