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Jan. 30 Area Day | Incubator Grants | WRJ Awards | Canadians please opt in!
Jan. 30 Area Day | Incubator Grants | WRJ Awards | Canadians please opt in!
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News from the Northeast



January 5, 2016
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Upcoming Deadlines

January 20, 2016
RSVP deadline for Jan. 30 WRJ‑Northeast Area Event
February 9, 2016
WRJ Incubator Grant Application Deadline

Save the Date!

January 30, 2016
Northeast Area Day
Temple Am Echad
Lynbrook, NY

Need a Speaker?

Each Sisterhood in the Northeast District is entitled to a District Speaker once every two years without expense to the Sisterhood – as well as a speaker from the Board of WRJ in alternate years.
Learn more about...

WRJ Consultant Program

Need help with your budget, constitution, or relationships with your clergy or temple?

The WRJ Consultant Program was created to provide WRJ-affiliated sisterhoods with access to WRJ leaders who are knowledgeable on these and other challenging topics.

Consultations can be conducted by phone or videochat. The consultant will be available to the affiliate for as long as needed.

Click here for a list of potential consultation topics.

Click here to request a WRJ Consultant.


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Tu B'Shevat is January 25, 2016
Tu B’Shevat – the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar – will be celebrated this year on Monday, January 25.
It marks the beginning of a “new year” for trees...
the time when the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

We want photos and highlights from your sisterhood programs!
Send them to wrjneblast@gmail.com

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The next e-blast will be sent on February 2, 2016

Message from Trina Novak
Vice President of Marketing and Communications

During Shabbat morning services at the WRJ Assembly / URJ Biennial in November, the entire congregation was asked to participate in aliyot that were appropriate to each individual. Sifrei Torah were located throughout the hall, and people gathered in community around each Torah as the aliyot were announced. The first aliyah was for individuals who had grown up in the Reform movement and who had been fully and happily engaged in the experiences that were offered. The second aliyah was for those who had grown up in the Reform movement, but who were disenchanted or non-participants in the experiences offered. The third aliyah was for people who had not grown up in the Reform movement, including those who grew up in other branches of Judaism, those who grew up in other faiths, and those who grew up without a faith-based religion. As each aliyah was announced, the number of individuals gathered around each Torah increased. During the third aliyah, I joined the women and men gathered around the WRJ Torah, recited the blessings, and silently recited a prayer of gratitude for sisterhood, WRJ, and the Reform / Progressive movement.
I had to walk my own path from disengaged to the doors of the Reform movement. It wasn’t until I was introduced and welcomed into sisterhood that I felt I had found a home. I found a place to bond with others who believed as I did, supported women’s equality and other issues effecting women and children, and worked in positive ways to bring light into the dark corners of the community and the world. I felt that I could fit in because I had been raised in a Jewish community. But what about women who had chosen Judaism as adults, or those who decided to raise Jewish children, but did not feel the need to convert themselves? How can we open our doors even wider to include women of different cultural and faith backgrounds? How do we include the stranger in our midst while engaged in the activities of sisterhood?
During the WRJ Assembly delegates voted and approved a Constitutional change allowing WRJ to open its doors to women who believe in what WRJ stands for, but are not able to join through a sisterhood. To read more about individual membership in WRJ, click here. Please join us at our next Northeast Area Event entitled “Interfaith Families: Expanding our Tents” on January 30, when we will hear from women who have chosen Judaism, support Jewish spouses and children, or live with supportive non-Jewish spouses or in-laws. For more information, and to register, please click here. The Northeast District is here to support and to welcome YOU!
Trina Novak
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Women of Reform Judaism – Northeast District

Northeast District Area Event
Interfaith Families: Expanding Our Tents
A Panel Discussion

Join us on Saturday, January 30, at Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook, N.Y., for an enlightening discussion on interfaith families and how our sisterhoods can practice “audacious hospitality.”
10:30 Shabbat Services
12:00 Registration & Schmooze time
12:15 Greetings from WRJ-NE President Denise Levine
12:30 Lunch & Table Talks
  1:15 Discussion
  2:15 Dessert & Wrap Up (end by 3:00)
$18 includes lunch & program –
Subsidized by WRJ Northeast District
Register by January 20; click here for the registration form
Questions? Contact Stephanie Jacobson at snj53@aol.com or call (516) 221‑8407

News from our Sisterhoods...

All WRJ-NE sisterhood members are invited to these programs
Thursday, January 14, 2016, 6:15 p.m.
Annual Pizza and Movie Night at Temple Har Zion
Come see Christian Petzold's 2014 film "Phoenix," the compelling story of a concentration camp survivor who searches post-WWII Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis. Click here for more information.
All are welcome – Har Zionites, women, men, everyone!
    Har Zion members $7     Guests $10
Reservations a must; RSVP by Monday, January 11, to sisthz@gmail.com or call (905) 889‑2252 (Temple Har Zion office).
Temple Har Zion
7360 Bayview Avenue
Markham, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, March 6, 2016
WRJ Riverdale Temple will host its
Second Annual Mah Jongg Tournament
Reservations a must; register by February 26:
    Tournament play: $45 
    Social play: $25 – beginners welcome!
Includes a light breakfast, dairy lunch & free parking.
Click here for the registration form, schedule and more information.
Questions? Call Susan (917) 509‑3111.
Riverdale Temple
4545 Independence Avenue
Riverdale, New York

WRJ Incubator Grants are Available!

WRJ is pleased to announce that sisterhoods can apply for an incubator grant to help fund "outside the box programming" that would provide new ideas for sisterhoods and districts.
Programs should aim to do one or more of the following: create caring communities, promote Reform Jewish values, cultivate spiritual or personal growth, or give more women the opportunity to do tikkun olam – repair the world.
Grants may range from $500 to $5,000 USD, with amounts to be determined by the Incubator Grants committee.
To read about the grants and grant qualifications, please click here.
To apply for a grant, please click here.
Applications are due by Monday, February 9, 2016

WRJ Or Ami Awards
Winner and Honorable Mentions

Established in 1973, the WRJ Or Ami “Light of My People” Award recognizes exemplary social justice, community service, and educational programming that serves as a model for other WRJ Districts and sisterhoods.
Silver Award Winner:
Women of Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont & Emanu-El, Scarsdale, New York
Project: Building Bridges. Through knowledge, fear and hatred can be eliminated. With that in mind, sisterhood members and friends visited several local houses of worship. The clergy of each place enlightened them about their faith while also recognizing similarities with Judaism. This experience helped to foster understanding, acceptance and respect for others.
Honorable Mentions:
Congregation Beth Israel Sisterhood, West Hartford, Connecticut
Project: Day of Service Project
Temple Shalom Sisterhood, Newton, Massachusetts
Project: Extreme Home Makeover (Heading Home Up & Out)
Holy Blossom Temple Sisterhood, Toronto, Ontario
Project: Jewish Communities Around the World

More WRJ Awards...
You Said YES!

Youth, Education, and Special Projects (YES) Fund awards were presented at the November 2015 WRJ Assembly in Orlando, Florida

Congratulations to award winners in the Northeast District:

Sinai Reform Temple Sisterhood, Bay Shore, N.Y.
Achat Award – Given to the sisterhood that made the largest per-member direct contribution to the YES Fund over the last two fiscal years.
Central Synagogue of Nassau County Sisterhood, Rockville Centre, N.Y.
Ma’agal Award – Given to the sisterhood with the highest percentage of individual donors over the previous two-year period.
Temple Am Echad – The South Shore Congregation, Lynbrook, N.Y.
Kavod Society – Recognizes sisterhoods that have won a YES Fund Award during each of the past three Assemblies.
View the complete list of 2015 YES Fund award winners

And thank you to all our sisterhoods...

Your gifts enabled Women of Reform Judaism to give $370,200 in Yes Fund grants to 19 programs that will strengthen the Reform Movement and provide the tools necessary for religious, social, and educational growth in North America, in Israel, and around the world.

Did you know...?

NFTS Kiddush Card
Courtesy American Jewish Archives
In 1929, Barbara Solomonn Goodman, chair of the NFTS Committee on Religion, pioneered what she called a Kiddush card, to promote the "Sanctification of the Sabbath" in the home.
The traditional symbols of Shabbat – two glowing candles, a kiddush cup and a braided challah – adorned the four-page card's cover, surrounded by representations of the twelve tribes of Israel. Inside, the card reproduced, in modified form, the Sabbath eve service for the home found in the back pages of the Union Prayer Book... followed by the traditional blessing over the Sabbath eve lights, in Hebrew, in transliterated English, and in English translation. This diverged boldly from the text in the Union Prayer Book that had deleted the traditional blessing entirely, replacing it with a meditation.
– Adapted from "To Quicken the Religious Consciousness of Israel" by Jonathan D. Sarna,  Siserhood: A Centennial History of Women of Refrom Judaism
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