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News from the Northeast
May 2, 2023
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This eblast is sent from northeast@wrj.org.
Please add this address to your Contacts so you won't miss our news.
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In This Issue Message from Alissa Woska
Take Away Tips for Your Sisterhood
Congratulations to Our New District Board
Upcoming Events
Call to Action
News from Our Sisterhoods
News from WRJ
Calendar and Other Resources
Did You Know? Mother's Day
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Message from Alissa Woska
Vice President of Marketing and Communications
WRJ Northeast District “In these unprecedented times…” Does anybody hate that expression as much as I do? Aren’t all times unprecedented? While we are slowly moving into post-Covid times, things are changing. Are we heading for inflation or recession? Are we moving to a more open or more insular society? What have we learned these past few years? One thing that seems to have occurred is that people have become less shy about airing their frustrations and intolerances. We see this in the dramatic increases in mass casualty events and in the rise of racist, sexist, and antisemitic displays. And it breaks my heart. But what can we do to stop these trends?
One thing that I really like about WRJ is the fact that as a group, we stand up and speak out for those being oppressed or marginalized, even when it happens to us. To me, it is from education and awareness of our differences that we can strengthen and better understand each other. There is one step further for us to go though. We must also learn to treat each other with kindness and respect.
Whether it is listening to somebody’s story or holding their hand while they cry or showing up when they need support, loving acts of kindness make a huge difference. It doesn’t have to be only grand gestures that make positive change. It can be as simple as greeting people with a smile on your face and an open attitude. It can be as easy as sitting with somebody new to a group or at temple and helping them to feel welcome. It can be accepting that sometimes plans don’t always go smoothly and we may have to pivot to make things work. It is like past district president, Robin Sobol, was known to frequently say, “Flexible people don’t get bent out of shape.” And she is right. If we are open to adapting to different situations, we will not be as disconcerted if and when changes occur.
If we practice being kind and respectful of one another, we set an example for how people should be treated. As an added benefit, we also feel pretty good about ourselves and the positive effects we generate. According to our WRJ anthem, “Learn to do well for our children, Seek our justice, practice mercy….” And from my perspective lead with patience, kindness, and a smile.
Alissa Woska
North Country Reform Temple
Glen Cove, New York
wrjneblast@gmail.com
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Take Away Tips for Your Sisterhood
Leadership Changes
It is that time of year when sisterhoods are having their elections and people are changing their group responsibilities. Does your sisterhood have a new president? Don't forget to let us know by filling out a leadership change form.
Be sure to keep up on all the latest news and events affecting women in our District by joining our Northeast District Yammer Page. And while you are at it, make sure that you have "LIKED" and "FOLLOWED" our Facebook page. Be sure to encourage others in your sisterhood to join these sites as well.
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| Congratulations to our New District Board!
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Executive Board President ..... Yvette Bergman
1st VP ..... Marsha Moller
VP Social Advocacy/Social Action .....Michelle Rosen
VP of Programming ..... Jenifer Rosenberg
VP Development/YES Fund ..... Marilyn Shebshaievitz
VP Marketing & Communications ..... Alissa Woska
Treasurer ..... Gail Lustig
Corresponding Secretary ..... Carol Chaykin
Recording Secretary ..... Natalie Berhumoglu
Immediate Past President ..... Sharon Sobel
Area Directors
Barbara Beaumont, Paulette Black, Marsha Byrnes, Lani Dunthorn, Suzy Gelman, Marian Klein, Robin Krieger, Patti Nacht, Louise Ponticello, Beth Quinn, Ruthe Schipper, and Betty Weiner
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The Importance of Area Directors
Your area director – or "AD" – is your direct link to the Northeast District. Each sisterhood and women's group is assigned an AD who calls your sisterhood president several times a year to "check in" with her. The AD will report on Northeast District and/or WRJ happenings, but most importantly, she is there to hear what's going on in your group. If you have a special concern, she can help or guide you to someone who can help.
Remember, communication goes two-ways; your AD will have information for you about the Northeast District and WRJ, but she also wants to hear what is happening in your sisterhood or women's group.
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Thursday, May 18, 8:00 p.m.
Just Add Water: An Introduction to Mikveh Dip your toe in! Explore the biblical roots of this ancient Jewish water ritual that has soared in popularity in the last decade. Experience a virtual tour of the Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh of greater Boston - without getting wet! Learn about what happens when one immerses, and the many reasons - ancient and contemporary - that bring people of all genders to the mikveh waters. Facilitated by Rabbi Amalia Mark and Rabbi Julie Zupan.
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Tuesday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.
Northeast District Schmooze Join us for the first official Northeast District Schmooze with our new board. Hear about the latest plans for the district. Come chat with old friends. Meet some new friends. Come for the curiosity, stay for the laughter. And bring with you an object to share that is meaningful to your Jewish identity. Join us!
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Tuesday, May 23, 8:00 p.m.
Jewish Food Speaks Volumes with Author June Hersh Hear the life-affirming stories of the remarkable Holocaust survivor community that Hersh interviewed for her first book. Listen as she weaves their experiences with those of Jewish immigrants who created New York’s most crave-worthy foods.
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Sunday, June 11, 10:00 a.m.
Justice is My Language:
Advocating for Equity Through Jewish Values All are welcome to join Beth El Temple Center, 2 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA for a Brunch & Learn. Program led by fredi Bleeker Franks. To register email wrj@betheltemplecenter.org
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Sunday, June 11, 7:30 p.m.
Northeast District Book Group
Literary Discussion: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Please join us for the first meeting of the Northeast District book broup. This historical fantasy is set in New York in 1899 and brings a unique understanding of friendship, otherness, and the experiences of immigrants in the big city at the turn of the 19th century. There is no charge to attend the event, but attendees will procure their own copy of the book (many libraries stock the title). The Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees the week of the event.
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| Call to Action:
Reform Movement Initiatives
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Update on Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights There are no “safe states.” Among the hard lessons learned since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. JWHO is that abortion rights and access are not reliably safe in any part of the United States. We all must stay alert and be proactive. We must shore up the rights and protections in the relatively safer states, even while helping those in states already under severe restrictions. In addition to the medication abortion litigation, there remain many other issues - access, adequate funding, potential laws impacting travel, etc. Maine and Vermont are among ten states identified by the Guttmacher Institute as at high risk of harm if there is a mifepristone ban due to a predicted precipitous drop in access to care.
While Canadian federal law does not limit abortion, restrictions on access and funding are significant in Canada as well. A Canadian health official recently affirmed that Americans can come to Canada for an abortion, including with mifepristone, “provided they can access and pay for them.” The disparate impact on historical minorities and the devastating economic results for those forced to carry unwanted pregnancies make this a matter of economic justice as well.
What is going on with the most recent cases around medication abortion? On April 7, 2023, Judge Kacsmaryk in Texas ordered the Food and Drug Administration to suspend its 20-year-old approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortion. A contradictory ruling came out an hour later from Judge Rice in Washington State in a different lawsuit. On Friday, April 21, 2023, when the Supreme Court by a 7-2 vote issued a stay of Judge Kacsmaryk’s order out of Texas, the win for abortion access was simultaneously profound and limited.
We received the good news from Lillie Heyman, our WRJ Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center (RAC), while at the WRJ in-person North American board meetings. The meeting erupted in applause, jubilation, and relief. To celebrate together as WRJ a moment of joy in the fight for reproductive freedom was extraordinary. Our joy was mingled with defiant determination – the language of the dissent was frightening, and the Supreme Court’s decision is temporary. While mifepristone will remain widely available as these cases are heard and appealed, the risk still remains that the ultimate decision could be negative. What can we do? Where do we go for information?
As we say in our 50th anniversary statement: WRJ must persevere together. “While we and other abortion rights activists have been knocked down time and time again, we continue to get up and continue moving forward in the fight to create a world with wholeness, justice, and compassion.”
Shoshana Dweck
WRJ VP Social Justice
Northeast District Member
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News From Our Sisterhoods - Women's Seders
Reflecting on the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the Talmud says: “Through the merits of the righteous women of that generation, the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt.” (Soteh 11b) It was the virtue of these women during their time in slavery that rabbinic tradition credits with preserving the Jewish people for emancipation and eventual nationhood.
Women's Seders were created to celebrate the contributions women made to the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery, something that is often overlooked by traditional haggadot. Many area sisterhoods celebrate each year by holding a special seder to honor these important women.
We are sharing pictures from the Sisterhood of Temple Beth El's Women's Community Seder in Providence, Rhode Island. They tell us, "Women of all faiths and girls 8 years and older joined for a festive Passover Seder, filled with singing and dancing, and other traditions honoring Jewish women from ancient times to now. We also shared objects of significance (actual and photographs) telling of their importance in our lives."
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Photos courtesy of Elaine Sandy, Temple Beth El, Providence, RI
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| If this email is clipped, click "View Entire Message" at the end of the eblast to ensure that you have not missed any important updates and information.
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Celebrating Rabbi Marla J. Feldman's Retirement
Since 2012, Rabbi Marla Feldman has been the executive director for WRJ. needs to be updated with information about the retirement event. Over the years, she has been a strong voice helping to guide reform Jewish women with her intelligence, her dedication, and her spirituality. Initiatives that she helped work on with WRJ include women's reproductive health rights, gender-based wage discrimination, gun violence reform, protecting women's rights in Israel, and so many others.
On behalf of the Northeast District of WRJ, we thank you for your leadership over the past 10 years and are grateful to have worked together with you to improve our communities.
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New YES Fund Video
During our Northeast District Convention, we got to see the new video that WRJ made about the YES Fund. While many of us already know about the YES Fund, it can be a lot to explain to newcomers. We suggest sharing this video with your sisterhood and temple so that they can learn more about all the important projects that the YES Fund supports. It shows the impact of what our combined efforts have helped to achiece. Plus, you will see several familiar Northeast District faces in the video.
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| | Calendar and Other Resources
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May 23 Northeast District Schmooze
June 6 Israel Education Committee Presents A Conversation with Rabbi Miri Gold
June 8 Film, Fiction & Fine Wine: The Golden Doves with Aurthor Martha Hall Kell
June 11 District Book Discussion
October 23 NE District Zoom Schmooze
November 19 Special District-Wide Watch Party at various locations
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| Request a District Speaker Your sisterhood is entitled to a district speaker at no cost to your sisterhood.
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| Useful Links District Resources
WRJ Resources
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| Donate to the District Make a gift to WRJ Northeast District Fund (NDF) to say thank you, happy birthday, mazel tov, or to send get well wishes or condolences to your family members and friends. An acknowledgment will be emailed to each person whose email address is provided.
The NDF enables the Northeast District to support our sisterhoods, women’s groups, and individual members.
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Did You Know? Mother's Day the Jewish Way....
A little known fact is that we Jews already had our own Mother’s Day on our Jewish liturgical calendar. The 11th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan (October/November) has long been associated with the death of our matriarch Rachel, and, as such, was regarded as a sort of Jewish Mother’s Day.
It is unclear why the 11th of Cheshvan became associated with Rachel. One theory has it that when the Spanish Expulsion brought many Jews to the Holy Land, the Kabalists (Jewish mystics) created a pilgrimage festival to Rachel’s Tomb on the road to Bethlehem. While the 15th of Cheshvan had generally been accepted as the major pilgrimage day to Rachel’s tomb, tradition places her yahrzeit (day of death) on the 11th of the month. Might it be that since eim or “mother” has a numerical equivalent of 41, and the 11th of Cheshvan is 41 days after the birth of the world (Rosh Hashanah) that it became the preferred date for Rachel’s commemoration and Yom Ha-Eim, the Day of the Mother? Midrashic tradition further associates the death of the matriarchs Sarah and Rebecca with the day.
So why would Rachel be chosen as the quintessential Jewish mother, rather than one of the other matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, or Leah? After all, Rachel suffered infertility for years before becoming a mother, while her sister, Leah, bore Jacob child after child. Perhaps it was this very suffering and death after childbirth that earned her special merit in our national folklore. Rachel certainly raised Jewish maternal martyrdom to new heights when, in Genesis she exclaimed to Jacob, “Give me children or I shall, die!” Sadly for Rachel this was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Because Rachel did not have much opportunity to enjoy the blessings of motherhood, the prophet Jeremiah depicted her as the archetypal mother of the nation of Israel: Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be consoled for her children, for they are gone. In Jewish folklore, Rachel became identified with the indwelling Presence of the Divine (the Shekhina), and the spiritual mother who accompanied the Jewish people into exile and remained disconsolate until their return.
We Jews were not surprised earlier this year when The American Journal of Human Genetics concluded that four women from the Middle East bequeathed their genetic signatures to the nearly eight million Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews now living around the world. These genes do not appear in non-Jews and are rare in Jews not of Eastern European descent. Thus was confirmed for us what we already assumed: While it takes no Jewish women to screw in a light bulb, it is possible that four Matriarchs populated our Jewish nation. And more importantly, it took one great Jewish woman to give birth to you, dear reader. So celebrate and honor your mother on Sunday, May 14, on 11 Cheshvan, today and every day.
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The Board of the Northeast District
of Women of Reform Judiasm
Wishes you a Happy Mother's Day!
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The next eblast will be sent on Tuesday, June 6.
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