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Did you miss the August newsletter? You can read it here.
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Message from Carol Chaykin
Sweet Seidner's Fundraiser - LAST CHANCE!
Take Away Tips - September Meetings
Upcoming Events
Preparing for the High Holidays
News From Our Sisterhoods
News from WRJ
Calendar and Other Resources
Did You Know? Jewish Superheroes
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| Message from Carol Chaykin
Corresponding Secretary
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Jewish tradition teaches us that we should engage in the process of reflection and introspection throughout Elul, the final month of the year leading up to Rosh Hashanah. To facilitate this process, the clergy of my synagogue has been issuing short videos on the themes of the High Holidays. During the first week, the videos focused on chesbon hanefesh, taking an accounting of one’s soul. Most of the videos focused on looking inwards and taking stock of our actions and behavior during the past year. One of the videos that was a bit different got my attention. Part of its message: In order to get a desired output, you have to provide the appropriate inputs.
This year, I am more ready than usual to embrace the new year, with its promise of return and renewal. This past spring was especially difficult for me, having a injury that has caused physical limitations. I miss seeing my district sisters who have been supportive through it all. So, I signed up for the Northeast District’s author reading tomorrow evening, September 6. Perhaps I will see you there?
The new year is also an opportunity to take stock of our sisterhoods. WRJ’s Relational Leadership session on September 19 will offer some new insights into sisterhood dynamics. It promises to be thought-provoking for leaders and followers alike. Please join me there. Here is the registration link.
With wishes for a good and sweet year to all, and special thanks to those who reached out to me during my recovery,
Carol
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
New York, NY
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LAST CHANCE TO ORDER!
Something Sweet for Rosh Hashanah
Our District Fall Fundraiser
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WEDNESDAY IS THE LAST DAY to order your certified Kosher Rosh Hashanah treats from Sweet Seidner's! You’re guaranteed to love these treats. In addition, 15% of proceeds will go to support the YES fund.
ORDERS CLOSE September 6, 11:59pm
Orders ship the week of September 11, just in time for the sweet new year!
Click here to order.
For information about WRJ’s YES Fund, go to WRJ.org/yesfund.
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Take Away Tips for Your Sisterhood
September Meetings
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Holding a sisterhood meeting in September will help you to set up patterns and expectations for your group for the year ahead.
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Prepare a calendar with events and dates, even if the times are TBA, so that your members can plan ahead to attend. Be sure to include upcoming date for Northeast District and WRJ events.
- Discuss thoughts for fundraisers and advocacy and service projects. Include a project that will help and support your local community.
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Make a plan to distribute workload so that everything does not rest on the shoulders of one person. Use chairwomen or teams to be in charge of details that can then be shared to the board.
- Make sure to include some fun activities for everybody to relax and have fun together.
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September 6 at 7:00 pm
on Zoom
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| Northeast District Book Group
Jewish Futures: Stories from the World's Oldest Diaspora
Join the Northeast District via Zoom for a live reading and Q&A as authors Randee Dawn, Esther Friesner, and Susan Shwartz share excerpts from their stories in this new anthology.
Register here.
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September 11 at 8:00 pm
on Zoom
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WRJ Rosh Hashanah Recipe Share and Schmooze
Do you have a tried-and-true recipe for Rosh Hashanah? We want to bring folks together to schmooze before Rosh Hashanah, share your favorite high holiday recipes, hear stories, and special memories around food together. Facilitated by WRJ Board Member Bernice Porrazzo, who will make her own special Rosh Hashanah recipe, come prepared to share about your favorite kugel, your best chicken soup recipe, and so much more! Send in your recipes and receive a digital cookbook after the program, too!
Register Here
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September 19 at 8:00 pm
on Zoom
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| WRJ Relational Leadership: Finding Leadership in Followers and Followership in Leaders
Excellent training for incoming presidents and rising leaders!
Led by WRJ Executive Committee member Dr. Madelyn Katz, you will examine the definition of leadership and followership and unpack our assumptions. Truly meaningful leadership requires building relationships with women, helping to find the leadership in those who only see themselves as “followers” and helping those in positions of leadership see the value in following.
Register Here
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October 30 at 7:00 pm on Zoom
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| Sexuality and Aging
B'nai Israel of Southbury, CT and the Northeast District present an interactive program about the joy of sex as we age. Ideas will be discussed for improving sex and dispelling myths. The discussion will be led by a certified sex therapist and licensed marriage therapist.
To register, please email bnaisisters@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link.
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<- Click image to enlarge
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November 19 at 4:00 pm
on Zoom or In Person
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| Speaking of Unmentionables: The Rise and Fall of Women's Underwear.
Join us via Zoom or at an in-person watch party (at 6 different locations around the district) near you for a special presentation on the history of women's underwear, presented by Ellie Carlson.
In-person events will also have a social action component, collecting new underwear and socks for women's shelters and charities near the hosting sisterhoods.
Register Here
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December 2-3, 2023
Marriott Albany
Albany, NY
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| Northeast District Leadership Weekend Event
Please join us in Albany, NY, on December 2 and 3 for a special event where we will work on leadership training, ethics, and visioning for our sisterhoods and our district.
For more details, click to view the event flyer here.
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Preparing for the High Holidays |
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Traditions
As the time for the High Holidays approach, we tend to turn our thoughts to be more reflective and our stomachs to the festive meals. Different families have their own traditions to celebrate. Whether it is for the consistent ritual of the services or the music or the food or the people, we have different ways to mark the passing of the new year.
Whether passed down through the generations or modified to work with contemporary society, not everybody has the same traditions. It is interesting to realize that there is also a geographic component to how we celebrate. Here are some from around the world:
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Iraq: Slaughtering a Ram and Holding a Special Seder
- Syria: Blessing the Barber
- Western Europe: Paying Debts
- Eastern Europe: Purchasing a New Knife
- Iran: Psalms in the Home of the Deceased
- Ethiopia: Wear White and Begin Prayers at Dawn
- India: Fast, then Break with Rice Pudding
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Turkey: Avoid Honey
- Morocco: Enjoying Seven Cooked Vegetables
- Turkey: Eating Passover Matzah
- Yemen: Blowing Shofar Early
- Lithuania: Eat teiglach
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Learn more about international traditions here and here.
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Special Foods
Different cultures also celebrate with different special foods. For many of us, we are familiar with round challahs and apples and honey. Here are some recipes for foods that are also used to bring in the new by year.
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For the People of Lahaina and Hawaii - Alden Solovy
God beyond my understanding,
Fires consume the land,
Destroying homes and lives,
Blazing into the foundations of serenity and security.
God of mercy,
We pray for the people of Lahaina and Hawaii,
As fires rage and fear spreads.
We pray for the survivors and the mourners,
The traumatized and the bereaved.
Grant them shelter and comfort
As they count the dead and mourn the lost.
Grant fire fighters and first responders
Strength and endurance as they battle the inferno
And minister to the wounded in body and spirit.
God of heaven and earth,
Hand of love and shelter,
Grant the people of Lahaina and Hawaii
Your protection
And Your peace.
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A Climate Reading of the Unetaneh Tokef - taken from RAC.org
On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
On Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many will pass from the earth due to extreme heat,
how many will be created even as our children and grandchildren inherit a burning world;
who will live and who will die;
who will reach the ripeness of age thanks to stolen, pillaged wealth;
who will be taken before their time because they lived in a vulnerable nation;
who by California wildfire and who by Kentucky floodwater;
who by weapons of war - sword and gun - fueled by fossil fuel money and who by beast - animals who suffer because one species refuses to behave reasonably and make amends;
who by hunger in Madagascar and who by thirst in the increasingly-arid deserts of Jordan and Israel;
who by earthquake from fracking and who by plague or mosquito-borne illnesses;
who by strangling smog and who by landslides of stone and mud,
who will rest as the world burns and who will wander as a climate refugee;
who will be tranquil with ignorance and inaction and who will be troubled by anxiety and rage;
who will live in worsening poverty and whose prosperity will protect them…for the time being;
who will be degraded and sold as a child bride and who exalted for their pursuit of profit.
But t'shuvah, t'fillah, and tzedakah can temper judgement's severe decree.
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News from Our Sisterhoods |
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Celebrating our district Sisterhoods that are on the YES Fund 2022-23 Honor Rolls!
To make the honor roll, sisterhoods donate funds and buy items to benefit the YES Fund at different levels based on their member count. This year, sisterhoods raised more than $120,000! Here are the top donor sisterhoods from the Northeast District:
Roll of Chai Honor
Temple B’Nai Torah Sisterhood - Wantagh, NY
Temple Concord Sisterhood - Binghamton, NY
Roll of Special Merit
Sisterhood of the Community Synagogue - Port Washington, NY
Temple, Israel of Northern Westchester Sisterhood - Croton-on-Hudson, NY
Women of Am Echad - Lynbrook, NY
Roll of Honor
Beth El Temple Center Sisterhood - Belmont, MA
Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth Sisterhood - Rockville Centre, NY
Congregation Beth Emeth Sisterhood - Albany, NY
Congregation B’Nai Shalom Sisterhood - Westborough, MA
Reform Temple of Rockland WRJ - Nyack, NY
Temple Beth Am Sisterhood - Framingham, MA
Temple Emanuel Sisterhood - Andover, MA
Women of SSTTE - Scarsdale, NY
Women’s Leadership Council of Temple Israel - New York, NY
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Apply to Join the WRJ Board
Are you interested in spreading sisterhood, spirituality, and social justice in the Reform Movement? Women of Reform Judaism wants to add your voice to our North American Board of Directors! Applications are now open for a term beginning in 2024. We encourage all eligible and interested women and women-identifying candidates to apply by the October 10 deadline!
Get more information and apply here.
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YES Fund DEI Grant Applications Available
Our YES Fund committee is looking to grant $5,000-$10,000 to organizations implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion work in the Jewish community. Now live for the 2024-2025 grant cycle.
Read more about the grant instructions and download the application here.
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September is National
Recovery,
Suicide Prevention,
& Literacy Month
Sept. 6 at 7:00 pm
Northeast Book Club
and Author Reading
September 15 at sunset
Rosh Hashanah begins
September 19
WRJ Leadership Training
September 24 at sunset
Yom Kippur begins
September 29 at sunset
Sukkot begins
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Save the Date
Oct. 6
Simchat Torah
Oct. 23 at 7:30 pm
District Zoom Schmooze
Nov. 19 at 3:15 pm
District Watch Party
"Speaking of Unmentionables: The Rise & Fall of Ladies Underwear"
Dec. 2-3
Northeast District Leadership Weekend
Albany, NY
Jan. 11 at 7:30 pm
Northeast District presents civil rights activist Joanne Bland
Jan. 28 at 9:30 am
Boston/MA Area Day
Visit to Mayyim Hayyim
Feb. 5 at 7:30 pm
District Zoom Schmooze
May 30- June 2
Fried Women's Conference
in New Orleans
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Need Access to Viva Engage?
Contact WRJ at
212-650-4050
or send a note to leadership@wrj.org
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| Request a District Speaker
Your sisterhood is entitled to a district speaker at no cost to your sisterhood. Learn more here.
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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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Report Leadership Changes!
Does your sisterhood have a new president? Make sure that it is reported to us so that we can connect with her and help her lead your group. Tell us here.
And while we have your attention, make sure new members are subscribed to the eblast. Share this link with them to subscribe: Subscribe!
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Picture from Marvel Comics
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| Did You Know?
Jewish Superheroes
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Last weekend my husband, my son and I went to the newest DC movie, Blue Beetle, which is about a Hispanic superhero. I watched the movie and enjoyed the message of the importance of family.
It made me wonder if there were any Jewish superheroes. Taking a deep dive with Google, I was pleasantly surprised to find numerous references to Jewish comic book characters and Jewish connections for characters who are not in themselves Jewish.
Among DC Comics characters, Superman (of unspecified faith) was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both Jewish immigrants who came to America to avoid the pogroms; and Superman’s birth name, Kal-El, was inspired by the Hebrew letters meaning “Voice of God”. Wonder Woman, though actually a Greek demigoddess, has been famously portrayed by the Israeli actress Gal Gadot. And the most recent version of Batwoman, Kate Kane, has been depicted as Jewish. Among DC villains, Harley Quinn was depicted as celebrating Hanukkah in one of her early appearances and is canonically from a mixed Jewish-Catholic family.
Over at Marvel Comics, the most famous Jewish character is actually a villain – Erik Lensherr, aka Magneto, a Holocaust survivor whose experiences in the concentration camps fueled his violent resistance of discrimination against mutants. His children, Pietro and Wanda – better known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch – are more on the heroic side, abandoning Erik’s crusade to protect the world with the Avengers. Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, is Jewish, though this was not expressly mentioned in the comics until four decades after his first appearance. Marc Spector, aka Moon Knight, is the son of a rabbi, which must have made things awkward when he became the avatar of an Egyptian moon god. And Sabra, an Israeli superhero, will make her cinematic debut in 2024 (strikes permitting) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: New World Order.
Read more about Jewish links to superheroes here and here.
- Liza, Temple B'rith Kodesh, Rochester, NY
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The Board of the Northeast District
of Women of Reform Judaism
Wishes You a Happy Rosh Hashanah
and a Meaningful Yom Kippur!
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The next eblast will be sent on Tuesday, October 2.
Send event listings, photos, and articles to wrjneblast@gmail.com by September 20.
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