Auxiliary Organizations Sisterhood Report

Since it was first formed 52 years ago, Temple Shalom Sisterhood has grown in number and responsibility. Sisterhood’s primary mission is to promote Jewish continuity through safeguarding the education of our children. Over the last fifty-two years, Sisterhood has provided more than $300,000 in funding to Temple Shalom’s Religious School, and over $200,000 to the Temple itself. Sisterhood gives $15,000 every year to the Religious School Scholarship Fund. In the past two years alone, Sisterhood helped fund the hearing loop in the sanctuary, live stream broadcasts of services and celebrations there, the renovation of the Temple’s garden, a Religious School teacher education retreat, a free concert at the preschool, and a new washer and dryer and a new tablecloth service for the Temple, among other things. We help pay for the meals made on Mitzvah Day, and we help fund our tenth graders’ annual trip to the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. with Rabbi Miller, where they join together with teens from across the country to lobby in support of Jewish and humanitarian causes.

This year, we revamped the format of the Temple Directory, which we publish every two years, and mailed a copy to every member of Temple, to ensure that members can get in touch with each other easily.

We are a social organization as well! Our monthly meetings are an opportunity to come together and enjoy the treasures of Southwest Florida. This year, we’ve been briefed on hurricane preparedness by Rob Dunns of NBC2 News, fascinated and entertained by the amazing life story of conductor Max Rabinovitsj, enjoyed a tour and lunch al fresco at the Naples Botanical Garden, and were moved and impressed by a presentation on the invaluable work of the Naples Equestrian Challenge. In March, bestselling author B.A. Shapiro (The Art Forger and The Muralist) spoke to us about the writing life.

In February, our signature event, C’est La Vie - A French Afternoon, gave us a chance to hear about the jet-setting life of Helaine Gaillet de Neergard, author of I Was a War Child, while enjoying French cuisine and informal modeling at the Hilton.

On top of all that, Sisterhood runs the Judaica shop, holds a monthly Book Bag discussion, and provides a delicious Oneg Shabbat every single Friday night that there are services at Temple, in order to make sure that our members feel welcome and have a great reason to stay and talk to each other and build our community. We also prepare special “sponsored” Onegs for Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations, baby namings, anniversaries, Board and Clergy installations and other Temple celebrations.

In short, Sisterhood does a lot! We welcome new ideas and new volunteers. So if you have not joined Sisterhood, please consider doing so. If you are already a member of Sisterhood, please consider getting more involved. I know from personal experience that the more you give to it, the more you will get!