WLCJ New Outlook, Spring 2017

newOUTLOOK wlcj.org

issue no.4/spring/2017

A publication of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism

FOR WOMEN’S LEAGUE

president’sNOTE

hotTOPIC

proFILE

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END

Jewish-Muslim Relations: A Work in Progress

BRINGING RESPECT AT THE END OF LIFE

By Jane Calem Rosen

Carol S. Simon

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T IS HARD to believe that this administration is coming to a close.

We started with a desire to make a real difference for our sisterhoods and for our members by reaching out to connect and engage.

We have been passionate about enriching each member’s life through Jewish values and experiences.

I want to take this opportunity to take stock of some of what our incredible team has accomplished over the past three years.

We expanded our use of technology to connect in myriad ways, which is quite exciting and exhilarating. I hope you have taken advantage of our updated website, loaded our App on your phone, joined Women’s League Reads, participated in a Distance Workshop Continues on page 2

in this issue

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JEWISH MUSLIM RELATIONS describes the evolving state of interreligious outreach within the Conservative movement

BRINGING RESPECT AT THE END OF LIFE profiles a geriatrician who draws on her Jewish background to offer patients care and respect

OH MY MAMA: THE SCRIPT AS TEACHING TOOL re-introduces the widely popular midcentury sisterhood program script OUR NEW PARTNERSHIP Meet Sharsheret, an organization that supports Jewish women and families facing breast cancer

Rabbi Visotzky with the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in the Women’s League Seminary Synagogue

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ebruary 2017, alone, reflected a powerful new reality as Jews and Muslims reacted publicly in support of one another. The take-away: We need each other. n St. Louis, Muslim activists raised tens of thousands of dollars to repair desecrated graves in a Jewish cemetery. In New York City, about 20 rabbis were arrested after they disrupted traffic in a demonstration against the Muslim travel ban. The protest was organized

by T’ruah, whose executive director, JTSordained Rabbi Jill Jacobs, told New Outlook, “Every human being is created equally in the eyes of God. We’ll break almost any law to save a human life, and right now, people are dying and at risk without refuge from war and terror.

It was a small act to take a small risk with our own bodies to call attention to the bodies of other people.”

These two events represent the patchwork state of current Jewish-Muslim relations we saw as we spoke with congregational rabbis Continues on page 2

YOU WOULDN’T BE surprised if your cardiologist did an EKG to examine your heart. But what if the doctor asked how you anticipated your death, or what you might want to share with others before you died?

Those are the kinds of questions that Dr. Elizabeth Glazier asks of her elderly patients on a regular basis. A geriatrician, Elizabeth, who was just named a 2017 Health Care Hero by the San Antonio Business Journal, started the palliative care program for WellMed in 2013 (in San Antonio, Texas) with the goal of finding a better way to care for the sickest of the sick. She began by consulting in one clinic, by herself, even doing house calls, and now oversees a team of doctors, nurses, social workers and administrators. The program has expanded to eight other cities in Texas and Florida.

How did Elizabeth come to be an innovative and compassionate doctor for patients and their families facing life limiting diagnosis? Elizabeth remembers that her Continues on page 3

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President’s Note Continued from page 1 or Personal Conversation, and have read my Shabbat messages and your region newsletter online.

Three years of evaluating our what, why and how have morphed into our Big Bold Steps strategic plan. Here’s a sneak peak at the bold steps that will be our focus as we enter our next 100 years. You can find out more Monday morning at Convention 2017: •

Region Structures: the team has been working to create the individual plans that will work best for each region.

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Education and Program: the team is updating our extensive programming, making the best and most popular easily available.

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Social Action: the Modern Jewish Family initiative will address inclusiveness and equal status for all Jewish family structures.

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Women’s League and Sharsheret have a new working partnership to provide programs and resources for those facing breast and ovarian cancer and the communities that support them.

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Communications: we are linking all of our members by expanding our online network.

Make sure we have your email and permission to connect directly with you.

I encourage each of you to attend convention (July 23-26 in Arlington, Virginia) to learn all about our new Bold Steps and how to introduce these ideas into your own lives, either personally or through your sisterhood.

To the 2014-2017 Executive Committee and Board of Directors: I thank you for taking this journey with me. Each of you has been integral to our having achieved so much. Todah rabbah.

Representing you was life changing for me. Good things don’t actually all come to an end. This journey has given me so much that will not stop just because I am leaving office: deep friendships, an expanded commitment to the values of being a Conservative Jewish woman, and unimagined leadership skills. I am a better person because of what I have learned. As Women’s League’s first triennial president, and the first from Florida, I am the proof that any member, no matter where she lives, can make a difference.

Women’s League has accomplished remarkable things over the past 100 years. Now we look to the next 100 years to continue updating Mathilde Schechter’s vision of a community of women who are Jewishly educated, involved in the betterment of their communities, and dedicated to the well being of Jews, and all people, worldwide.

Jewish and Muslim members of the Sisterhood of Saalam Shalom pray Jewish-Muslim Relations Continued from page 1

and religious leaders engaged in interreligious affairs.

We heard about genuine interest in nurturing ties; how there are more similarities than differences between Jews and Muslims; about our experiences as marginalized minorities and immigrants; and of concerted efforts to connect despite ongoing challenges. And while all agreed on the need, there was no consensus on a formula for success. It’s also important to stress that Jewish-Muslim dialogue has been underway for quite some time.

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n the Conservative movement, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, long-serving chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, first engaged with Iranian Muslim leadership in 1956. There’s a trove of correspondence and even a photograph of the mullahs and ayatollahs at the Seminary, reported Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, PhD, director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at JTS. Dr. Visotzky, who was a student of Finkelstein’s, re-launched MuslimJewish relations under JTS auspices in the mid-‘90s when he participated in a PBS television series, hosted by Bill Moyers, exploring the stories of Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, and Hagar from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives.

Today, said Dr. Visotzky, “JTS remains a center for this kind of essential discourse.” For years, JTS programming was low-key, but, “after 9/11 everything moved to warp speed. In 2004, we had a breakout moment when President Bush asked if we’d host a group of Muslim leaders who had been invited through a foreign leaders’ visitor program.”

In 2008, JTS began a partnership with the Islamic Society of North America, the umbrella organization of Muslims in the U.S. In 2010, the Hartford Seminary joined JTS and ISNA in a five-year program that has produced publications promoting interreligious dialogue.

Milstein Center live-streamed events are an easy way to learn more about contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations. (See www.jtsa.edu and www.jtsa.edu/events-calendar)

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nother place with a long history of interfaith engagement is Manhattan’s Brotherhood Synagogue.

Rabbi Daniel Alder also saw a post-9/11 sea change.

“In the wake of the attacks, we wanted to build better bonds with the Muslim community.” Asked if it is working, he responded, “Yes, but it is a process of education. Although certain topics – Israel, for example – are not easily broached, we are learning about each other’s traditions and seeing each other’s common humanity.”

Since the U.S. election, interreligious cooperation has grown more visible, with the number of activities rising, along with an increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims and anti-Semitism.

“I think the Muslim community is feeling marginalized in a way they haven’t since 9/11, and it’s important to show support for them as law-abiding Americans,” observed Rabbi Alder. “That means outreach to a more sizeable Muslim community.” The rabbi invited Muslim scholars to co-teach an adult education course at his synagogue with sessions on Islam, the Koran, the contemporary Muslim-American experience, and Jewish-Muslim relations.

Truah’s Rabbi Jacobs also confirmed an uptick in the number of rabbis from its network who have reached out for guidance on how to establish relations with local mosques. “People are realizing that the same people who hate Muslims hate Jews,” she remarked, noting that about half of Truah’s 1,800 members are graduates of JTS or the Ziegler School. “We talk to them about how to establish relationships and about questions that might come up.”

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n our exploration of Jewish-Muslim relations in Conservative communities, New Outlook found positive models already taking hold.

One is in San Antonio, Texas. Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham arrived at Congregation Agudas Achim at the same time that a new imam was hired by one of the city’s two mosques where most members trace their roots to Turkey. It was an opportunity, Rabbi Abraham immediately recognized, to do outreach to a large, active, moderate Muslim community.

“We get together every couple of months,” Abraham said.

Agudas Achim’s sisterhood and the women’s group from the mosque plan their own get-togethers, often centered on sharing food. The Jewish women, who have made kugels and blintzes, were looking forward to a lesson on baking Turkish pastries from their Muslim sisters. With similar dietary laws, it has been easy to bring food from the mosque into the synagogue. Unfortunately, the rabbi lamented, “I was told that, since it’s a women-only event, I’m not welcome to bake with them.”

There has also been more serious educational and religious programming. During the month of Ramadan, they discussed the traditions of fasting in both religions. A Shabbat musical performance at the synagogue by the mosque choir concluded with havdallah.

Rabbi Abraham explained the importance of the the communities coming together in a place not far from the Mexican Continues on page 6

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Bringing Respect at the End of Life Continued from page 1

Dr. Elizabeth Glazier and her mother, Renée

mother was always involved in the Jewish community and that giving back was of paramount importance. When Elizabeth was a teenager, her grandmother moved in with the family and she saw how doctors dismissed her. There had to be a better way to deal with patients with greater dignity and respect.

“I also love the stories older people tell. It’s important to listen to what they tell us. I am always learning from my patients.”

Today, Elizabeth is a member of Congregation Agudas Achim sisterhood, in San Antonio. She grew up in Newton Centre (outside Boston) where her family were second generation members of Temple Emanuel. Her mother, Renée, was active in New England Branch and today is a member of the Women’s League board. The family was always involved in the shul and Elizabeth even gave the Hebrew valedictory speech at the religious school graduation. She went on to study at the Prozdor high school program at Boston’s Hebrew College.

San Antonio has a vibrant Jewish community and one can regularly find Elizabeth and her family in a different synagogue or community center. Even though life in Texas is very different than life in a Boston suburb with a substantial Jewish population, Elizabeth and her family are committed to a fully Jewish life. Growing up, no matter what else might be going on, Shabbat dinner was mandatory. Elizabeth, her husband, Michael, a private gastroenterologist, and their three sons continue that tradition. “We spend Friday nights with our Jewish friends so that the kids can have as much social time with other Jewish kids as possible.” Renée, who now lives in San Antonio, is often there so she gets to meet her daughter’s family’s friends. Renée is particularly impressed that Elizabeth extends her curiosity about the wellbeing of others when she asks everyone at the table to describe three special things that happened during the week.

That Jewish sensibility also infuses her professional life as she helps patients and their families grapple with making difficult choices. Just because the ability to artificially extend life exists doesn’t mean utilizing those options is in everyone’s best interests. Elizabeth first wants to understand what is important to her patients and how they would like to experience their end of life, and how much they are willing to go through for the possibility of gaining more time.

It is clear that Elizabeth Glazier is a loving and caring doctor whose respect for her patients grows from a deep sensitivity enhanced by her Jewish experiences. Wouldn’t we all like to find a doctor like that when we face life’s difficult moments?

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Oh My Mama: The Script as Teaching Tool

BY Lisa Kogen, Women’s League Director of Education and Programming Maryland.

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ear Abby: Since I was a child, I’ve wanted to be a performer. My mother says that since I am not beautiful, I will never make it. To be blunt, with my nose, I’d have to make a career of playing Cyrano …on principle, I want to be who I am, not change to fit someone else’s idea of beauty. But for the sake of my career, should I save up for a nose job? Barbra Streisand.

No, Dear Abby never received such a letter.

But it did appear in Dear Columnist: Letters from Jewish Women in the Media, a 1980’s script for the Ramat Zion Sisterhood (Northridge, CA) in which creator Julie Steinschriber offers imaginary letters to Dear Abby and Ann Landers. The letters reflected contemporary women’s issues such as self-image, family relations, professional choices, and personal and health crises.

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n its day the script was queen. A sizable percentage of all sisterhood meetings involved these carefully crafted dramatic or oratorial works, highly formalized, peppered with casts, costumes, readings from classical texts, poetry, music, and musical parodies.

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he mid 20th century saw an enormous expansion of Conservative synagogues, and with them, sisterhoods. By the 1960s, the process of Americanization was complete and Jews, in general, had entered the middle class. For the most part, women did not work, but rather devoted themselves to home, family and domestic gentility. The sisterhood offered an important outlet where they could gather with like-minded friends, have fun and aspire to leadership positions.

Sisterhoods provided opportunities for personal growth and artistic expression and were an important locus for Jewish education. And the script became a principle tool for study and

even a feminized sermonic model. They were dead serious, value laden and often erudite.

Over the years, Women’s League members wrote hundreds of scripts focusing on virtually every area: Bible, Talmud, holiday observance, prayer, halakhah, theology, mitzvot, food, music, Israel, patriotism, family, poetry, human rights, and even terrorism.

Some were short and pithy, with only one or two readers. Others were more ambitious. Always, the intention was to educate, to stimulate and to inspire. The presentations perhaps were meant to simulate an afternoon at the theater, only a touch more homegrown and with an unabashedly didactic intention.

WOMEN’S LEAGUE READS Join our moderated online discussion group about books of interest to today’s Jewish women. Read the book, post comments and questions and then enjoy a special bonus conversation with the author or a scholar.

Join or listen to past conversations with authors on the Women’s League website, wlcj.org.

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WOMEN’S LEAGUE ONLINE www.wlcj.org The Women’s League website is a compendium of information, materials, learning, crafts projects, holiday enhancements, book lists, and much more.

he earliest scripts from the 1950s and ‘60s, the subject here, focused on being a good Jewish housewife – knowing about kashrut and prayer and holiday observance – and maintaining Jewish identity under the threat of assimilation. This subject was revisited time and again.

Dora C. Greenberg loosely based Tending Her Altar (1960) on the Women's League publication Jewish Home Beautiful. For Greenberg, the task of making a Jewish home was sacred.“With woman as priestess to tend to its altars, each home is a Temple, each hearth a shrine.”

In Our Daughters – Our Hope for the Future (1963, Mrs. S. Gershon Levy) a mother is satisfied that, in encouraging her daughter to become a bat mitzvah a decade before her wedding, she assured her success as a “future wife and mother in a Jewish home.” She is thankful that she provided her daughter with “the appropriate tools to be a good Jewess.”

Sadie Rose Weilerstein, the creator of K’tonton, weaves together the stories of Three Rachels

DISTANCE WORKSHOPS Using conference calls and webinars, we bring advice, tips and tricks, and firsthand experience about running successful sisterhoods directly into your home.

In addition to saving you time and money, you will be able to apply your new knowledge in your sisterhood immediately. Find the schedule on our website.

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from different eras: the matriarch Rachel, Rabbi Akiba’s wife, and Rachael Blowstein, poet of preState Palestine. Weilerstein writes: “There is no generation without an Abraham, an Isaac, or a Jacob, so says midrash….and there is no generation but has a Sarah, a Rebekkah, a Leah or Rachel. Today we shall tell you of three Rachels…”

But the matriarch’s valor is attributed to having died giving birth to Joseph, becoming an icon for those who die in childbirth. Rabbi Akiba’s wife sacrifices status to marry, and then sacrifices contentment to allow her husband to study; the poet glorifies Israel’s pioneers and their goals.

The script concludes: “Mother Rachel welcomes back all returning children; Rachel, the wife of Akiva lives in every school and every scholar of Torah; Rachael the gentle poet lives in the songs of Israel.” Their accomplishments are to nurture their men and make them successful.

A similar message is found in Mother of the Year (1959, Rabbi and Mrs. Noah Golinkin), celebrating Sarah, Jocheved, Mathilde Schechter, and the mother of Chaim Nachmin Bialik.

But the focus is on the men the women support: Isaac, Moses, Bialik, and Solomon Schechter.

Sylvia Seldin, Doris Cooper and Zita Berg depict how women changed throughout the century in Style Show for Jewish Living with costumed models on one side and old photos projected onto the other. A photograph of a grandmother from the 1920s (in long dress, apron, covered head) is contrasted with the grandmother of today “in stylish pantsuit.” The last images contrast a turn of the century bar mitzvah boy with a bat mitzvah girl who sings, to the tune of I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No: Move over boys, you’re not alone Girls now are having their say They study Hebrew, learn to chant Preparing for Bat Mitzvah Day …

Here’s to a long and happy life…

No need to plan too far ahead….but You’ll make a good Jewish wife!

In the early 1980’s script My Bubbe’s Miseh (Zelda Wolf Jacobs), family members question their grandmother on her personal story (miseh).

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The younger women caution (to the tune of Dayenu): Use the sterling not the stainless Who said polishing is painless?

Rinse the crystal, just a bissel, dayenu Press the cloth, the cutwork lace one Who says entertaining’s great fun, clean the oven, don’t you love ‘em, dayenu

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Even as the women question their grandmother about her hardships they marvel at her unflagging dedication to tradition. The discussion concludes that the enticements of assimilation are merely superficial attractions. Their bubbe’s hardships are internalized as their own, and her resolve is theirs as well.

Conservative/Masorti World

Tanta Mim (Mrs. Adolph Felder, Mrs. Joseph Kingsley and Mrs. Sam Weber) is based loosely on Auntie Mame. Auntie Mim is colorful, charismatic, unconventional, and larger than life, ever the truth-teller and rebel. But unlike Mame who tells her young charge “Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death,” Auntie Mim arrives in the nick of time to solve the problem of Jewish assimilation. Her prescription is to observe more mitzvot, go to shul, observe kashrut, and be loyal to Jewish tradition. Auntie Mim’s seemingly counterculture persona is just a thinly veiled idealized Jewish mother.

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egardless of the context, there is always the conundrum of the Jewish mother.

In Dear Columnist, Beverly Sills asks how to deal with her two disabled children. Dear Abby responds: “You have too many things on your mind right now. Do not punish yourself about your children’s disabilities. Maybe you should retire from your singing career to raise your children. Be strong. You will survive your grief.”

I wonder if Dear Abby would have counseled Mr. Beverly Sills to retire from his job. In the next issue of New Outlook, we will examine how the Jewish wife and mother traded in her rolling pin and tea service for a tallit and personal achievement.

These days, online resources are endless, but here are some websites we think you’ll find helpful. First, and foremost, check out the Women’s League website at www. wlcj.org and the Women’s League app for smart phones.

RAMAH CAMPS www.campramah.org THE MASORTI FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM IN ISRAEL masorti.org MERCAZ: THE ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT mercazusa.org & mercaz.ca JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY www.jtsa.edu ZIEGLER SCHOOL OF RABBINIC STUDIES ziegler.aju.edu THE SCHECHTER INSTITUTE schechter.edu UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM uscj.org FEDERATION OF JEWISH MEN’S CLUBS fjmc.org MASORTI OLAMI – WORLD COUNCIL OF CONSERVATIVE/ MASORTI SYNAGOGUES masortiolami.org Other Websites We Love jwa.org/communitystories At the Jewish Women’s Archive find stories of whole communities of Jewish women through interviews, videos and the objects that have been central to their lives. jewishbookcouncil.org Join the conversation about Jewish literature

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Jewish Muslim Relations Continued from page 3

effectiveness of grassroots changes in Jewish-Muslim relations. Members of his congregation regularly participate in the joint Muslim-Jewish Hunger Van Project, founded by Zamir Hassan. Groups work together to prepare and deliver meals to needy and homeless people in the New York metro area, at the same time learning about social justice imperatives common to both traditions.

“We need rabbis and imams talking, but when it comes through organically, it has a greater impact on the street,” Alder contended. “It’s good to take different avenues of connecting.” He noted, as well, that local interfaith councils, at one time the exclusive province of Jewish and Christian clergy, increasingly include Muslim religious leadership and laity.

Over 80 members of New York City's Brotherhood Synagogue volunteered for the Hunger Van Project in February

border: “We both need to be standing up to terrorism, and we have more in common than we have differences. It helps to realize the lack of difference. Absence of ignorance mitigates potential hatred.

“The main reason I’ve pushed this focus,” he continued, “is to show that most Muslims are very moderate. It’s in the best interest of the synagogue and the Jewish community to show the larger San Antonio community that we’re not divided. Hopefully the next generation will not be as frightened of what the ‘other’ looks like.”

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nother successful model can be found at Temple Israel and Jewish Community Center, a combined Conservative-Reconstructionist congregation in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Rabbi David J. Fine is an active member of the village’s Interfaith Clergy Council. One of the council’s earliest activities was an annual Interfaith Holocaust Memorial Service, conceived by Rabbi Noam E. Marans, who led the congregation for 16 years.

“The council has always been inclusive, and we value diversity,” said Rabbi Fine, recalling when a Muslim professor of Holocaust Studies at the Jesuit-affiliated Manhattan College delivered the keynote address at the Holocaust service. He also expressed pride that Mahmood Hamsa, the head of the Ridgewood Muslim community, was the main speaker at this year’s Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. With Muslims far fewer in number than even the Jewish minority in Ridgewood, “Mahmoud reminded us of the importance of accepting diversity and protecting various forms of religious expression. He brought the significant concerns of the Muslim population to our attention.”

Mr. Hamsa also taught a class on contemporary Islam as part of a lecture series the rabbi, who has a doctorate in history, gave on Judaism and Islam.

The Brotherhood Synagogue’s Rabbi Alder lauded the

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nother exciting initiative is the growth of the Sisterhood of Saalam Shalom, an organization that operates locally through about 140 chapters, as well as nationally and internationally. Rabbi Naomi Kalish, of Hoboken, New Jersey, is a chaplain at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. She heads the Hudson County (NJ) chapter, which she started in 2015, after attending the group’s annual conference with her daughter, Adina. While in her chaplaincy Kalish works across religious boundaries, the Sisterhood has created a new level of friendship among equals.

Rabbi Kalish’s first challenge in activating the Sisterhood’s local chapter is creating a a balanced group, but at the moment, there are many more Jewish than Muslim women. Kalish feels it’s more a matter of limited free time than a lack of interest. She believes strongly in the mission of Sisterhood of Saalam Shalom to build mutual trust based on personal relationships.

“It’s difficult, especially now, to build trust. We’ve seen that in the escalation of threats and bias. To affect change and culture long-term, it’s important to get to know one another,” she said.

Meanwhile, Adina met a Pakistani girl her age, also named Adina, from the city’s Muslim community. The two Adinas hammered out a teen dialogue program that has already given rise to five different Facebook groups.

Several teen leaders participated in an event the young women organized, and they hope to hold at least one more before the go off to college in the fall.

While the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom has made inroads through its local chapter structure, the American Jewish Committee is taking the opposite approach. Rabbi Marans, formerly of Ridgewood’s Temple Israel, is now director of interreligious and intergroup relations at AJC, which recently launched the national Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC). MJAC is concentrating on investing resources in “the greatest interreligious challenge for the Jewish people, and arguably for the world in the 21st century,” said Marans. “And we believe that the greatest place for progress and success begins here in the United States.”

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he creation of MJAC was deliberately announced just prior to the U.S. election, said Marans, “because it was motivated, in part, by the belief that Muslim-Jewish relations and the place of Muslim Americans within the wider American mosaic would continue to be an issue and a challenge that needed to be met.” MJAC is unique in its style and substance because it starts with shared policy issues. It’s a breaking down of the silos between interfaith relations and domestic policy.

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et with all of the positive activities taking place and the building of good will, no one is denying that challenges remain.

“We’re occasionally tripped up over the IsraeliPalestinian issue, especially in dialogue in Arab countries.” JTS’s Visotzky said. “Sometimes we take two steps forward and three steps back. It’s the most difficult issue we confront, even as we often stand shoulder to shoulder in mosques and synagogues.”

Rabbi Marans sounded a similar theme. He argued that mainstream organizations had to “find the sweet spot within which they balance strong support for the State of Israel and combating radicalized militant extremism with assuring an America that is hospitable to all peoples, because fundamentally it is right, and it is essential to Jewish safety and security.”

In New York City, Rabbi Alder said his experience with different Muslim communities has varied depending on their countries of origin.

“Muslims from Pakistan might be more open because they are more westernized and have fewer issues around the Middle East than Muslims from Saudi Arabia or Iran,” he observed.

San Antonio’s Rabbi Abraham has noticed yet another issue. “In the Jewish community, when there is inappropriate or unlawful behavior, we speak out. But there seems to be a fear of being targeted as collaborators if anyone speaks out against terrorist elements within the Muslim community,” he said.

In Oakland, Rabbi Bloom, who has sought to cultivate direct ties, described a lack of organization and insularity that made contact with Muslim religious leaders an enormous challenge. He has launched a letter-writing campaign, encouraging his members to craft messages of support for neighbors who may be targets of Islamaphobia. “We want them to know we’re here for them, and we care about them.” he said. And that is true of all of these outreach programs.

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ourWORLD NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH SHARSHERET “Living healthfully is so important...

Take small, manageable steps.”

BY MELISSA ROSEN, Director of National Outreachl

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harsheret began 2017 with an exciting and important collaboration with Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. Sharsheret, Hebrew for “chain”, is a national not-forprofit organization, that supports women and families, of all Jewish backgrounds, facing breast cancer, at every stage – before, during and after diagnosis.

Sharsheret’s objective to raise awareness, educate and offer support to Jewish women and families meshes perfectly with Women’s League’s role as the network for women in the Conservative/Masorti movement. I am excited that together we will provide a valued service to the 40,000+ Women’s League members and their families.

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reast cancer is a scary subject. After all, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. Breast cancer awareness, on the other hand, is empowering. I want to congratulate Women’s League for promoting awareness, and to share four important

steps to protect our health.

First, learn your family history. In the general population, 1 in every 400 people, men and women, carries a mutation on a BRCA gene that increases their risk of a breast or ovarian cancer diagnosis. For Jews of Ashkenazi descent, that number is 1 in 40. Ask about the incidence of cancer in your family and discuss it with your doctor or a genetics counselor to determine if genetic screening makes sense for you.

Sharsheret offers free genetic conversations with our genetics counselor.

Know what is normal for your body. Being familiar with your body will help you observe any changes.

If something concerns you, follow up with a doctor.

Living healthfully is so important. Be proactive about your health, not just breast health. Eat well and be active – these strategies have been proven to mitigate cancer risks. You don’t need to eliminate all sugar or run a marathon. Take small, manageable steps.

Finally, commit to appropriate screenings

and don’t push them off. Every day, women we know neglect caring for themselves because they have work deadlines, volunteer responsibilities and family obligations. We must remember to care for ourselves the way we would care for any loved one.

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et’s make this the year we commit to breast cancer awareness and our own health! Be sure to attend Sharsheret’s education and outreach programs at your synagogue and in your community, and if one hasn’t been planned, take the lead! Look for us at the Women’s League 2017 convention. Visit our website. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. And most importantly, connect Sharsheret with people who could benefit from our support and resources. We are wherever you are.

We can’t change the odds, but with Sharsheret, no woman will have to face breast or ovarian cancer alone.

www.sharsheret.org info@sharsheret.org

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A CENTURY OF CHANGE From the kitchen to the pulpit, how did Jewish women become their own best advocates?

An intimate conversation with Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner, Dr. Pamela Nadell and Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, moderated by Rabbi Abby Sosland THE MISSION OF WOMEN’S LEAGUE FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM is to strengthen and unite synagogue women’s groups, their members and individual members; support them in mutual efforts to understand and perpetuate Conservative/Masorti Judaism in the home, synagogue, and community; and reinforce their bonds with Israel and with Jews worldwide. Women’s League accepts the Jerusalem Program, which is the platform of the World Zionist Organization.

NORTH AMERICAN JEWRY AND ISRAEL: Opinions, Attitudes and Concerns

A panel of young female analysts discuss settlements, the two state solution, Jerusalem, and religious pluralism

JULY 23 - 26, 2017 CRYSTAL GATEWAY MARRIOTT ARLINGTON VIRGINIA

TAKE ACTION ON WOMEN'S HEALTH

Together with religious, medical and legal experts and in partnership with Jewish Women International, Sharsheret and Planned Parenthood, develop strategies and actions to protect and preserve long standing women's health policies.

PLUS: Judaica/Crafts Fair, Jewels in the Crown Awards, Torah Fund Luncheon, workshops for sisterhood enhancement and personal growth