Sisterhood women have had an incredible impact on my life. I am largely a product of the religious school system, of NFTY and URJ camping, all of which are opportunities afforded to me through sisterhood support. I feel fortunate to be a student at HUC-JIR, an institution that ordains women like me, in part because of the support (and perhaps pressure!) of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods/Women of Reform Judaism, and this year I have the opportunity to work for WRJ for my rabbinical internship. I am thankful to Women of Reform Judaism, and I personally owe a great deal to sisterhood women, both past and present, who have helped me to achieve my goals.

A sense of gratitude and a corresponding sense of duty are enough to make me spend several hours of an otherwise busy day working on a Mother’s Day gift for my own mother. However, these are not the feelings that get me out of bed in the morning, nor keep me motivated throughout the course of the day. After a long day of studying – which often entails the rigors of the rat race in New York City – it is not debt, nor appreciation, nor responsibility that pushes me onto a crowded train bound for the WRJ office. While these feelings are enough to get me to make a donation, or “like” the page on Facebook, they would probably not be enough to get me to join a local sisterhood chapter, nor are they the factors that brought me to the WRJ this year.

Why, then, do I give up rare afternoons on my sofa to send out last-minute office memos? Why do I sacrifice precious evenings with my boyfriend to instead sit in a small cubicle answering emails? Of all the internships to which I could have applied, why was Women of Reform Judaism at the top of my list? What inspires me, and women like me, to become active in local sisterhood chapters? It’s not the goals I’ve already achieved with the help of sisters and sisterhood, but the goals I am still working towards that motivate my contribution.

I am the daughter and granddaughter of activists. I am looking for others to link arms with me as we march together for a better world. It’s a nice image, perhaps a little cliché, but what does it mean? First, it means that I want to feel a part of a movement forward, part of something bigger than myself. Second, I know that my voice will be louder in unison with others. I know that I need the group and the group needs me, or we will not achieve the goals I am so passionate about. Lastly, I’m looking for a motivator, my gym-buddies in activism. I want to hear a voice on the phone, saying, “Toba, get up! I’m going to volunteer. I’m going to protest. I’m going to learn, to work, to study, to change the world. Come with me. We can get coffee on the way.” I work for WRJ because together we demand women’s freedom and religious pluralism in Israel, we fight for women’s access to health care and the right to make decisions that impact us, for equality in a nation where women still make less money for the same jobs as men, and for a voice in a tradition in which we have only recently been acknowledged. WRJ, sisterhood, this community, gives me the opportunity, the ability, and the motivation too, to make the world a better place.

Of course, there are days when my goals, my mission, my desire to change the world, are obscured by my immediate everyday life. There are days when a routine doctor’s appointment becomes anything but routine, and I am scared and lonely. On those days there aren’t enough causes or passion to motivate me to get out bed. On those days, when my own sister and mother are a thousand miles away, it is the women of WRJ that offer me love and support. It is the email from a board member reminding me that though “life can be so challenging,” I have lots of “sisters (more like Moms!) who care,” that truly inspires me to get up and keep going.

As my friends and I begin to make our lives and build our families, states and time zones and plane rides away from the families who raised us, these women, our adopted “sisters” and “mothers” have been the women who have stepped into the roles our families are too far away to play. These women are the “mothers” who hold us and comfort us after the doctor’s visit, make places for us at the family seder table, and throw us parties to celebrate our success. These are the “sisters” who advise us on the best Thai food in town, and take the babies for a night so we can have some peace and hold our hands as we cry, because they understand us in a way only someone else who has been there truly can. These are relationships that sustain us, these are the women for whom we would do anything in return. This is what sisterhood can provide, and these are the relationships that truly motivate me.

As we celebrate the achievements of WRJ in this centennial year and look toward the future of the organization, I have been asked what we can do to get young women involved in sisterhood. As nice as it sounds, no catchy program title or flashy social media page will ever be the answer. If we want to engage people, we must tap into their true motivation, the values that truly drive their lives. If they are anything like me, we must do as we have always done. We must continue to focus on justice and the mission for which we were founded. We must remember too, that we would do anything for our Jewish mothers and sisters.

Toba Strauss is the Rabbinical Intern for WRJ and just completed her third year of rabbinical studies at HUC-JIR in New York. Originally from Gillette, WY, Toba spent most of her childhood in Texas. After completing her degree in Cultural Anthropology and Jewish Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, Toba set out to explore American Jewish life. She has worked for Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at Cornell and Northwestern Universities, the Federation of the Greater East Bay in Oakland, CA, and synagogues in Denver, CO and New York City. She looks forward to honing her education skills next year in HUC-JIR’s Masters in Religious Education Program. Toba says she wouldn’t be where she is today without the opportunities provided by her home congregation and sisterhood, Congregation Beth Shalom of the Woodlands, TX, and the constant love and support of her mother and sister, Dr. Bernice and Naomi Strauss.

In partnership with The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, WRJ has engaged 15 scholars to research various aspects of WRJ’s history and its impact on the North American Jewish community. This Ten Minutes of Torah is an excerpt of one of the articles, which will appear in a volume available at the WRJ Assembly in San Diego in December 2013. Please join us on Sunday, June 2, 2013 for the WRJ Centennial Symposium at Temple Israel of New York City, where many of the scholars will share the fruits of their research.

A month before its official dedication in October 1951, the House of Living Judaism, the new headquarters of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was already attracting considerable attention. Tour buses stopped to marvel at its looming presence; indeed, remarked the New York Times, it was quickly becoming “one of City’s ‘Sights’” perched on the corner of Sixty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue (“New Hebrew Center One of City’s Sights,” New York Times, September 5, 1951, 6). With tourists awed by this new home of the UAHC and its neighbor Temple Emanu-El, all those close to the inner workings of UAHC appreciated the true miracle: the opening of a new center for Reform Judaism not in Cincinnati. This new center came into being, as historian Michael Meyer notes, “thanks largely to funds raised by local Sisterhoods,” led by Jane Evans, the National Federation for Temple Sisterhood’s executive director since 1933. Rallying behind the idea that the Reform Movement needed a new home so that it could have “a stronger presence in North America’s largest Jewish community,” the women of NFTS raised $500,000 to establish a new home for the UAHC offices. Since this geographic reorientation was mired in controversy, the rank and file support of NFTS demonstrated the widespread popular support for this historic move, transforming this female ‘auxiliary’ into a major artery of the Reform movement).

So how did the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods raise these sums? To be sure, the tireless efforts of thousands of women played a key role but leading this effort was Dr. Jane Evans (1907-2004), executive director of NFTS. Assuming the mantle of leadership after studying design and working in retail, Jane Evans took over NFTS during a time of great distress for the UAHC over its financial viability. Indeed, considering the vast funds Evans raised and how she was at the center of NFTS and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations for over 70 years, it is surprising how little has been written about her. But Jane Evans, despite her diminutive stature and training in interior design, would introduce revolutionary changes to NFTS by dramatically expanding its membership, deploying new technologies such as radio programs and promotional films to get its message across and applying a new consumerist ethos to its fundraising efforts. One gave charity, and bought Uniongrams to show that one could give money to charity, just as one bought washing machines, ovens and clothing items. Indeed, her business background – spanning from her invention of a new type of fan to her years working in St. Louis’s largest department store – made Evans grasp the importance of creating, reaching and mobilizing a mass constituency. By expanding NFTS’s membership base and advertising its initiatives through their Topics and Trends newsletter, Evans enabled already existing fundraising practices – such as payment of dues or the sales of Uniongrams – to raise far greater sums.

These sums were devoted to many programs including NFTS project undertaken in 1941 “to offer ….an adequate home for the UAHC, the central organization of American Liberal Judaism” so that it could expand its programming. The need for a new home became more pressing after the war as the NFTS Annual Report declared in 1946:

The needs of the Union in 1946 are much greater than those envisioned in 1941. Today it is our earnest feeling that the House of Living Judaism, which will be the future home of the Union and its affiliates, the headquarters of Reform Judaism in America and a world center for strengthening the Liberal Jewish Movement, is more needed than when we first took cognizance of the problem…[a new home is needed for] the position of world leadership with which American Reform Judaism has been entrusted [rendering] this housing project one of the major, vital, dramatic and urgent demands of the day.” (Michael Meyer, “Confronting Crisis,” Reform Judaism, Fall 2009),

In their call for funds, NFTS gave voice to the general anxiety that filled American Jewish life upon the realization that European Jewry and its cultural institutions would never recover from the destruction of the World War II. The NFTS community struggled to figure out where they fit in the world or where to locate the center of world Jewry. It is at this moment that Evan’s career took on a new dimension. Maurice Eisendrath, the newly elected President of the Union, was intent on moving the Union to New York, despite the great opposition he faced among Reform Jews, so that it could expand in both membership and programming. His staff in those days, however, was small—himself and a handful of others including Jane Evans. But Eisendrath recognized that Jane Evans was savvy, and once he had secured the approval of the UAHC to make the move, he placed responsibility for carrying it out in Evan’s hands. Not only did Jane oversee the move, find the location of the New York property at 838 Fifth Avenue, and use her background in interior design to help plan the renovation, she worked with her sisterhoods to obtain the funding for the new structure. Through Topics and Trends, radio programs, honor rolls, the Blanche Stolz award and establishing other fundraising ‘quotas,’ NFTS raised over $500,000 in five years.

In short, we should never forget that Jane Evans and the women of NFTS changed the geographic course of Reform Judaism by funding and organizing the UAHC move to New York City. This move revitalized this Jewish religious movement, attracting thousands of East European Jews and their descendants so that by the end of the twentieth century, it was the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. Thus, NFTS’s role in opening the House of Living Judaism bespeaks of the need to broaden the lens through which we evaluate Jewish women’s activism in the United States. The years between the suffrage victory and the ‘second wave’ feminist movement are often characterized as the ‘doldrums decade’ in American women’s history as a result of the absence of meaningful female activism that reshaped gender relations. This narrow view obscures women’s critical activism in campaigns such as spreading birth control. Or in the case of the UAHC, the critical role the women of the NFTS and their fundraising efforts played in reshaping the Reform movement from the ground up.

Rebecca Kobrin is the Russell and Bettina Knapp Assistant Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University. She writes widely on Jewish migration, American Jewish life, Jewish women’s history and Jewish economic history. Her first book Jewish Bialystok and Its Jewish Diaspora [Indiana 2010] was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer Prize for Best Book in Modern Jewish History. Her volume, Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism [Rutgers, 2012] is on the Jewish Book’s Council’s Recommended Reading List.

“My plate is full.” We’ve all said it, but then somehow we find ourselves raising our hand again with an idea that is too good to ignore. That was the case when I offered up the idea to add a program called WRJ Unsung Heroines to the already robust list of WRJ Centennial-related activities planned for this year. Sharing an idea doesn’t always mean you have to be the one to develop it. However, the one who envisions a program is often the one most eager to breathe life into it.

I will admit that while I am passionate about WRJ Unsung Heroines, but the leadership of WRJ is as well. I think that is because it is a rare thing that any success is accomplished independently without the support of other minds, hearts, and hands. WRJ Unsung Heroines is designed to help us think more intentionally about all those who are behind-the-scenes when the final bow is taken.

What more poignant time than WRJ’s Centennial to acknowledge that multitudes of women over the past 100 years have together changed our world for the better! Some led us through change with a spotlight upon them, but never without their sisters in the shadows, supporting the cause.

Imagine, just for a moment, what was behind the building of the first dormitory on the campus of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. It was inspired by Carrie O. Simon, the first President of NFTS (now WRJ) but it was accomplished by hundreds of women writing letters, stuffing envelopes, making speeches, attending meetings, and organizing fundraising events. Who were the women, by name? We don’t really know for the most part. And yet each one played a valuable role in erecting the dormitory that has hosted young scholars, studying to become the Rabbis that lead many of our congregations across North America today.

WRJ is more than 65,000 women strong today–most of whom have never been recognized for the incredible ways they have improved our world. I am jazzed about WRJ Unsung Heroines because it is all about recognizing the women in the supporting roles who have helped sisterhoods and WRJ bring dreams to reality.

We all know women who have served our sisterhoods quietly. Now is the time to share their story with the world. Every sisterhood has an opportunity to nominate one heroine to be recognized by WRJ. Visit the WRJ Unsung Heroines website to learn how to submit your nominee to WRJ, download a certificate, and prepare a press release.

There are many ways you can honor your nominee. Consider purchasing a “For Special Service” pin, gifting her with a Centennial Covenant Book or other WRJ Centennial products, asking the Rabbi to bless her during a sisterhood program, or purchasing a Centennial Journal Ad in her honor. Whatever your plans, we hope you will share them by commenting on this blog with your ideas of how you plan to honor your Unsung Heroine.

Katie M. Roeper is the WRJ Unsung Heroines Chair and member of Congregation Beth Ahabah in Richmond, VA.

Congregation Shaarai Shomayim in Lancaster, PA, has been my Jewish home almost since the day I was born. When my husband David and I returned to Lancaster in 1974, there was no doubt we would join a synagogue (YES! There are Jews in Lancaster which is the 4th oldest Jewish congregation in constant use in the United States). Growing up, David had had a less than stellar relationship with his Orthodox congregation so joining my Reform temple was a non-issue. We jumped into temple life immediately.

Sisterhood welcomed me warmly. My first position was chair of public relations; one year later, I became a vice-president. In 1976, I became sisterhood president with a four year old, a three month old, a career-building husband and a dog. Those were the days when 150 women attended luncheons, only daytime programming existed, and every woman in our congregation supported sisterhood. Social activities, holiday celebrations and almost all fundraising were within sisterhood’s domain. I loved instituting new projects. Help was plentiful; you simply had to ask. Our sisterhood, which predated NFTS, was a successful organization that met the needs of many women.

In many ways, sisterhood offered informal “Leadership 101”. Working in our women’s community was safe; mistakes weren’t a death sentence. Understanding organizational life, testing new waters, learning skills to deal with all types of people, and learning adult, not pediatric, Judaism all originated with sisterhood experiences. Sisterhood modeled how to mentor, how to bring women into the circle, how to celebrate achievements, and how to sunset weary events. We learned from our elders who sometimes indulged us by accepting contemporary innovations. Sisterhood’s intergenerational dimension continues to be an organizational highlight.

My sisterhood exists to support temple, our community and each member. I take special pride in one of our committees that reaches out to any temple family experiencing a death. The Bereavement Committee provides the meal of consolation following a funeral. This particular service is truly a mitzvah. The committee is so organized that a congregant simply provides the number of mourners expected, and sisterhood shops and cooks the meal, sets it up, serves it, and cleans afterward. Anyone who has done this work or received this service clearly understands how sisterhood helps to make our congregation a caring community, a family.

In the 1980’s, NFTS District #5 scheduled a biennial meeting in Lancaster, and I was asked to be the local liaison. I didn’t even know what a district was. Orchestrating our active sisterhood and taking care of my young family had been my priorities. But I learned, very quickly, how connecting with Reform Jews beyond Lancaster could enrich sisterhood, temple, and me. From the very first gathering, I was ‘smitten’ with the Reform Movement! Engaging with the district leaders further refined my skills and offered wonderful leadership opportunities.

NFTS caught my interest. So many wonderful options presented themselves. NFTS/WRJ presidents nurtured me, encouraging me to learn, step outside my comfort zone, and entertain new experiences. Having many mentors has been a blessing; each has taught me to seize the moment and stretch.

When my three-year sisterhood presidency ended, I became the temple’s 2nd VP, and in 1990, I began my three years as president. Our congregation evolved, using more Hebrew and contemporary music. Rabbi Jack Paskoff, who is now in his 19th year with us, initiated many social justice projects and significant adult study programs while overseeing a thriving Religious/Hebrew School. Under his nurturing, more than thirty youngsters annually attend Camp Harlam, Kutz Camp, and NFTY in Israel or Birthright; many helped by sisterhood. None of us in leadership, professional or lay, are complacent; we strive to introduce innovations every year. Dayeinu – this alone makes our congregation quite amazing!

My involvement in Sisterhood began a lifetime journey of service that has included serving my synagogue, WRJ, the URJ, Camp Harlam Council and so forth.  Reform Judaism has greatly influenced my family. Our older daughter Lysa is a temple officer at Rodef Shalom in Philadelphia. Amanda, our younger daughter, recently marked her tenth anniversary serving as NFTY-PAR Adviser. Both families belong to synagogues and celebrate all the holidays with joy. My hope for our three grandchildren is that they find as much meaning through volunteerism with Reform Judaism as I have been privileged to know. L’chayim WRJ – to 100 more years!

Rosanne M. Selfon, WRJ Immediate Past President, currently is serving as the WRJ Centennial Chair. She previously chaired The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, published by WRJ in partnership with the URJ Press in 2008. She has been a member of the WRJ Board of Directors since 1987.

Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah, a daily e-mail on a topic of Jewish interest. Sign up now to add 10 minutes of Jewish learning to your life each day!

The WRJ Ten Minutes of Torah series is sponsored by the Blumstein Family Fund.

Social justice advocacy has formed an integral component in WRJ’s organizational life since its founding as The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS) one hundred years ago in 1913. (NFTS, was renamed Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) in 1993.) WRJ involvement in social justice issues stems from who we are — Reform Jewish women committed to the values of Judaism. The Jewish vision of a just world is stated early in our tradition, with Abraham pleading with God not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,

“Will You indeed sweep away the innocent along with the wicked? . . . Must not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Genesis 18:23, 25)

The values expressed in Abraham’s call for justice and throughout the texts of our tradition, WRJ’s constitution, and its resolutions are the foundation for WRJ advocacy. The constitution adopted by the delegates to the first NFTS biennial assembly in 1915 calls for service to “Jewish and humanitarian causes….” and “special relationships, concerns, and interests on behalf of … national and international issues.” The delegates to the 1915 assembly also adopted resolutions that protested against the requirement of literacy tests for immigrants in a bill before President Wilson and called for raising funds for the Jewish women of Palestine. Immigration reform and concerns regarding Israel remain important issues on WRJ’s advocacy agenda today.

WRJ and its affiliates have spoken out, within the movement and in the community, on domestic and foreign issues that affect the quality of life, freedom, and justice for all people, with a priority on women’s well-being, including peace, civil liberties, hunger and poverty, environment, health care, reproductive rights, and equal pay for women. In addition to their advocacy efforts, sisterhoods engage in hands-on social justice projects such as providing new school shoes for inner-city youngsters, services for patients with HIV/AIDS, gift bags and programming for women in shelters, packages for overseas military personnel, and efforts to alleviate hunger. To see the breadth of WRJ’s one hundred years of social justice action, see resolutions and policy statements, the sampling of recent advocacy alerts, and the Or Ami Light of my People Award for Excellence in Sisterhood Programming publications in the Advocacy section of the WRJ website.

A few highlights of WRJ’s (NFTS’ prior to 1993) one hundred years of long-standing advocacy:

• Reproductive health and rights – in 1935 NFTS endorsed amending federal legislation to enable medical personnel to send birth control literature through the mail and in 1965 called for liberalization of abortion laws, continuing to speak out on this issue even today.
• Ordination of women as rabbis –NFTS called for HUC-JIR and other liberal seminaries to ordain qualified women as rabbis during its 1963 fiftieth anniversary assembly. Employment equity continues to be an important part of WRJ’s advocacy agenda.
• Soviet Jewry – NFTS urged affiliates in 1963 to call on the State Department to seek equal rights for and to oppose persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. From 1970 to 1991, NFTS actively worked on the Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewry, holding events, rallies, and marches.
• Domestic abuse – in 1983 NFTS adopted a resolution urging that spouse, child, and family abuse be viewed by the police and courts as criminal acts and that sisterhoods work with other organizations to provide services for victims of abuse. NFTS first published When Love is Not Enough: Spousal Abuse in Rabbinic and Contemporary Judaism, Rabbi J.R. Spitzer’s landmark study on spousal abuse in the Jewish community, in 1985.Through the 1980’s and 90’s, NFTS/WRJ conducted campaigns in sisterhoods and congregations to raise awareness of the issue. WRJ’s advocacy on this issue continues with its support of the International Violence against Women Act.
• Environment – since 1969, NFTS/WRJ has expressed ongoing concern about environmental issues. WRJ began working with the National Religious Partnership for the Environment in 1991 to conduct a four-state three-year campaign to raise awareness and advocate for legislation on children’s health and the environment. WRJ has been a long term member of the Jewish Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL).

NFTS’ early support for the LGBT community was spoken of in a recent Huffington Post article:

Jewish support for the LGBT community was visible even in 1965, when the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (now Women of Reform Judaism) passed a resolution condemning the criminalization of homosexuality when no one else would. (Stuart Milk, “Jewish and Gay: One Choice in This Election,” HuffPost Gay Voices, 10/31/12)

Stuart Milk’s mention of our 1965 stand, on an issue of key importance to the LGBT community, indicates that Women of Reform Judaism’s social justice advocacy statements have a long life, continue to have an impact, and do make a difference.

Carolyn Kunin is the former WRJ Director of the Department of Advocacy and Program. She serves on the Board of the Sisterhood of Temple Israel of Northern Westchester and on the congregation’s board. Carolyn was temple president in the mid-1980’s.

Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah, a daily e-mail on a topic of Jewish interest. Sign up now to add 10 minutes of Jewish learning to your life each day!

The WRJ Ten Minutes of Torah series is sponsored by the Blumstein Family Fund.

From January 21-23, 1913, one hundred fifty-six women representing fifty-two UAHC member synagogues and sisterhoods convened at the Sinton Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, in conjunction with the UAHC’s 23rd Council, the founding and first general convention of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods took place. Carrie Simon, wife of Rabbi Abram Simon of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, was elected the first president of NFTS.

In the late 19th century, women’s groups, known as sisterhoods, began developing in American synagogues. These sisterhoods were a manifestation of an emerging public identity for American Jewish women of that time. They permeated all denominations, social classes, and segments of the American Jewish community. As one historian has noted, “women’s synagogue work came to touch every expression of American Judaism,” from affluent congregations to small shuls filled with newly arrived immigrants.

The rationale for the NFTS was articulated by the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, J. Walter Freiberg, who stated that “the increased power which has come to the modern American Jewess ought to be exercised in congregational life and that the religious and moral development of Israel will be furthered by this co-operation.” NFTS’s purpose was to strengthen temple sisterhoods already in existence, as well as transfer women’s roles in the Reform movement from the home to a larger, and more public, sphere.

Rabbi David Philipson, a member of the first graduating class of the Hebrew Union College and rabbi at Congregation Bene Israel in Cincinnati, delivered the keynote address. Entitling his remarks, “Woman and the Congregation.” Philipson told the assembled delegates, “you will forge a mighty weapon in the service of Judaism.”

The initial constitution of NFTS laid out for four aims for the new organization:

• To bring the various Sisterhoods of the country into closer co-operation and association with one another.
• To quicken the religious consciousness of Israel, by strengthening the spiritual and educational activity.
• To make propaganda for the cause of Israel
• To co-operate with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations

By 1930, NFTS grew to 55,000 members. In this first generation of its history, NFTS “strove to further the religious spirit of Reform Jewish life. Its leaders stated time and again that their chief purpose was religious, fostering Reform’s particular expression of modern Judaism.” NFTS’s presence in the Reform movement expanded through the publication of cookbooks and its popular yearly art calendars, and by endowing scholarships at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

In the mid-1930s NFTS’s second generation began to take shape as the organization increasingly became involved in activities and causes beyond the UAHC and the Reform movement. Under the leadership of Jane Evans, who served as Executive Director from 1933 to 1976, NFTS began evolving into a modern, professional – and professionally run – association (no longer an auxiliary) that was involved in issues such as social advocacy, education, child welfare, civil rights, world peace, Zionism, and Soviet Jewry. Evans helped NFTS found the Jewish Braille Institute, sought collaboration with other groups, such as the World Union for Progressive Judaism, engaged the organization in the United Nations as an NGO, and participated in outreach activities through newsletters, radio broadcasts, and the creation of a speaker’s bureau.

In 1993 NFTS entered a third phase in its history, as symbolized that year by the changing of the organization’s name to Women of Reform Judaism, The Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. Jane Evans’ successors as Executive Director – Eleanor Schwartz (1976–1992), Ellen Y. Rosenberg (1992–2003), Shelley Lindauer (2004-2011) and Rabbi Marla Feldman (2012-) – took the organization even farther, as Pamela Nadell wrote, “beyond the domestic sphere of its founders into the larger Jewish world and the arena of women and politics.”

In its modern era, WRJ has continued efforts for women’s equality, inside and outside the synagogue. It has supported reproductive rights for women, called for gender neutral language in liturgy, and lobbied for increased presence of women in worship, synagogue administration, and leadership in the Reform movement. WRJ’s leadership role in Reform religious life was expressed most fully in its publication of the ground-breaking Women’s Torah Commentary in 2008. WRJ has extended its advocacy and educational work to Israel as well, nurturing 25 women’s groups in Israeli Reform congregations.

Throughout each generation, the women of NFTS/WRJ have supported youth programs, camping, religious schools, congregations, rabbinical and cantorial scholarships, and Reform institutions through its YES Fund (Youth, Education and Special Projects). The YES Fund is a collective fundraising effort of local sisterhoods designed “to strengthen the institutions of our Reform Movement and ensure the future of Reform Judaism.”

Today, the WRJ has over 65,000 members representing 500 local chapters across the world. The stated mission of WRJ is the following:

Women of Reform Judaism, an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism, is the collective voice and presence of women in congregational life. Stronger together, we support the ideals and enhance the quality of Jewish living to ensure the future of progressive Judaism in North America, Israel, and around the world.

Kevin Proffitt is Senior Archivist for Research and Collections at the American Jewish Archives.

Sources: Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism, by Karla A. Goldman (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), pp. 206-207; Proceedings of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, First General Convention, Cincinnati, January 21-23, 1913, pp. 15-28; Reform Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, edited by Kerry M. Olitzky, Lance J. Sussman, and Malcolm H. Stern (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993); the Women of Reform Judaism website; and Pamela Nadell, “National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods”

The WRJ Ten Minutes of Torah series is sponsored by the Blumstein Family Fund.

Together we are able to achieve what no one individual or sisterhood could accomplish alone. Through the YES Fund, WRJ is able to provide financial assistance to rabbinical and cantorial students, youth, and Reform organizations in North America, Israel, and around the world. 

Below is a reflection from Kathryn Henning, a current participant in the Shnat Netzer Gap Year Program (a YES Fund grant recipient), about her experience.

Every so often it hits. You don’t know when it will happen or what you’ll be doing when it does, but it’s always a shock to your system. You get a feeling in the pit of your stomach that bubbles up inside and serves as a reminder that you are having an experience that is so completely new, exciting, and different from anything in your life thus far.

You burst with excitement and wonder when you realize that you moved to a different country for a year to live with 30 people from around the world who are living, learning, and growing together through shared experiences.

You start after high school, a group of 18-year-olds, most of you are without parental supervision for the first time. You have a schedule that reminds you of school so it’s not as big a shock to your system as you thought it would be.

You learn to fend for yourself, what you like and what you don’t, and the value of peace and quiet which comes with being unafraid to say when you need time alone, away from the constant companionship of the group. You learn tolerance, acceptance and honesty; the power of friendships that you’ll have forever, how to handle new situations, the intricacies of learning and immersing in a different society.

The social norms are different; you live in a society where a pineapple is a more valued gift for a housewarming than a potted plant. The language, the food, the people and how they interact take time getting  used to. Everything is in a constant motion and changing, no two days are similar, which is both beautiful and frightening at the same time.

Aside from the Israeli society and cultural differences, there are also the social and cultural differences among the people with who are on the program with you. Living with a mix of Germans, Spaniards, Americans, Brits and Australians, you learn more about yourself, become inexplicably patriotic, and develop a mixed accent that no one can put their finger on.

It’s hard when people leave; when you don’t know when you’re going to see your friends again. In a year of infinite moments, unbelievable views, excruciatingly long bus rides, and laughter, smiles, tears, fights, apologies, I’m sure that I’ll making it out alive. Better. Grown-up. Matured. Self-aware.

As for the future, I say, “Bring it on!” Throw whatever you’ve got at me because Shnat Netzer has prepared me and I am ready.

Just as Shabbat allows us to take a break from the routine hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, perhaps we can take this time to not only break from our routine, but also to look a little deeper, to think a little longer, to ask ourselves what our role was in the successes and in the failures of the prior year.  Regardless of the outcome, it is probably most instructive to take a moment to ask ourselves, “What part did I play in that?“  When all is said and done, we really do learn more from our failures than our successes.  Maybe the growth is in finding a way to keep from repeating the same mistakes over and over.

In the same way, we can look at our own sisterhoods.  Are we honestly looking at how we attract new members?  Or are we doing what we’ve always done and hoping for different results?  Are we examining the results of a fund-raiser, looking for ways to make it even more successful, or are we happily moving on to the next event on the calendar?  Are we pushing ourselves to continue coming up with new ideas for projects and programs, or are we doing the same things year after year because they are familiar?  And are we asking ourselves and our members how we can make things better?

As we begin the year 5773, let’s resolve to ask the difficult questions, consider the answers, and begin to make a difference in how we conduct our own lives and how we relate to one another.  Turning the page is one option.  Adding more meaning and intention to our lives will help connect us more to one another, and in so doing, ever closer to the Divine.

May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all of our lives.

Susan C. Bass is the vice president of WRJ’s Department of Development and Special Projects and a member of Congregation Beth Israel, Houston, TX.

Jewish women are united by faith and fate whether they live in Israel or in the Diaspora. Nevertheless, the geographic distance between us is great and sometimes concerns and cultural differences can be large as well. So, when Resa Davids, Chair, WRJ-Israel, suggested a twinning relationship to Kehillat Emet VeShalom, Nahariya (located eight miles from Lebanon’s border on the Mediterranean coast) and Temple Emanu-El, Tucson in February, 2011, both WRJ groups embraced the opportunity. Our desires to connect were based on the feeling that we could learn from each other, contribute to one another and enrich the lives of the members of our congregations.

From the exchange of our first introductory emails, we began to learn about each other’s groups and communities and to build a relationship. Despite many vast differences between our congregations, such as membership, size and resources (all of which are larger at Temple Emanu-El than at Emet VeShalom), we found several similarities that immediately enabled us to bond. For example, we discovered that Spanish influence and culture are felt in both congregations – in Emet VeShalom by the South American immigrants to Nahariya and in Temple Emanu-El by its region’s nearly one million residents of Mexican descent. Additionally, both congregations have a strong emphasis on Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) and social action. Most importantly, both WRJ groups felt committed to collaborating on mutually beneficial activities.

In April 2011, Anne Friedman (second from left), recording secretary of Temple Emanu-El’s WRJ, visited Kehillat Emet VeShalom, attending Shabbat services followed by dinner in the home of EVS WRJ member Sharon Mann along with EVS members Bonnie Kutnick and Francine Treat.

Since we share a desire for a successful relationship, we exchange numerous emails, inspire each other to think about different programs and issues, and have cooperated successfully on joint projects. Emet VeShalom’s suggestion for each of our WRJ groups to establish a symbolic chair, with a special prayer for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, was warmly received by Temple Emanu-El. Last Rosh Hashanah, both WRJ groups established such chairs, presented them at their Rosh Hashanah services, and then displayed them until Israel, and Jews worldwide, rejoiced upon Gilad’s release from captivity.

Despite being thousands of miles apart, our WRJ groups also discovered a way to share the joy of Shabbat together last February. While WRJ Temple Emanu-El led its congregation’s Shabbat morning service, with women filling every role, simultaneously in Israel, WRJ Emet VeShalom led a Havdalah service marking the end of Shabbat. This joint Shabbat program was enhanced by exchanging dessert recipes, baked by members of each other’s group and served after services. Additionally, each group shared information about the other congregation in a way that was suitable for it.

As Rosh Hashanah 5773 approaches, our WRJ groups look forward to continuing to build the bridge that connects us through this vibrant form of interaction. We feel that our WRJ twinning relationship furthers our congregations’ overall goals of raising awareness of Israel, strengthening Jewish heritage and identity, and building strong Jewish communities.

Sharon Mann made aliyah 20 years ago and lives in Nahariya, Israel. She is an active member of Emet VeShalom and volunteers as an International Contact Liaison. 

I am writing this from a hotel lobby.  Beginning tomorrow, I will be participating in a two and a half day training session for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (“ESGR”).  ESGR is a program of the United States Department of Defense with which I have been involved for the past six years as a volunteer Ombudsman.  As an Ombudsman, I work with members of the military who are having problems with their civilian employers.  I explain the governing law (the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act – USERRA) to the servicemember and the employer and try to find a resolution that brings the employer into compliance with the law.

Through my work with ESGR, I have come to have a great respect for the sacrifice of the men and women who serve in the military.  They put their lives on hold to serve their country, but their return home is often fraught with struggles.

I have a nephew who is currently serving in the Israeli Air Force, which has shown me another side of the sacrifice required of military servicemembers.  While my kids are in college worrying about things like, “Who’s having a party this weekend?” and “Where should I go for spring break?”, my nephew is putting in endless hours studying to be a navigator so he can serve his country.

I have another relative who graduated from West Point a few years ago and recently returned from a year of service in Afghanistan.  During his “tour” in Afghanistan, he sent an email to his friends and family asking people to send him batteries because they were going out on night guard duty without functioning flashlights.  I was shocked to learn that he had to look to his own resources for such a basic supply.

I don’t always agree with the decisions that are made about where troops are needed or what should be their goal, but supporting the servicemembers is not the same as supporting the policies or decisionmakers.  The work that I do with ESGR is my way of giving back to those who have given so much.  Our congregations and sisterhoods have found other ways of supporting the troops.  Some congregations and sisterhoods send much needed “care packages” to members of the congregation who serve in the military.  Others have sent food, blankets, and other supplies to military units even without a congregational connection.  At the WRJ Assembly last December, many districts made blankets for a veteran organization.  A prayer for those serving in the military has been added to the liturgy in many congregations.  There are many ways that we can give back to those who serve in the military (whether it is in the U.S., Canada, Israel, or elsewhere).  They give so much, so the least we can do is to do something!

Marcy R. Frost is WRJ Midwest District First Vice President and a member of Temple Israel, Minneapolis, MN.