Women of Reform Judaism

by Amanda Wachstein, NFTY-PAR Advisor (pictured with Rosanne Selfon, her mom, also known as Bubbio, and Mila) The best gifts in the world are the people in our lives and the moments we share together, especially when those people are our mothers, the women who have made us strong, resilient and loving. These women come [...]

By Dolores Wilkenfeld The dictionary defines the word, “journey” as “travel or passage from one place to another.” Yet, journey is used increasingly these days to refer to a series of events and experiences in our lives which influence us in a particularly meaningful direction. I would suggest that both descriptions can apply to the [...]

by Trina Novak Those of us who are actively involved in WRJ often claim that sisterhoods of today are “not our mothers’ sisterhoods.” That is not true in my case. There was no sisterhood at the temple where my mother, Ruth Novak, was a member so she joined mine, which is an hour’s drive away [...]

Last month I was incredibly fortunate to be part of the WRJ Centennial Trip to Israel and Berlin. What an amazing experience! I still haven’t finished processing all that we saw and did as we went to so many interesting places and learned so much about how WRJ supports the work of Progressive/Reform Judaism in [...]

By Rabbi David Ellenson The history of the rapport between the Women of Reform Judaism and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion starts with the founding of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods in 1913 when NFTS established a National Committee on Hebrew Union Scholarships. Through Harvest Balls, dances, raffles, card parties, rummage sales, bazaars, the [...]

By Diane Kaplan In the fall 1974 I had left the work force to await the arrival of our first child. It was an infant adoption and we didn’t have a date certain so I signed up for a daytime class being given by our Rabbi sponsored by sisterhood. I hadn’t really done anything with [...]

by Katie M. Roeper “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 [...]

This week’s Torah portion is T’rumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19) where the Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelite people, and have them take for Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. And these are the gifts that you shall take from them: gold, silver, [...]

By Nancy J. Apfel Today’s foodie culture has brought with it a growing interest in eating habits and cookbooks. A recent New York Times list of bestsellers in the Advice and Miscellaneous category included 11 books about nutrition and cooking in the top 15 sellers. Food blogs and reality cooking shows have a wide following. [...]

Editor’s Note: This piece is excerpted from Rabbi Abrahmson’s keynote address at the 2013 WRJ Fried Leadership Conference. by Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson It has been a remarkable week for women. On Monday, the women’s restrooms in the United States Capitol happily boasted a line, thanks to the record-smashing 94 female House members needing to [...]