As the religious school co-chair at my synagogue, Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood, PA, I listened to a speech by a member of our temple’s sisterhood. At the end of her talk, she mentioned we could join sisterhood for only $36. I decided to write a check to be gracious but with no intention of participating because I was already active at the temple. I couldn’t have imagined when I first got involved in sisterhood that it would lead me to engage at a global level. Upon joining sisterhood, I got “the phone call.” You know the one, thanking... Read More
Attending the Conference of Presidents annual Israel mission is both a marathon and a sprint. You have to pace yourself for the overwhelming number of experts, government leaders, entrepreneurs, and military leaders that we meet with while packing everything into just a few days. Within the first 24 hours we met with the Israeli Prime Minister, President of Israel, and numerous MKs (Members of Knesset), visited Mobileye, a high tech company developing autonomous cars, and heard from panels of experts on Israeli technology, cybersecurity, higher education, regional security, missile... Read More
In the spring of 2019, an alarming surge in anti-abortion legislation took place in state legislatures across the U.S. Nine states enacted gestational age bans on abortion, many as early as 6 weeks -- before most individuals even know they are pregnant. Fortunately, all bans have been blocked by federal judges from taking effect for the time being. Four states adopted legislation that would ban abortion immediately in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, joining eight other states that already had so-called “... Read More
Rushing around the plenary room at the 2015 URJ Biennial in Orlando, FL, my friend and I were lost high school participants desperate for any seats we could get our hands on before the lights faded all the way out. Finally, we spotted two empty seats in the middle of a large group of women. Unclear whether or not these were reserved seats, we asked the women at the end of the row if we could sit and we were enthusiastically told us that these were all saved for the WRJ delegation; we could sit there if we promised to join WRJ when we were older. Only focused on getting seats before the... Read More
WRJ's YES (Youth, Education, and Special Projects) Fund granted $10,000 to support the 2019 NFTY Convention held in Dallas, Texas in January 2019. Empowering the next generation of Reform Jewish youth (l'dor vador) has been a core value of WRJ since helping to found NFTY in 1929. NFTY Convention for me is like a proverbial “shot in the arm.” As the URJ’s lay leader for youth, I get to work closely with the URJ Youth professional team on engaging young Reform Jews and developing today’s and tomorrow’s young leaders. Seeing them in action at NFTY Convention fills me with energy, hope,... Read More