Just Such a Time As This: My WRJ Leadership Journey

In order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve been, too. My opportunity to join Women of Reform Judaism’s (WRJ) North American Board has come at a moment where I hope to give the best of myself back to the Movement. 

Social justice is the cornerstone of my Reform Judaism. A watercolor pro-choice poster used to hang in the third floor of the Religious Action Center (RAC), proclaiming: “No woman is required to rebuild the world by destroying herself,” which strengthened my own nascent feminism. In the faith-based advocacy space, the RAC is among precious few faith-based organizations that support reproductive justice and abortion access. In college, I studied the watershed history of Nancy Drew and co-founded a committee to fight sexual assault on my college campus and promote consent education. 

When I lived in Israel, I interned for a women’s immigrant organization that fostered Jewish education and personal empowerment for immigrants from Russia and former Soviet Union countries, and met pioneering advocate Dr. Alice Shalvi (z”l), who spearheaded Talmudic study for Orthodox Jewish girls and fought sexual harassment in the military. In Spain and South Korea, longstanding patriarchy paved the way for feminist thought and action – both Spain and South Korea today have national laws protecting abortion access while the U.S. lacks one. In South Korea in particular, I read the powerful feminist novel Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 and learned about artist, writer, and feminist Na Hye-sŏk, whose written work A Divorce Testimony advocated for women’s sexual equality and cohabitation far ahead of her time (which cost her dearly: patriarchal Korean society was not ready for her at the time of her writing and the reaction to A Divorce Testimony destroyed her reputation and career). 

After living abroad, I came back to the States and became a Legislative Assistant (LA) at the RAC. During my tenure as an LA, I worked with WRJ leaders who also served in the Commission on Social Action (CSA), notably Julia Weinstein, Shoshana Dweck, and Blair Marks. One of my favorite memories of being an LA was staffing two CSA working groups: one tasked with studying the Uyghur genocide, the other devoted to fossil fuel divestment. Shoshana, Blair, and Julia were in the Uyghur working group; Blair later chaired the fossil fuel group. 

Throughout my time in the Reform Movement, what I have long been after is an unparalleled and deep-seated belonging. Not the shallow kind that comes from checking a diversity box – the kind that comes from being the best version of yourself, where you are respected and cherished for all that you are and all that you bring to the table. It comes from an organic, authentic desire to hear and perceive someone's unique voice. 

As a teen, I found this place in Urban Mitzvah Corps. As an adult, I found this place in the CSA’s working groups, where I was my best self: delving deep into important social justice issues, coordinating expert speakers, researching crucial background information, and drafting the resolutions themselves. And I was valued because of the qualities intrinsic to me – intelligent, thoughtful, welcoming, an adept writer and researcher, a capable task manager, relentless in pursuing every lead. 

In late 2023, when Blair texted that she might have a "volunteer opportunity" in the Movement for me, I texted back, joking, "I already volunteer because my boss still calls me when he needs help." Blair put me in touch with then-president Sara Charney, who spent two hours on Zoom with me answering all my questions about being on the board of WRJ. I felt norah, the dual awe and fear of standing before opportunity. Norah is often associated with the High Holidays (the Days of Awe or Yamim Nora'im), the feeling of standing before God. 

That feeling is why I chose to join WRJ – my hope that WRJ can be a place of authentic belonging for me, too. Their track record on the issues, reputation as the Prometheus of the Reform Movement, fervent and demonstrated commitment to social justice – all of these aspects inspired confidence. But what demonstrated I could trust them was their reaction when I brought up an error in a proposed resolution. In a penultimate draft of a new resolution on gun violence, Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic women were conspicuously mentioned while AAPI women were left out. When I mentioned this and asked if it would be possible to correct, the CEO of WRJ was deeply apologetic and immediately flagged the error for WRJ’s social justice team, Rena Crawford and Rachel Landis, who were gracious, conscientious, and receptive to my thoughts and edits. 

My mom raised my brother and me to define our Judaism on our own terms, as a beautiful, uplifting, positive part intrinsic to who we are, part of our heritage and our identities. Judaism is about family, like Pesach seders at Grandma’s house and Rosh Hashanah celebrations at our cousins’ house. It is about food, like Hanukkah latkes and potato kugel and brisket and Yom Kippur bagels and sweet Pesach charoset – the Ashkenazi apple one or the delicious Sephardic date one I tried in Israel – and of course, the ubiquitous chicken noodle soup. It is about ahava, love: love for family and friends, love for the land of Israel and all her people, love for the spirituality and traditions that function as guardrails to help us define our relationships with God and one another, love for the values we hold and the way we see ourselves in the world, through the lens of tikkun olam, that we can and must make a positive difference in the world with the time we have here. 

Yet given my experiences in the Movement, I know the Reform Jewish community isn't moving fast enough to make Jews who look like me (non-white/non-Ashkenazi-appearing) authentically and truly welcome. Fortunate because I was born to a Jewish woman, unfortunate because I don’t appear white and Ashkenazi, I am blessed because I am both part of this Movement yet have also seen (and experienced) how badly and painfully we have fallen short. What is most meaningful to me is that joining the WRJ Board affords me the unique opportunity to work in partnership with like-minded women, who stand on the shoulders of all the women who came before us, innovating new opportunities and infrastructure I once enjoyed as a child in the Movement, spearheading a new era in WRJ’s history. 

Given what I know and have seen and felt, given my unique voice and experiences and what I wish to advance in the Movement, I knew if I passed on this opportunity, I would regret it. In the eyes of WRJ, every woman is Queen Esther, resplendent with purpose and possibility, unique for all the skills and experiences she brings to the table: “And who knows, perhaps you have attained to [your] position for just such a time as this” (Megillat Esther 4:14). 

If you are interested in serving on WRJ’s North American Board, I encourage you to apply. Applications close November 4, 2024. Maybe you were meant to stand up just for this moment.