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Voices of WRJ: Parashat M'tzora

by Alexis Rothschild Parashat M’tzora (Restoring Ritual Purity) completes the laws of purity presented in the last week’s parashah. For many women, this portion presents some troubling issues of ritual purity, but upon close examination, one realizes that these laws may have helped women and children to live healthier lives at a time when disease spread rapidly, life expectancy was short, and infant mortality was commonplace.

Double Booked: Perspectives from the President of WRJ

Blair C. Marks

This piece originally appeared on March 25, 2014 for the RACblog's special Double Booked series. With a demanding professional career managing the ethics and compliance training, communications and external engagement for a Fortune 500 company, some people think I am crazy for having agreed to serve as the President of Women of Reform Judaism.  Sometimes I would have to agree, but mostly I prefer to think that I am incredibly lucky.  It’s true that I don’t end up with much down time, but WRJ brought my life into balance when I worked in a male-dominated profession, and continues to give me a perspective on our world that I would never have otherwise achieved.

Voices of WRJ: Parashat Tazria

by Sandy Adland Impurity, isolation, inequality, oh my! This week’s Torah portion, Tazria, addresses two areas: ritual impurity associated with the blood of childbirth, and the diagnosis of certain skin ailments and eruptions that would render a person to be ritually impure. In regard to these situations, the women in Tazria are portrayed in a negative light but WRJ must continue to affirm how important, beautiful, loved and appreciated our daughters and sisters in the Reform Jewish world are.

Reform Leaders Weigh in on Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Cases at Supreme Court

On the occasion of today's oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Corp. v. Sebelius, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Steve Fox, CEO of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Marla J. Feldman, Executive Director of Women of Reform Judaism and Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism jointly released the following statement:
As rabbis deeply committed to religious liberty as well as to reproductive rights, we are proud that our organizations have joined an amicus brief in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Corp. v. Sebelius, defending both the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate and the right of all people to live according to the teachings of their faith. Alongside over 25 of our faith partners, we argued in that brief for a vigorous interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) - a law we played a key role in crafting the 1990s - that protects individuals' right to religious freedom. The United States has long modeled religious freedom, and maintaining the current framework of religious free exercise protections ensures a standard of liberty unparalleled in the world. It is due to this understanding of the separation of church and state and religious freedom that Jews and other members of religious minorities have been able to thrive in this country.

WRJ Funds Grants to Encourage Female Enrollment at URJ Sci-Tech Academy

The WRJ press release was circulated on March 25, 2014. New York, NY, March 25, 2014 - As the enrollment level of boys surpasses that of girls for the inaugural summer at the URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) has made a $5,000 grant from its YES (Youth, Education, & Special Projects) Fund to provide scholarships for girl participants. The scholarships are meant to encourage and support the participation of girls in science and technology, which have traditionally been male-dominated fields. Each scholarship recipient will receive $500 toward registration at the camp this summer.

Voices of WRJ: Parashat Sh'mini

by Annice Benamy Parashat Sh'mini describes the laws of Kashrut (set of Jewish dietary laws) and ritual purity. This parashah specifically examines the role of women as it is the responsibility of the people, which is largely carried out by women, to observe these laws. In Leviticus 11:1-23, we are presented with a list of foods that we are and are not allowed to eat. The Torah permits the eating of animals with cloven hoofs that chew the cud, fish with fins and scales, and 24 types of fowl, but forbids the eating of creepy things, foods contaminated by contact with prohibited animals, carcasses, or decomposed foods. Ultimately, the key word in the parashah is k’dosh (holiness) as we are to eat animals that are pure and this is a diet for purity and holiness for our body and soul.

Encouraging One Girl (Me!) to Embrace Science & Technology Makes All the Difference!

Blair C. Marks

I didn’t know any engineers growing up; in fact I had no idea what they did. But I loved solving puzzles–geometric proofs, science projects, finding chemical unknowns in the lab, calculus problems. My parents encouraged me in this… although I must admit that my mother (an English teacher extraordinaire!) was not entirely sold on it as offering much of future. Even when I was studying ceramic engineering at Georgia Tech, mom suggested that I joint enroll at Georgia State University and get a teaching dual degree because, after all, who would hire a woman engineer?

Religious Liberty and Reproductive Rights: Understanding the Issues in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby

Sarah Greenberg

This blog is part of a WRJ blog series commemorating Women's History Month. 

In less than a week, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga v. Sebelius. These cases have been getting a fair amount of coverage in the press and attention in the advocacy community over the past few weeks. If you are new to these cases, or if you’re excited (like me) to see what will happen before the nine justices on March 25th, here’s a rundown of the basic arguments, the stakes, the position of the Reform Movement, and some suggestions for further reading in anticipation of oral argument.

Let’s go all the way back to the beginning of the story to understand the questions before the Court.

Executive Director's Report: Week of March 10

Rabbi Marla J. Feldman

Last week was a particularly interesting week for me, with a major focus on WRJ’s Israel relations. First I had lunch with Menachem Leibovitz, Vice Chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Israel (KKL), whose bona fides include being married to one of the first women rabbis in Israel, Rabbi Maya Leibovitz of Kehilat Mevasseret Zion. I had the opportunity to join Menachem along with leaders of ARZA to discuss the importance of the upcoming WZO elections (January-March 2015), about which we will all be hearing a great deal in the coming months. Menachem rose to prominence in that important organization in large measure due to the influence garnered by the Reform/Progressive Movement after previous WZO elections. All of us who care about expanding and strengthening Progressive Judaism in Israel have a role to play, and it’s rather simple: when the time comes we will be asked to go online, register, and vote. It’s not too early to begin planning ways to educate our sisterhoods and women’s groups, our congregations, our friends, and our family members about Progressive Judaism in Israel. We should be laying the foundation now, so by the time elections open in 2015 we will be ready. If each of our 65,000 women votes, Progressive Judaism in Israel and around the world will be the big winner!

Why should nice Jewish girls do science and technology? Because they can!

by Rusti Berent When I was a girl I loved science! My parents supported me and gave me a fancy microscope and, later, a deluxe chemistry set. In high school biology, we dissected frogs and worms and observed pond life under the microscope and I was fascinated. The summer after I took biology, no frog or worm in my neighborhood was safe from me and my dissection kit! Sadly for me—but lucky for the frogs—that was the last summer of such explorations. No one I knew shared my excitement and eventually I moved on to other things. Much later, I earned my doctorate—not in a physical science or technology—but in education and human development. My passion for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) continued, however, and I’m proud to say that each of my daughters won first place in their middle school science fairs.