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This Executive Director's Speech was given by WRJ Executive Director Marla J. Feldman at WRJ's 49th Assembly on December 15, 2013 in San Diego, CA. This week’s Torah Portion, Vayechi, is all about transitions.

This State of WRJ Speech was given by WRJ Outgoing President Lynn Magid Lazar at WRJ's 49th Assembly on December 11, 2013 in San Diego, CA.

Good afternoon WRJ! Now is the time when the WRJ President typically gives her “State of WRJ “ address.

by Ellen Bick Earlier in Exodus, the Israelites are told that God expects them to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” And thus, in this Torah portion, Parashat T’tzaveh, God appoints Aaron and his sons as priests, and depicts the strong male-dominated society in which Aaron lived.

by Rona Weinstein In Parashat T’rumah, our ancestors are still in the desert leading what I imagine to be physically-challenging lives. It comes as a startling surprise, at least to me, when God proposes that Moses take charge of one of the most complex building projects of all time.

As we wrap up our blog series on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it seems logical to turn to the next big case in reproductive rights before the nine justices. Shifting from access to abortion to contraceptive care, one of the most important cases on both the reproductive rights and the religious freedom front is the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby suit and its companion case, Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius.

These cases ask whether the contraception mandate (that all health insurance plans must include coverage for contraceptive preventive care) under the Affordable Care Act constitutes a substantial burden on religious liberty under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. A decision in Hobby Lobby and Conestoga will determine whether a corporation has religious exercise rights to oppose some or all kinds of birth control.

by Dara Amram Parashat Mishpatim begins a section of the Torah, the Book of the Covenant. It expands upon last week’s Parashat Yitro and presents the basic laws comprising a just society.  This includes laws, ritual instructions, and moral exhortation. It starts by going right into the social justice code of the Torah. There are two understandings of our relationship between us and God. We undertake to accept God's laws, but we also accept a responsibility for the welfare of our fellow Jew. This week's parashah is the focus on that second responsibility, that of caring for each other. If we don't care for the welfare of the other, then we've failed to maintain our own social justice. The Torah is clearly telling us that we have a responsibility to include anyone into society even a Jew that we would have a reason to exclude.

When the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade, it was a landmark moment in American history. Not only were women able to fully access an abortion and have full agency over their bodies and their health care, doctors and other medical professionals who performed these procedures were no longer acting unlawfully.

Since 1973, as access to abortion became enshrined in a woman’s experience in the United States, legislation that significantly hindered that right began to crop up. For example, in 1976, the Hyde Amendment was passed, which for 37 years has blocked federal funding for abortion services. This means that women on federally administered health care plans, like Medicare, Medicaid, servicewomen, and the Indian Health Service, cannot have an abortion that is covered under an insurance plan. Combined with the unfortunate reality that many women on these plans are low-income, and that 88% of counties in the United States do not have a clinic where abortions are performed, it is clear that although Roe may be the law of the land, it is certainly not the reality of the land.

In today’s political climate, it is very easy to reduce ideas or perspective to labels or to a quick quip. Growing up in an environment where political views were pretty uniform, nuance was limited. It was in this context that I learned about “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” I accepted “pro-choice” as my view without much question or education.

It wasn’t until I moved into my freshman dorm, and the people living all around me and in my classes directly challenged my views. I understood for the first time that political views are just as unique and complex as the people who held them. So what does this have to do with Roe v. Wade?

On Wednesday, we will commemorate the 41^st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, which determined that the right to choose to have an abortion is constitutionally protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court expanded on the right to privacy that they recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the justices interpreted the First, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments to grant a right to privacy in marital relations under the Constitution.

Legalese aside, without the decision in Roe, it is very possible that very few women in the United States could have access to an abortion, depriving them of the agency and self-determination in their health choices and in the ownership of their lives and their future.