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January 2012 | Tevet - Shevet 5772
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President's Message
The start of the New Year often brings personal reflection and a time for resolutions, and with those resolutions often a willingness to embrace change. Sisterhood moves into the New Year with many new things – a new
e-newsletter, the Sisterhood Source, new programming and ideas, and perhaps, most importantly, a new way to renew or become a member.
For those of you longtime Sisterhood members who are waiting for your annual dues statement to be mailed to you – it’s not coming! In an effort to be green and more efficient, Sisterhood has gone digital in both our communications and our membership. Instead of a paper mailing, we have a link – you just click to Join or Renew - and your dues are billed to your synagogue account. Or you can mail in your dues using the form in this issue of The Sisterhood Source and in the upcoming issue of the Chronicle.
And why should you be a member of Sisterhood? Because your dues support our programming, our synagogue, Women’s League, and programs in our wider community such as the Senior Lunch program. By joining or renewing you are being affirmative, becoming part of the Sisterhood community and telling all of us that Sisterhood is important to you and important to our synagogue.
So for the start of 2012, make it your resolution to be part of Sisterhood!
In Sisterhood,
Lisa Kleine
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 Sisterhood mourns the loss of one of our most memorable and active leaders, Shirley Abrams, who passed away last month. Shirley served as Sisterhood President from 2001-2003. During her presidency and beyond, as lead manager, she transformed the Ruth and Simon Albert Sisterhood Gift & Judaica Shop into what it is today—a source of high quality Judaica, a vehicle for fund-raising, and place for fostering volunteerism. In 2006, she received the first Eshet Chail award given by Women’s League of Conservative Judaism in recognition of her vision and leadership skills. Shirley's memory will be for a blessing.
Sisterhood has set up a special fund in Shirley's memory, the Shirley Abrams Memorial Fund. Donations may be made through the synagogue online donation form (go to Special Purpose & Auxiliary Fund designation) or mailed to Sisterhood Treasurer, Dava Berkman, Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008.
What's Been Happening
Taste of Tanach
The Adas Israel Sisterhood Source recently spoke with Rabbi Steinlauf and asked about his vision for this monthly Tuesday morning Sisterhood study class. First, he explained that Tanach (the Hebrew Bible) is an acronym that stands for Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Nevi-im (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings, e.g., books like the Book of Esther, the Book of Job). Together they form the canon of the Hebrew Bible. Taste of Tanach draws upon all these and a range of related historical and current commentary.
The purpose of the class is to open up the world of Jewish study to everyone. It is taught in a “seminar-style” format with free discussion of the meaning of the texts and ideas, with the rabbi acting as facilitator. “Each of us has insight and wisdom to share that the texts … can bring out,” said Rabbi Steinlauf. This year the theme is Mitzvot and participants study how the concept has developed in the course of our tradition.
While Rabbi Steinlauf has initiated many innovative programs since coming to Adas Israel three and a half years ago, Taste of Tanach is one he inherited. He commented that he “was thrilled to find that there was a group of dedicated learners from Sisterhood eager to study Torah. Frankly, if Taste of Tanach hadn’t already existed, I would have urged Sisterhood to create it! A great blessing of Sisterhood is that it brings together women of several generations to be in community with each other. This class is a wonderful centerpiece to further that experience. Each month, I look forward to seeing everyone in the class, and I look forward to seeing more people join in as well!”
Note: Remaining meeting dates for 5772 are February 14, March 13, April 24, May 15, and June 12, and take place at 10:00 a.m. in the Sisterhood Library. Contact the rabbi’s assistant Beryl Saltman at beryl.saltman@adasisrael.org or 202-362-4433 for an advance copy of the current reading.
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Membership in Sisterhood
Celebrating Sisterhood at Adas Israel for over 100 years! Join Us!
If you haven’t sent in your dues yet, you can do so online at Join or Renew or use the form below. Send in your dues today to further Sisterhood’s programming efforts! Deadline for 5772: March 31, 2012.
Cut along the dotted line and mail this form and your check made out to "Adas Israel Sisterhood" to Sisterhood Treasurer, Dava Berkman, c/o Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec St., NW, Washington, DC 20008.
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Name: __________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
Home Phone: _________________Cell phone:__________________________
Email: __________________________________________________________
Adas Israel Member: Yes: __ No: ___
Basic Membership:__$36 Contributor:___$54 Patron: ___$72 Other: $___
Become Active
Let us know what interests you. Choose from among these broad categories. Someone will contact you.
____Jewish Study and Practice, e.g., Torah Study
____Fostering Community, e.g., Thursday Night Minyan
____Creating Sisterhood Networks, e.g., Sisterhood Cares
____Ensuring Sisterhood Success, e.g., Program Committee
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Sisterhood Shabbat is Changing
Sisterhood Shabbat, a hallowed tradition, will take on a new form. We have joined with Naomi Malka, interim Ritual Director, to have members commit to reading Torah throughout the year, making every Shabbat Sisterhood Shabbat. This presents an opportunity for everyone, from practiced readers of Torah to those who have never leyned before. Naomi is eager to train anyone who wants to learn.
If you would like to become part of the cadre of women who leyn in the Smith sanctuary, first contact Coordinator, Marcie Goldstein for available dates (Marcie.B.Goldstein@gmail.com). Naomi will then assign the specific portions and also coach as needed.
And we don’t mean furniture. We mean YOU.
— Beginning this month is the N Street Village Yarn Project, which will be ongoing. Sisterhood has agreed to collect yarn for the knitting and crocheting classes at N Street’s Health and Wellness Center. Chairing would involve maintaining contact with the coordinator at the Center and delivering the yarn collected. Interim chair is Marcia Feuerstein, Sisterhood’s liaison to the Social Action Committee. Please contact her (mfeuerst@hotmail.com) if you can possibly assume this responsibility.
Meanwhile, if any of you have yarn of any amount, please bring it to the synagogue and deposit it into the coat room bin marked "N-STREET VILLAGE YARN COLLECTION". Sisterhood would greatly appreciate your donations. Thank you.
— Purim will be here before you know it (March 8) and Sisterhood plans to work with other groups in the synagogue to prepare packages of cheer for new members and others. We are looking for a Chair and for other Sisterhood volunteers to join in to make a difference in someone's Purim! All types of skills needed – baking, decorating, and driving. For more information, contact Sisterhood President Lisa Kleine at sisterhoodpresident@adasisrael.org or
202-667-7916.
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Torah Fund 5772 Campaign Update
The Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism is off to a good start, but we need more of you to participate. At the midway point of 5772 we are halfway toward meeting Adas Israel Sisterhood’s campaign goal of $12,000.
Please send contributions, checks made out to “Torah Fund,” to Torah Fund Chair, Gerry Lezell, in care of Sisterhood, Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec St., NW, Washington, DC 20008.
Those donating $36 or more are invited to the Seaboard Region Torah Fund Dessert reception March 4, 2012 at Chizuk Amuno Congregation, 8100 Stevenson Rd., Baltimore, MD, 21208. Rabbi Marc Wolf, JTS Vice Chancellor is the featured speaker. Use the form below to RSVP by February 21, 2012.
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Name_________________________________Sisterhood_____________
Email_________________________________ Phone ________________
Enclosed Covert _________ $18
Send check payable to "Seaboard Region/WLCJ" to Toby Holtzman, VP Seaboard Torah Fund, 8507 Wilkesboro Lane, Potomac MD, 20854.
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Torah for Life
Rhoda Ritzenberg, who suggested the name of this column,
co-chaired Sisterhood’s Women of the Wall program in June 2010.
She also has offered many dvrai Torah in the Havurah.
In his book, The Dignity of Difference, Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, distinguishes between contracts and covenants. Contracts are business arrangements that define legal requirements. Covenants are societal agreements that bind people together. Contracts are limiting while covenants, expansive. Contracts are between people who don’t trust one another; covenants, between people who want to give more to each other than the minimum required. Without covenants – social agreements that form a web connecting people – significant contracts would be impossible. We Jewish Americans are bound by different covenants, for instance, those with G-d and with each other, those with other Americans and those with friends and family.
May our daily lives be imbued with the wisdom to recognize covenantal relationships and not mistake them for contractual ones.
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Adas Israel Sisterhood Officers - 5772
President: Lisa Kleine; VP Communications: Joyce Stern; VP Membership: Maria Lasa Sloan; VP Education/Programming: Rachel Eitches; Corresponding Secretary: Carol Ansell; Recording Secretary: Rebecca Fitch; Financial Secretary: Nancy Gross; Treasurer: Dava Berkman; Judaica Shop Co-Managers: Jean Bernard, Diane Keller, Helene Weingarten; Immediate Past President: Alisa Abrams
E-Newsletter Production
Editor: Joyce Stern
Design: Gail Roache
Contributers: Gail Roache with Lucy Hassell and Marcia Feuerstein
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Tu B'Shevat is February 8
Tu B'Shevat the day of trees.
A kind of new year, if you please,
To celebrate the birth of elm
And others in the leafy realm.
Now in Israel, buds emerging,
Sap through verdant
branches surging,
Returning life on every breeze,
It’s Tu B’Shevat, go hug some trees!
~Carol Ansell
Announcements & Ongoing Events
Save the Date: Book Chat
Sunday, March 11
10:30-11:30 a.m. in the Library Co-sponsored by Sisterhood and the Library Committee. The book is My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev. Copies are available in our library, the DC and Montgomery County public libraries, in bookstores, and on Amazon. For more information, contact librarian@adasisrael.org.
Taste of Tanach (Hebrew Bible)
Ongoing, most second Tuesdays,
10 – 11 a.m., in the Library
Rabbi Steinlauf leads a lively discussion on a biblical text. See this issue's "What's Been Happening" for details. Feel free to drop in. For more information, contact Coordinator Roselle Abramson at rosellelabramson@yahoo.com.
Thursday Night Minyan
Ongoing
Did you know that because the synagogue is "dark" on Thursday evenings, at times it has proven very hard to ensure a minyan? Sisterhood has responded to this need by pledging to have two Sisterhood women attend every Thursday evening minyan. Please do your part to ensure that there is always a minyan and that no one wanting to say Kaddish will be without the opportunity. For more information or to pledge a Thursday night, contact Sisterhood Thursday Minyan Coordinator, Harriet Isack at happyisack@gmail.com or 202-966-6169.
Senior Lunch and Fellowship Ongoing, Monday - Friday
The Adas-Behrend Senior Lunch and Fellowship Program is held daily Monday - Friday at 10 a.m. in Gewirz Hall. Through Sisterhood, the Jewish Council on Aging, and the DCJCC, it has been an important part of Adas Israel for many years. Offering a hot lunch with lectures, movies, music, or classes, the program provides a setting for learning, entertainment, and socializing. If you have a talent or an interest to share, or would like to help serve and greet the seniors, please contact Aviva Atkin at seniors@adasisrael.orgor 202-363-7530.
Sisterhood Cares
Simchas
Sisterhood member Flora Atkins recently celebrated her 70th wedding anniversary. We wish a hearty mazel tov to Flora and her husband, Maury.
Donations
Sisterhood General Fund
• Rhoda Baruch - in memory of her husband Jordan Baruch
Shirley Abrams Memorial Fund
• Gail and Don Roache - in loving memory of our special friend, Shirley Abrams
• Ron and Barry Lewis - in memory of our aunt, Shirley Abrams
• Linda and Jay Freedman - in memory of Shirley Abrams
• Judy and Harry Melamed - in memory of Shirley Abrams
Sisterhood Bima & Synagogue Adornment Fund
• Joyce and Michael Stern - in honor of Harriet and Art Isack’s Simchat Torah honors; in memory of Bela Kalter, mother-in-law of Sandy Kalter; and in memory of Edith Krohn, mother of Rae Grad
• Helene and David Weingarten - in memory of Shirley Abrams
• Nancy and Daniel Weiss - in memory of Shirley Abrams
Rose R. Freudberg Sisterhood Memorial Library Fund
• Joyce and Michael Stern – in memory of Malcolm Rivkin, husband of Goldie Rivkin
Bereavement Notices
Sisterhood extends condolences to Nancy Gross on the loss of her mother-in-law, Dora Gross, of blessed memory, who passed away on January 7.
May the family be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Gift Shop News
We welcome new volunteers to serve as sales associates in the shop. Sales at the shop help Sisterhood raise money for the synagogue and its community programs.
If you want to feel involved in Sisterhood, and you want to meet a lovely group of women who share your commitment to Adas Israel, and you can dedicate three hours one time during the week, please contact the Adas Israel Gift Shop. We will be happy to train you.
Thank you,
The Adas Israel Gift Shop Managers Jean Bernard, Diane Keller, and Helene Weingarten
Every purchase benefits
Adas Israel Congregation
Shop Hours
Sunday - Monday &
Wednesday - Friday
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday
9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. &
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Contact Us
For appointments call
Jean: 301-654-8914
Diane: 301-469-0550
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Adas Israel Sisterhood
2850 Quebec Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
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