WL Convention 2023 Celebrates Torah Fund at 80

By Barbara Ezring, International Torah Fund Chair

In less than one month, I will be greeting friends, new and old, in person at the WLCJ Convention 2023. I can’t wait to see everyone who I have seen only on Zoom since 2017. I especially look forward to celebrating 80 years of Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism with everyone.

In 1942, Women’s League President, Dora Speigel and her leadership, established the Torah Fund. Money raised provided scholarships for rabbinical students studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in NY. Every member of Women’s League was asked to contribute $6.11, the numerical value of the Hebrew word Torah. That year they raised over $10,000. In 1963, Torah Fund merged with the Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall campaign that provided housing for undergraduate JTS students. Since 1942, Torah Fund has raised over $108 million. We have supported scholarships and programs benefiting five global institutions of higher Jewish education: the Jewish Theological Seminary (New York, NY), Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (Los Angeles, CA), Schechter Institutes of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, Israel), Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and Zacharias Frankel College (Potsdam, Germany).

Please, join us as we celebrate the work of Torah Fund.

On Sunday, before the official opening of Convention, our Region Torah Fund Vice Presidents will gather to socialize, learn, and plan for the next Torah Fund Campaign. I can’t wait to see each of them in person.

We all will celebrate eighty years of Torah Fund at the gala luncheon on Monday. Samson Nderitu, a student from Kenya who is studying at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, will present the D’var Torah. Rabbi Brad Artson (Ziegler) and Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz (JTS) will bring us greetings. We will feature a new Torah Fund video that will be available to all Regions and Affiliates/Sisterhoods to use during the new campaign year. Torah Fund Legacy Society members and “Plus $80 for 80 Years” contributors will be recognized. We will share a brief Torah Fund Stands with Israel program. The luncheon will conclude with a special “Happy Anniversary” dessert.

Join us at the Monday afternoon breakout session when we will present, “The Real Volunteers of Torah Fund,” starring our 2021-2023 Torah Fund Vice Presidents with appearances by our outgoing and incoming International Torah Fund leadership. Don’t miss this chance to meet in person, the creative, caring, and conscientious Region Torah Fund Vice Presidents who will guide you through the next campaign year.

Please, join me at Convention as we celebrate the past, the present and the future of Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. See you in Schaumburg!

Barbara Ezring
International Torah Fund Chair
bezring@wlcj.org