100+ Years of Women’s League

• Germany and Allies sign the armistice ending WWI —the War to End All Wars
• The Spanish Flu epidemic kills 20 million people--about twice as many as died in World War I.

• January: Mathilde Schechter calls for establishment of Women’s Religious Union of the United Synagogue
• Name changed to National Women’s League. Mission “to stimulate religious sentiment among Jewish women by stressing the observance of Sabbath and Festivals, religious ceremonies in the home, Jewish dietary laws and advancing Jewish education among women.”
• Per capita 10 cents
  • Individual Members - $3.
• First Annual National Joint Convention of the United Synagogue of America (its 6th) and National Women’s League (NYC): New York, NY
• Women’s Religious Union joins Red Cross Auxiliary in knitting and rolling bandages, collecting funds and providing food for soldiers; collected matzah for soldiers
• First publications:
  • Aims and Ideals of the Women’s League (Mathilde Schechter)
  • Prayers and Blessing Cards
  • Friday Night Stories (Series I) Adapted by Shulamith Ish-Kishor from Legends of the Jews by Dr. Louis Ginzberg, translated from German by Henrietta Szold
• Kosher Canteen at Columbia University opens to Jewish soldiers and students in military training.

• Russian pogroms kill thousands.
• Jewish educational summer camping launched in US; what was later known as the Cejwin Camps.

• Jewish Student House established after the war [sisterhoods sponsored Student Houses at Hunter and Barnard Colleges (NY) and Philadelphia at University of Pennsylvania and Temple; Cornell University and University of Michigan]
  
  

• Women granted the right to vote in U.S. with the 19th Amendment
• Prohibition begins in the U.S.
• League of Nations established
• First commercial radio broadcast aired

• Kiddush Cards
• Daily Prayer Cards
• Women’s section of United Synagogue Recorder
• Convention, Philadelphia, PA

• U.S. immigration laws effectively exclude Eastern European Jews and other immigrants.

• WLCJ branches established
• Convention, New York, NY

• Britain granted Mandate for Palestine by League of Nations.
• Jewish Agency representing Jewish community to Mandate authorities established
• Insulin discovered

• Convention, New York, NY

• Overthrow of Ottoman Muslim rule and the establishment of secular state.
• Technion, first institute of technology, founded in Haifa.
• Charleston dance becomes the rage

• Delegates to convention in Pittsburgh, PA, vote to support all agencies building Palestine

•  J. Edgar Hoover appointed FBI Director

• WEAF-WIN radio show focuses on Jewish holidays and customs, musical performers, actors, poetry, literature.
• Later radio shows are introduced in Philadelphia and other cities
• Bok Peace Award presented to Women’s League by American Peace Committee in recognition of Education for Peace Program
• Begins work in Addis Ababa School providing Jewish education for Ethiopian (Falasha) Jews

• Hebrew University of Jerusalem opened on Mt. Scopus.
• Flapper dresses in style

• Annual observance of Sisterhood Sabbath established in December, near 29 Kislev, Mathilde Schechter’s Hebrew birth date.
• First joint annual convention with United Synagogue at which Women’s League holds separate sessions
  • Atlantic City, NJ
• Branches organized in Metropolitan (NYC); Chicago, Philadelphia, NY State, New England and Toronto
• Each Branch focuses on pioneering projects
  • New England circulating library for area religious schools
  • Chicago radio show for adult education and Deborah schools
  • Philadelphia Student Houses
  • NY State establishes Jewish/Hebrew reading rooms

• Henry Ford announces 40-hour work week

•  Joins with United Synagogue in Jerusalem Synagogue Center Fund Campaign to beautify sanctuary of Yeshurun Synagogue (United Synagogue project in Jerusalem);
• Convention, Baltimore, MD
• Gives to Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (Project first recommendation of Dr. Judah Magnes and Henrieta Szold)

• Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
• The first talking movie, The Jazz Singer

• The Three Pillars by Deborah Melamed: first book published in English about religious observance, prayers, and mitzvot for women (9 printings)
• Passover seder records recorded by JTS rabbinical students
• Convention, Atlantic City, NJ

• Penicillin discovered
• Bubble gum invented
• First Mickey Mouse cartoon
• Sliced bread invented

• Convention, Chicago, IL
  
  

• Stock Market crashes and the Great Depression begins
• First Academy Awards
• Car radio invented

• First issue of Outlook magazine in September (Mrs. Israel [Carrie] Davidson is editor. She serves for 23 years.)
• Convention, New York, NY

• Empire State Building completed to become world’s tallest building
• U.S. officially gets National Anthem

• Convention, Atlantic City, NJ; Chairs: Mrs. Leo M. Abrahams and Mrs. Leon S. Lang
•  Resolutions:
  • oppose change to calendar endangering “fixity of Shabbat” (in response to Reform Judaism’s suggestion to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday)
  • dissuades affiliates from holding meetings and social events on the Sabbath or Jewish holidays;
    ·supports/encourages federal policies promoting immigration;
  • per capita raised to 20 cents
• Connecticut Branch established
• Women’s Institute of Jewish Studies at JTS (Metropolitan Branch in conjunction with Hadassah, Ivriah, National Council of Jewish Women and Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations)
• March 27, 1931 Women’s League of United Synagogue of America incorporated by State of New York, with approval of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, “An act to incorporate the Women’s League of United Synagogue of America an association for promoting, in affiliation with the United Synagogue of America, traditional Judaism .. and for furthering Jewish education among women”

• Etzel (the Irgun), Jewish underground organization, founded.
• Scientists split the atom
• Air conditioning invented

• Convention, Atlantic City, NJ;
  • Chair: Mrs. Louis Gottschall

• FDR launches New Deal
• Prohibition ends in the U.S.
• Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
• First Nazi concentration camp established

• Convention, New York, NY; Chairs: Mrs. Carrie Simon and Mrs. Jacon Minkin
  • Resolution commends President Roosevelt for his efforts "to restore normal conditions…and continued work of rehabilitation of the affairs of the country…"
• Supports government policies ameliorating the condition of Jews in Germany; encourages all affiliates including national office to funnel already stretched funds to Joint Distribution Committee for Germany

•  The Dust Bowl

• Last joint convention with United Synagogue, Washington, D.C.; Chairs: Mrs. Isaac Potts & Mrs. Robert Ginns
  • Convention Resolution: “…in cooperation with the Jewish Theological Seminary … to assist [it] financially to the best of our ability.”
• Establishes Education Fund for JTS with an annual goal of $2,000; (renamed Torah Fund in 1942)

• Social Security enacted in U.S.
• Alcoholics Anonymous founded

• Adventures of K’tonton, from earlier short stories in Outlook by Sadie Rose Weilerstein published by Women’s League
• What the Liberty Bell Proclaims, children’s stories by Rabbi Leon Spitz published by Women’s League
• Hanukkah song records
• Members become Jewish Braille transcribers
• Affiliates with National Conference of Christians and Jews

• King Edward VIII abdicates
• Leon Blum becomes the first Jew elected premier of France, enacts many social reforms.
• Gone With the Wind first published

• First solo Women’s League convention in Washington, D.C.; Chairs: Mrs. Jacon Minkin, Miss Sarah Kussy, & Mrs. Leon S. Lang

• Amelia Earhart vanishes
• Golden Gate Bridge opened
• Japan invades China

• Western Pennsylvania Branch established
• Convention, Pittsburgh, PA; Chairs: Mrs. Jesse Bienenfeld & Mrs. Morris Klein

• Kristallnacht—The Night of Broken Glass—German synagogues and Jewish businesses destroyed.
• March of Dimes founded
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first full-length animated cartoon
• Superman, created by two Jews, first appears in comic books

• Convention, Chicago, IL; Chairs: Mrs. Jacob Minkin & Mrs. Simon J. Winer

• President Roosevelt appoints Jewish Felix Frankfurter to U.S. Supreme Court. 
• S.S. St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany, refused entry everywhere
• WWII begins
• First commercial flight over the Atlantic
• Helicopter invented
• The movie Wizard of Oz premiers
• Jewish Irving Berlin introduces his song “God Bless America.”

• Texas Branch established
• Convention: New York, NY; Chairs: Mrs. George Levy & Mrs. Barnett E. Kopelman
• Theme of 21st convention at Hotel Commodore, NY, is “The Jew in the World Tomorrow” presents New York World’s Fair “Temple of Religion” pageant, My Country ‘Tis by Mrs. Morris Silverman

• Auschwitz opens
• Battle of Britain
• Bugs Bunny debuts in “A Wild Hare”
• Nylons go on the market

• Convention: Atlantic City , theme: “Jewish Home Beautiful”; Chairs: Mrs. A.H. Kavovitz & Mrs. Jacob Weisberg
• September 17, 1940 closing day of the World's Fair, “Temple of Religion” pageant, WL presents “The Jewish Home Beautiful” by Althea O. Silverman and Betty D. Simon Greenberg

• Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and US joins Allies fighting WWII
• Babi Yar Massacre
• Jeep invented and M&Ms created
• Cheerios first introduced

• Convention: Detroit, MI “We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident”;
  • Chairs: Mrs. Jacob S. Minkin, Mrs. Simon Greenberg, & Mrs. L.B. Schwartz
• Eleanor Roosevelt speaks on “Women in Defense”
• The Jewish Home Beautiful (Silverman and Greenberg) published (14 printings)
• 1941-45 involvement in war effort: first aid, nutrition and home nursing workers; air raid wardens, switchboard operators, ambulance drivers, spotters, Red Cross workers; synagogue social halls became emergency hospitals, kosher kitchen units; sisterhoods donate mobile kitchen units, ambulances, station wagons and organize blood donor days, sell savings stamps and war bonds.

• Japanese-Americans held in US camps
• T-shirt introduced

• 1942 Torah Fund established with annual goal of $10,000; minimum contribution $6.11 (numerical value of Hebrew word Torah)

• Warsaw Ghetto uprising
• Zionist Biltmore Conference, at Biltmore Hotel in NYC, formulates new policy of creating a “Jewish Commonwealth” in Palestine and organizing a Jewish army.

• No convention because of wartime travel restrictions; simultaneous conferences held in Kansas City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Boston, Hartford, NYC, Philadelphia, and Montreal.
• Delegates heard President Dora Spiegel speak coast to coast on national radio hookup announcing The League’s endorsement of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews of Europe

• D-Day
• Jewish Brigade formed as part of British forces.
• Ballpoint pens go on sale

• United Nations established
• U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Germany and Japan surrender ending WWII
• First computer built (ENIAC)
• Microwave oven invented

• Dr. Spock’s The Common Book of Baby and Child Care is published
• Bikinis Introduced

• First biennial Convention: Chicago, IL(first since 1941) “We Will Do and We Will Heed”
  • Chair: Mrs. Samuel Glassman
• Girl Scout Affiliation: Adele Ginzberg encourages Women’s League to support Girl Scouts of America, creates Girl Scout Jewish Advisory Committee and creation of Menorah Award for Jewish Girl Scouts

• UN approves the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the British mandate of Palestine; partition plan rejected by Arab Higher Committee for Palestine 
• Dead Sea Scrolls discovered 
• Jackie Robinson joins the Dodgers, the first Afro-American baseball player in the major leagues
• Polaroid Camera invented

• Sponsors National Program conference and Program clinics
• The Women’s League Handbook and Guide by Sarah Kussy

• David Ben-Gurion proclaims Israeli independence below a portrait of Theodor Herzl
• Jewish exodus as up to a million Jews flee or are expelled from Arab and Muslim nations including thousands of Yemenite Jews during “Operation Magic Carpet.”
• Berlin Airlift
• Arab-Israeli War

• Convention: Atlantic City, NJ “Am Yisrael Chai”; Chairs: Mrs. Emanuel Siner & Mrs. David A. Goldstein
• Convention Resolutions:
  • urge abolition of poll tax
  • support Federal Fair Employment Practices Act;
  • support elimination of discrimination and segregation in Armed Forces; federal anti-lynch law;
  • elimination of discrimination in public transportation and hotels, restaurants and places of amusement;
  • end discrimination in US against immigration and naturalization laws
• Joins Conservative movement-wide effort to bring Jewish learning and living to smaller, non urban communities; supports United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education, Camp Ramah and Leaders Training Fellowship.
• Affiliates with Jewish Braille Institute, National Jewish Welfare Board, United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bonds campaign, National Jewish Women’s organizations
• Leadership Training: Year 1: 452 women from 71 sisterhoods, four branches came for training.
• May 14, 1948 League celebrates creation of State of Israel
• Announces the $300,000 it raised with United Synagogue since 1935 transferred to Jewish National Fund to build Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem

• China becomes Communist
• NATO established
• Soviet Union fires atomic bomb

• Leadership Training, Year 2: 1,270 women, from 227 sisterhoods in 14 of 18 branches complete training
• February 7, 1949 Articles of incorporation amended. Name change to The National Women's  League of United Synagogue of America

• Korean War begins
• Senator Joseph McCarthy begins Communist Witch Hunt
• First organ transplant
• First “Peanuts” cartoon strip 
• First modern credit card introduced

• Convention: Minneapolis, MN (farthest west convention to date) “To Learn, to Teach, To Do”
  • Chair: Mrs. Simon Greenberg
• Resolutions:
  • support United Nations;
  • control of nuclear weapons;
  • urge US to withhold aid from Franco Spain;
  • ratify Genocide Convention;
  • expel Nazis from government positions in Germany;
  • prevent remilitarization of Germany;
  • must be alert to infiltration by groups “wishing to undermine our democracy”…. But also abhor “witch hunting"…
  • Call on Rabbinical Assembly to relieve agunah problem; eliminate halitza; equalize women in ability to obtain a get.
  • All subsequent conventions would sponsor kosher meals at the hotel (previously, conventions delegates would go out in search of their own kosher food)
• 1950: 495 sisterhoods

• Truman signs peace treaty with Japan, officially ending WWII
• Color TV introduced

• JTS citation to National Women’s League at 1951 Commencement “…To each Sisterhood President and to each Torah Fund Chairman here present, and particularly to the noble women, who represent the National Women’s League and Torah Fund in accepting this citation, the Jewish people and the community as a whole owe a debt of gratitude which cannot be evaluated…..”

• Convention: Philadelphia, PA “How Beautiful Our Heritage”
  • Chair: Mrs. S. Joshua Kohn
• 1,058 delegates and guests in Philadelphia (largest convention to date)
• Dr. Chaim Weizmann’s death announced at opening Ma’ariv service, thirteen hundred people recite Kaddish.
• Resolutions: petition Congress to repeal The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Law) that discriminates against immigrant and naturalized citizens.
• New departments: Adult Education to provide guidance and study materials; Ceremonial Objects and Gift Shop Department; Bookshop, Library and Publications.
  Granted NGO Status at the United Nations.
• Practice of starting each meeting with d’var Torah established.
• Participate in Women’s Organizations’ Services of the National Jewish
• Welfare Board to send packages and gifts to servicemen in 65 countries.
• “League Notes”: instructional sheets for sisterhood presidents and activity chairs
• First professional Executive Director, Naomi Flax
• Joins with United Synagogue to create United Synagogue Youth (USY)

• DNA discovered

• Mrs. Baruch Treiger is National Director of Field Work (program and education)
• Oneg Shabbat programs (based on Torah portions)

• Segregation ruled illegal in U.S.
• Jonas Salk's Polio vaccine given to children in massive trial

• Convention: Cleveland, OH “Open My Heart Unto Thy Torah”; Chair: Mrs. Simon Greenberg
• Resolution again petitions Congress to repeal the McCaran-Walter [anti-immigrant] law
• League sponsors publication of the first Hebrew-English prayer book in Braille. Subsequent Braille publications include haggadot and haftarot.
• Becomes member of National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC)
• National Parliamentarian to develop policies used by all sisterhoods and branches

• Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus
• Warsaw Pact signed
• The Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly decide that women may be allowed to offer blessings (aliyot) on the Torah.
• Disneyland opens

• Jewish Book Council gives special award to Sadie Rose Weilerstein, author of K’tonton books for “her cumulative contribution to Jewish Juvenile Literature. Her books have greatly enriched the cultural and spiritual life of American Jewry.”

• Suez Crisis and the Egypt-Israeli Suez War as Egypt blockades the Gulf of Aqaba, closing the canal to Israeli shipping.
• Elvis first gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show
• Velcro introduced

• First convention at the Concord Hotel (Kiamesha, NY) “Let Us Rejoice in Thy Mitzvot”; Chair: Mrs. David A. Goldstein
• Convention Resolutions:
  • sisterhood members observe Shabbat and holidays and dietary rules;
  • no sisterhood business conducted on the Sabbath;
  • modesty and decorum at religious service;
  • petition Congress third time to repeal the discriminatory parts of the McCaran-Walter Law
  • abolition of Attorney general’s list of “so-called subversive organizations”;
  • demand wiretapping illegal;
  • urge end to secret informers;
• Commits to raise funds for Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall for female students – project goal: $500,000.
• National Women’s Division of State of Israel Bonds present Ayshet Hayil award to five League women, each of whom sold over $100,000 worth of Israel Bonds.

• Soviet satellite Sputnik launches Space Age
• Dr. Seuss publishes The Cat in the Hat

•  First Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism pin: Burning Bush

• NASA founded
• Peace symbol created
• Hula Hoops become fad
• LEGO Toy Bricks first introduced

40th anniversary

• Convention: Miami Beach, FL “In Thy Light Do We See Light”; Chair: Mrs. Joseph Kolodny
• Resolution: compulsory Sunday Observance Laws violate the principle of religious liberty
• Plans for Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall officially presented at convention, each Branch accepts its fundraising quota. Annual goal: $100,000; members purchase “bricks” for $10.00.
• Torah Fund Ha’yay Olam donor category of $100; Patrons Society for gifts of $500 and $1,000.
  Leadership
• Training Program expands to include Speakers Training Program.

• Castro becomes dictator of Cuba
• International treaty makes Antarctica scientific preserve
• U.S. quiz shows found to be fixed

• Proposal for publication of calendar diary (initiated by Hadassah Nadich)

• First televised presidential debates
• The birth control pill is approved by the FDA
• Lasers invented

700 sisterhoods in 27 Branches.

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Remember and Fulfill All My Commandments”; Chairs: Mrs. H.H. Rossman & Mrs. Saul I. Teplitz
• Resolutions:
  • abolition of capital punishment
  • urge repeal of McCaran-Walter Law (third resolution)
  • sisterhoods resolve to be bound by and conform to national policy
• Coordinated Education Activities Committee (CEAC) comprised of Adult Education; Books, Libraries and Publications; Ceremonial and Gift Shop; Judaism-in-the-Home; Program; Publicity and Public Relations
• First Calendar Diary
• Kosher Cookery Unlimited (Ruth and Milton Perry), The Bas Mitzvah Treasury, ed. Azriel Eisenberg and Leah Ain Globe
• Mexico joins
• Eleanor Roosevelt speaks at National Social Action Conference

• Adolf Eichmann on trial for role in Holocaust
• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Berlin Wall built
• Soviets launch first man in Space
• Freedom Riders challenge segregation on interstate buses
• Peace Corps founded

• Representatives attend White House Conference on Aging
• Outlook Magazine sent directly to members’ homes

• Cuban Missile Crisis
• James Meredith admitted into the segregated University of Mississippi
• Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
• First Wal-Mart opens

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Show Them the Way Wherein They Must Walk and the Work That They Must Do”; Chairs: Mrs. H.H. Rossman & Mrs. Saul I. Teplitz
• Resolution: Congress to repeal McCaran-Walter law
• Torah Fund Residence Hall and Campaign funds combined into Torah Fund/Residence Hall Campaign

• JFK assassinated
• First woman in space, Russian Valentina Tereshkova
• March on Washington
• Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique

• Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism expanded to support University of Judaism, Neve Schechter, the Institute for Religious and Social Studies, the Jewish Museum, the External Light TV program, and the JTS Library.

• Jewish-Christian relations revolutionized by the Roman Catholic Church's Vatican II.
• Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) becomes World Heavyweight Champion
• Civil Rights Act passes in U.S.
• Beatles invade U.S.

• Convention: Chicago, IL. “Heed My Child The Guidance of Your Father and Forsake Not the torah of Your Mother”; Chair: Mrs. Saul I. Teplitz
• Resolution: Congress to repeal McCaran-Walter law
• 150 delegates attend the 1964 Biennial Convention in Jerusalem. (First international conclave of synagogue women in Israel.) Address by Foreign Minister Golda Meir; reception with President Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.

• U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
• Los Angeles Riots
• New York City Great Blackout
• Miniskirt first appears

• Mass draft protests in U.S.
• National Organization for Women (NOW) founded
• S.Y. Agnon becomes the first Hebrew writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Lift Up they Voice With Strength”; Chairs: Mrs. Saul I. Teplitz & Mrs. Sol Henkind
• 1700 delegates; 770 sisterhoods in 28 Branches in US, Canada and Mexico and Puerto Rico at Concord for Jubilee Year; tribute paid to founders and earliest leaders
• Mobilizes hundreds of workers to preserve books after JTS Library fire

• Six-Day War
• Three U.S. astronauts killed during simulated launch
• First heart transplant
• First Super Bowl

• Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated
• My Lai Massacre
• Tet Offensive

200,000 members; 800 sisterhoods; 28 Branches

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Hineni” Here Am I"; Chair: Miriam Teplitz (Mrs. Saul)
• Simultaneous study sessions in New York and Los Angeles with 1,000 participants in commemoration of Jubilee

• First group of African Hebrew Israelites begin immigration to Israel
• Neil Armstrong becomes the first man on the moon
• Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the PLO
• Concert at Woodstock
• ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet, created
• Sesame Street first airs

• Moves out of Seminary (housed since 1918) and purchases the Jewish Braille Institute Building at 48 E. 74th Street in NY.

• Palestinian group hijacks five planes
• Kent State Shootings
• Beatles break up

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Veahavta” And Thou Shalt Love; Chair: Miriam Teplitz (Mrs. Saul)

• VCRs introduced

• Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi ordained in America.
• Terrorists attack at the Munich Olympics
• Watergate Scandal begins
• Mark Spitz wins seven Olympic gold medals
• Pocket calculators introduced

1972 Jubilee Year

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Na’aseh” We Will Do!”; Chair: Ruth Perry (Mrs. M. Milton)
  • Unanimous vote to change name to Women's League for Conservative Judaism
  • Remove husbands names from rosters (Mrs. Solomon Schechter now Mathilde Schechter)
  • Ezrat Nashim invited to convention (after turned down by Rabbinical Assembly)
  • Convention opinion poll: majority support women elected to congregational boards; serving as Torah readers; initiate divorce proceedings; 60% called for women to be counted in a minyan
• Recruit-Activate-Retain (RAR) Conference and National Board meeting In Los Angeles, first on the West Coast
• First Masorti women’s groups established in Israel

• The Yom Kippur War.
• Roe vs Wade legalizes abortion in the U.S.
• Skylab, America's first space station, launched
• U.S. pulls out of Vietnam
• U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns

• President Selma Rappaport attends Soviet Jewry conferences in Washington and Brussels
• Rappaport goes on mission to Israel during Yom Kippur War
• March 29, 1973 Articles of Incorporation amended. Name changed to Women's League for Conservative Judaism

• U.S. President Nixon resigns
• Civil war in Lebanon
• Helsinki accords signed
• Microsoft founded
• Saturday Night Live premiers

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Layv HadashVeru’ah Hadashah” A New Heart and New Spirit; Chair: Ruth Perry (Mrs. M. Milton)
• Becomes independent member of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
  Organizations, World Zionist Organization, World Council of Synagogues
• National Study Days at JTS instituted; Judith Hauptman, first female Talmud instructor (JTS)
• Endorses the recent Committee on Jewish Law & Standards decisions that gave women greater equality in their synagogues

• Jackson-Vanik amendment ties U.S. trade benefits to freedom of emigration for U.S.S.R. Jews.

• Soweto Uprisings in South Africa
• Apple Computer founded

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Hazak Ve-ematz Me’od!” Be Strong and Very Courageous; Chair: Goldie Kweller (Mrs. Murray)
• Resolutions
  • freedom of choice is inherent in the civil rights of women
  • freedom of choice as to birth control is inherent in the civil right of women
• NGO Adele Leaf first member of Jewish religious organization to sit on Executive Committee of the Council of NGO Representatives at the United Nations
• World Affairs Department: combines Social Action, Israel Affairs, United Nations and Canadian Public Affairs
• BA’OLAM published
• Furnish Resource Center Library in Bernstein Youth Center at the Agron Street complex (Center for Conservative Judaism – now Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism)
• Resolution in support of universal health care: “adequate health care is a basic right of all, regardless of age or ability to pay”
• Vote to endow Seminary sukkah as lifetime gift honoring Adele Ginzberg
• Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall opens, 415 W. 120th St. Attended by President Ruth Perry and Past Presidents Evelyn Henkind, Helen Sussman, Helen Fried Kirschblum and Selma Rapaport; Adele Ginzberg, celebrating 90th birthday, recites Sheheh’yanu
• For American bicentennial celebration, publishes Justice By the Book (Helene Schwartz) and reissues What the Liberty Bell Proclaimed (Rabbi Leon Spitz)
• Offers response, “Resolution of Solidarity,” to UN Zionism is Racism resolution, signed by thousands of participants of Branch conferences, presented to Simcha Dinitz, Israeli Ambassador to the United States

• Israel rescues hostages taken to Entebbe, Uganda.

• Establishes Women's League Institute at JTS
• President Ruth Perry becomes the first female delegate to the World Zionist Congress from Conservative movement

• The Camp David Accord signed included the withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai.
• Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer receives Nobel Prize
• First test-tube baby born

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY ”Ve’he’yaya V’rakhah” And Be Thou a Blessing; Chair: Goldie Kweller (Mrs. Murray)
  Resolutions
  • support funding of child care centers and related services, enabling women for employment on a more nearly equal basis.
  • support plight of Soviet Jews, encourage greater advocacy and pressure from US
  • to USSR to restore rights to Soviet Jews, either to live peacefully or be allowed to emigrate
• President Ruth Perry first woman to be given aliyah at United Synagogue convention
• Goldie Kweller attends signing of Camp David Peace Treaty at White House (September 17, 1978)

• Iran takes American hostages in Tehran
• Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain
• Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island
• Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat are awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
• Operation Elijah, Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry begins.
• Sony introduces the Walkman

• Sisterhoods begin financial support of kehillot in Israel

• Ted Turner establishes CNN
• Pac-Man video game released

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY ‘‘U’Vaharta” Therefore Choose Life; Chair: Selma Weintraub
• Resolution supporting ordination of women rabbis
• Bernice Balter named Executive Director
  Becomes autonomous member of National Jewish Relations Advisory Council (previously under the banner of United Synagogue)

• First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
• AIDS Identified
• Personal computers (PC) introduced by IBM

• Falkland Islands invaded by Argentina
• Israel invades Southern Lebanon to drive out the PLO.
• Vietnam War Memorial opened in Washington, DC

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “K’nay Hahmah, K’nay Binah” Get Wisdom, Gain Understanding; Chair: Dolly Moser
• Creation of "special relationships" matching sisterhoods with Masorti congregations in Israel
• Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism dedicates the Mo’adon at Goldsmith Hall

• Reagan announces Defense Plan called Star Wars
• Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space
• The faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary votes to accept women as candidates for ordination. 
• Cabbage Patch Kids are popular

• Study Days instituted by many Branches.

• Expanded publication department produces audio cassettes and video tapes and new program guides to prepare women for participation in synagogue ritual.

• Operations Moses and Joshua, rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, by Israel begins.

• PG-13 movie rating created

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “L'ma'an tizk'ru V'asitem" Remember and Do; Chair: Helene Schachter

• Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism surpasses two million dollar goal. 

• Hole in the Ozone Layer discovered

• First Internet domain name is registered

• Amy Eilberg becomes the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi.

• Welcome to the World: A Jewish Baby's Record Book, First edition published

• Joint Leadership Conference within the Conservative Movement instituted.

• Space shuttle Challenger Explodes

• Chernobyl nuclear disaster

• Iran-Contra Scandal

• U.S. bombs Libya

• U.S.S.R. launches Mir Space Station

• Elie Wiesel wins the Nobel Peace Prize

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Lkhol Z’man V’et” For Everything There is a Season and a Time; Chair: Evelyn Auerbach

• Resolution urges the National Youth commission of United Synagogue to provide full egalitarian tefillot as an official option at all gatherings

• January 11, 1986: broken water pipe floods basement and entire first floor of the 74th Street office

• Joint leadership conference with United Synagogue and FJMC paves way for Leadership Council of the Conservative Movement

• Former President Syd Rossman (1958-62) is the first woman to receive the JTS Seminary Centennial Medal (for chairing the successful Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall Campaign)

• Beginning of the First Intifada against Israel.

• DNA first used to convict criminals

• President Evelyn Auerbach makes several trips to Israel to participate in the “Who is a Jew?” debate fueled by large influx of Soviet Jewry

• First biennial World Affairs Conference held in Washington, D.C.

• Pan Am Flight 103 Is bombed Over Lockerbie, Scotland

• Convention: Kiamesha, NY “Lev Ehad V’derekh Ehad” One Heart, One Purpose; Chair: Evelyn Seelig

• Fundraising project: “Flowers of Israel” cards, one of its most successful development campaigns

• Berlin Wall falls

• Exxon Valdez spills millions of gallons of oil on coastline

• Students massacred in China's Tiananmen Square

• World Wide Web established campaigns

• USSR allows emigration of three million Jews; many choose to move to Israel.

• Iraq invades Kuwait

• Germany reunited

• Hubble Telescope launched Into Space

• Cantor Marla Rosenfeld Barugel becomes first woman to be admitted into the Cantors Assembly.

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Emet Tzedeh V’Shalom” Truth, Justice & Peace; Chair: Ruth Rosenfeld

• Resolution applauds decision to grant degree of hazzan and encourage all congregations to consider women cantorial candidates “without prejudice.”

• First book in the Celebration series published: Celebration: Hanukkah

• Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Israel airlifts 14,000 Jews from Ethiopia during

• Operation Solomon in a 24-hour airlift.
  Operation Desert Storm/Gulf War during which Israel is hit by 39 Scud missiles from Iraq.

• South Africa repeals Apartheid Laws

• President Audrey Citak joins mission to Israel during Gulf War

• New Training Services department created

• First national Shabbaton and open board meeting, Chicago, Il.

• Bosnian Genocide begins

• Riots in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.

• Convention, Kiamesha, NY “Evtah v’lo Efhad” I am Confident and Unafraid; Chair: Janet Tobin

• Hundreds of members join 500,000 women in the March on Washington in support of women’s reproductive rights

• World Trade Center bombed

• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated.

• Israel and PLO sign the Oslo Accords.

• Kolot BiK’dushah established to acknowledge women who can lead services, read from Torah and recite a haftarah

• Sponsors first Elderhostel (University of FL, Gainesville)

• Joint response to Hurricane Andrew with FJMC provides meals and other necessities to homeless victims

• Israel and Jordan sign official peace treaty.

• Arafat, Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres share the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Rwandan Genocide

• Convention: Kiamesha, NY, "Walk in the Path of Understanding"; Chair: Lila Nass

• Resolution expresses concern for the reluctance (and even hostility) toward female rabbis and cantors; encourage gender neutral interviewing and hiring

• Women's League realignment from 28 to 25 Branches

• Oklahoma City Bombing

• Yitzhak Rabin assassinated

• O.J. Simpson found not guilty of double murder

• Auction Website eBay is founded

• Torah Fund Campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism dedicates refurbished Women’s League Seminary Synagogue (WLSS)

• Centennial Olympic Park Bombing during the Olympic Games

• Dolly the Sheep, the first cloned mammal, is born

• Convention: Kiamesha, NY. "And the World Is Entrusted to Us"; Chair: Marion Mohl

• Last Convention at Concord

• WLCJNet (online Sisterhood Without Walls) established by a handful of savvy members, offering a way to maintain friendships and exchange ideas

• First Harry Potter book released

• Princess Diana dies in car crash

• U.S. President Clinton impeached

• Viagra goes on sale

• Convention: Philadelphia, PA "Ask and Learn"; Chair: Gloria Cohen

  • Dr. Ruth Westheimer closes the Convention

  • Lois Silverman introduced her and wrote in the NY State Branch newsletter:
    She was wonderful and I relaxed as soon as she started using the language of her field—words like “sex”; who would have thought just a few years ago that such words would be heard at a WL Convention?

• Fear of Y2K Bug

• Killing spree at Columbine High School

• The world celebrates the turn of the millennium

• Israel unilaterally withdraws remaining forces from its security zone in southern Lebanon

• The al-Aqsa Intifada begins

• Camp David Summit.

• Senator Joseph Lieberman the first Jewish-American to be nominated for national office (Vice President) by a major U.S. political party.

• Unclear winner in U.S. Presidential Election

• The dot-com bubble bursts

• USS Cole Bombed

• Mitzvah Torah campaign launched to raise funds to write a Torah and provide an opportunity for all members to participate in this mitzvah.

• Etz Hayim He, Adult Bat Mitzvah Curriculum written by Dr. Lisa Grant

• Convention, Washington, DC "What We Do This Day Can Change Our Lives"; Chair: Cory Schneider
  Debbie Friedman concert, first time convention programming open to local community"

• World Trade Center, Pentagon, and PA terrorist attacks
• Wikipedia is launched

• Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies to sponsor Days of Study for hundreds of Masorti women in Israel, in collaboration with Alice Shalvi, rector
• Sale of townhouse at 48 East 74th Street NY, NY and move to The Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 820, NY, NY

• The Euro becomes the official currency of twelve of the European Union's Members
• George Bush creates the Department of Homeland Security to fight threats of terrorism

• Convention: Philadelphia, PA "Lift Our Voices with Strength" ; Chair: Janet Arnowitz
• WLCJ Torah dedicated

• Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• Invasion of Iraq
• The Human Genome Project is completed

• Orpah’s Club, national book club: first selection The Singing Fire, by Lillian Nadell
• Leadership Institute (3-day) developed and begun in different locations in North America

• Facebook is launched

• Convention: Orlando FL “Kulanu B’Yahad” All of Us Together; Chair: Rita Wertlieb
• Beauty, Brains and Brawn: The New World Balabuste, exhibit commemorating 350th anniversary of Jews in United States
• Education Pavilion at The Jewish theological Seminary dedicated on October 3, 2004

• Hurricane Katrina floods New Orleans
• Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany
• Israel officially recognizes the Bnei Menashe people of North-East India as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, opening the door to immigrate to Israel.
• Israel withdraws its military forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
• YouTube is launched

• Sisterhood Planner
• Women in Law, Women in Halakhah Symposium (NY)

• Saddam Hussein is executed
• A military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel.
• Twitter is launched

• Convention: Philadelphia, "Praise Her for Her Works"; Chair: Sandra Schwartz
• Resolution supporting fair legal immigration policies and refugee protection
• Convention Social Action Project: Philadelphia Laurel House (women’s shelter)
• convention committee creates new Eishet Hayil Award, focusing on one woman per sisterhood. Hundreds of recipients attend convention award ceremony
• Individual membership reintroduced after bylaws change

• Global economic downturn
• Arctic sea ice hits a record low
• Apple debuts the iPhone
• Amazon releases the Kindle

• KOL ISHAH: A WOMAN’S VOICE A Concert in Celebration of 20 Years of Women Cantors Sunday, December 16, 2007: Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
• Website, www.wlcj.org, launched
• WLCJ realignment, from 25 Branches to 13 Regions
• Outlook: final issue published (Spring/Summer 2007; Vol 77 No 3)
• CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism, joint publication with FJMC and United Synagogue introduced
• 70,000 members; 13 Regions

• Oil prices hit a record high
• Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launches Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
• Global financial crisis spurred by the U.S. subprime mortgage market crash

• Convention: Detroit, MI lLev V’Nefesh Heart and Soul; Chair: Carol Simon
• Convention social action project: WLCJ members knit and crochet 15,000 hats and scarves for homeless in Detroit
• Publication of With Strength and Splendor: Jewish Women as Agents of Change (author: Director of Education Lisa Kogen)
• Mitzvah Yomit Project
• BookMarks, books newsletter first printed
• First Vashti’s Banquet, New York, March 9, 2008

• Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th president and first Afro-American POTUS

• Distance Workshops introduced, enabling women to participate in study and training sessions via conference call
• Va'ani Tefillati: Jewish Women in Prayer Conference (historic gathering of Jewish women from all movements including Women of Reform Judaism, and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance)

• Haiti is struck by a devastating earthquake
• BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico worst marine environmental disaster in US history

• Convention: Baltimore, MD Kehillah Kedoshah: Celebrating Community Woman to Woman; Chair: Sandy Myers
• Convention Social Action Project: Books for Baltimore, Purchase of 14,000 books for children in Baltimore Public Schools, Jewels in the Crown Awards established
• Yom Yarok Project, A Tu B’Shevat Celebration

• Death of Osama bin Laden

• Women’s League assumes financial responsibility for United Synagogue’s Koach kallah
• Regions begin sending weekly or biweekly Shabbat emails

• Scientists discover the existence of the Higgs boson or God particle
• Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting leaves 27 dead

• Convention: Las Vegas, Uri, Uri Awake! Greet the New Dawn. Chair: Faye Laveson
• Resolutions:
  • support full civil equality for GLBT Jews
  • support full access for all women to the entire spectrum of reproductive healthcare and opposition to policies limiting full access
• Convention Social action project: Value Our Vets collects $40,000 in gift cards for West LA Fisher House

• The first creation of human embryonic stem cells by cloning
• Black Lives Matter movement begun

• Mishpachah I: The Modern Jewish Family – program to create inclusiveness for all family types

• NATO ends combat operations in Afghanistan