News

It’s all in how you look at it

Posted on June 29, 2024

By Julia Loeb, WLCJ International President There is an old story about a shoe company in the early 20th century that sent two sales agents to check out the possibility of expanding their sales into a remote village in central Africa. After their trip to the village, the two sales agents separately gave their reports. Continue Reading »

Jewish Communal Letter Regarding ADL

Posted on June 24, 2024

  Jewish Communal Letter Regarding ADL (PDF)

A Life Cycle Event: Coming Of Age

Posted on June 22, 2024

By Linda Klempner, WLCJ International Vice President and Patron/Scholarship Patron Chair As I was preparing to retire from teaching I began to form a bucket list of projects I wanted to accomplish. Number one on the list was to become a Bat Mitzvah. A Bat Mitzvah is a coming of age but it did not Continue Reading »

Lessons from Ruth

Posted on June 11, 2024

By Renee Ravich, WLCJ Vice President and Region Services Chair As I read the Shabbat messages each week, I’m amazed at how many of my “sisters” have chosen to live a Jewish life, though raised in another faith, as I was. My journey began in my teens as I looked around for a religion where Continue Reading »

New Roles, New Journeys

Posted on June 8, 2024

By Anise Parnes, WLCJ Consulting Services Vice Chair When spring arrives, I think “transitions.” I think of school graduations and commencements. June brides and grooms. New jobs. New journeys. It’s the time of year when I moved more times than I can count. It’s when I changed professional positions a number of times. It’s when Continue Reading »

An End to Uncertainty

Posted on June 1, 2024

By Grace Schessler, WLCJ Executive Committee Appointee and Personal Conversations Co-Chair Commencing on the evening of the second Seder, we count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, or as we know it, Counting of the Omer. These fifty days can be an opportunity for deep personal reflection. Omer, the sheaf of barley offering that took Continue Reading »

Ruminations on Yedid Nefesh

Posted on May 25, 2024

By Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields, WLCJ Executive Director My Rabbi often encourages us to just use the words of the Siddur, prayer book, as a guide. He suggests that if we feel drawn to one particular prayer, or certain words, we should dwell on those words, and not necessarily follow along. As a pulpit Rabbi, where I Continue Reading »

A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance – Reflecting on Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut

Posted on May 18, 2024

By Julia Loeb, WLCJ International President In the United States, we observe Memorial Day as the start of the summer season. Some place wreaths at gravesites, but many just spend the day at picnics or barbecues or shopping the many holiday sales. Most give little thought to the connection to the losses memorialized on this Continue Reading »

Building Community by Building Family

Posted on May 11, 2024

By Fran Hildebrandt, WLCJ International Vice President and Kehilah Co-Chair This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day. A day when we honor the wild and wonderful women in our lives who have raised us and/or influenced us.  Not all of them are our mothers. Many of us have other women who have impacted our lives, be they Continue Reading »

Walking the Walk

Posted on May 4, 2024

By Janet Kirschner, WLCJ International Vice President and Per Capita Chair By now everyone has probably put away those Pesach dishes and cleaned up from the holiday. I hope you had a zissen and meaningful holiday. This week’s parashah, Achrei Mot, means After the Death, specifically the death of Aaron’s sons Nadiv and Avihu. The parashah describes the ritual service of Yom Continue Reading »