Scripts for Installations and Programs

The following scripts can be used or adapted for your sisterhood or region. May be used as “radio plays” on Zoom.

Installation Scripts

These scripts can be adapted to meet the needs of your sisterhood:

  • Kabbalat Shabbat (Convention 2014) – Ideal for a Friday evening installation
  • URI! URI! – AWAKE! AWAKE! (Convention 2012) – Installation is a new dawn for sisterhood
  • Kehillah Kedoshah: Celebrating Community (Convention 2010) – A look at how sisterhoods create community
  • Lev v’Nefesh: Heart and “Sole” – (Cheryl Cohen-Miller, Congregation Etz Chaim Sisterhood, Marietta, Georgia) A creative and slightly irreverent comparison of the soles of a shoe or boot–the part on which it rests when standing–and the officers of a sisterhood, who support the whole sisterhood and keep it going.
  • Women’s League 90th Anniversary Installation – (Lisa Kogen, education director) A lighthearted look at 90 years of achievements that can be adapted for any sisterhood.
  • Jewish Traditions Flowing with Milk and Honey – Candies and sweets serve as metaphors for incoming and outgoing officers.
  • Kolot Nashim: Women’s Voices – (Pacific Southwest Branch) Incoming and outgoing officers are equated to the women who appear in the 2004 Convention exhibit Beauty, Brains & Brawn: The New World Balabuste.
  • Musically Speaking – (Cantor Rena Shapiro, Temple Beth-El, Poughkeepsie, NY) Participants sing a number of easily recognizable pieces of music appropriate to the work of the officers.
  • Let Us Have Songs – (Ellen Leonard, Bnai Sholom, Newington, CT) Contemporary Israeli songs accompany installation.
  • Hiddur Mitzvah: Treasures of Our People – (Rabbi Michael Katz, Temple Beth Torah, Westbury, NY). Ritual objects associated with different officers are handed from outgoing to incoming officers. Women are called according to the formula for aliyot.
  • A Remembrance of Our Mothers – (Miriam Goldfarb, Adat Ari-El, Van Nuys, CA) Women who are being installed are connected to women of the past. The primary focus is the relationships between the installed women and their immediate female forebears.
  • Torah: An Installation – (Rickie Leiter, Barbara Sanofsky, Temple Beth-El, Springfield, MA) Officers are associated with the Torah and its binder, breastplate and yad. Good for shabbat.
  • One Heart One Purpose – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) Outgoing and incoming officers, who serve with dedicated hearts, are associated with biblical and other statements about the word heart.
  • Sing the Lord a New Song – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) An installation based upon Psalm 149

Trigger Scripts

These scripts are designed to ‘trigger’ discussion of pertinent and timely issues that your members may be facing. They can be used when you need a program in a pinch.

  • When Is It Time for Me? – (Zelda Wolf Jacobs, Adath Israel, Cincinnati, OH) Different women (i.e. unmarried, single mother, caretaker for elderly parents) deal with the conflict of time for others and time for self.
  • A Woman’s Place: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace – (Barbara Hollander, Central NJ): Situations in which women might find themselves compromised by authority figures.
  • Male and Female He Created Them – (Diane Bernstein, Beth Shalom, Clearwater, FL) Several issues dealing with homosexuality within the Jewish community.
  • Bintel Briefs for Today – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) An introduction of several issues facing today’s Jews.
  • Letters – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) a trigger script designed to introduce a variety of contemporary Jewish issues for discussion. A comprehensive list of questions follows the script.
  • Help! I Need Somebody! – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) a trigger script designed as a “radio play” written to introduce a variety of contemporary Jewish issues for discussion. A comprehensive list of questions follows the script.

Tribute Scripts

  • And Youth Shall See Visions – (Lois Silverman, Congregation Beth Sholom/Chevra Shas, DeWitt, NY) A tribute to valued volunteers by on Debbie Friedman’s song “…And the Youth Shall See Vision” adapted from Joel 3:1