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WoTS New for June 2008 Iyar/Sivan 5768

You can find these and more at our Gift Shop--see below

Fund raising, service and women’s study and worship define the pattern of the WoTS program year. From these things we weave the fabric that binds us together in friendship and sisterhood.

Fundraising

Each year we begin with the High Holiday Card project. This is followed by the membership mailing which is followed, in turn, by Entertainment Book sales. And each year we add a few new designs to the pattern. This year we started a monthly Mah Jong night (try it, you’ll like it!) and held the very successful mid-winter Music, Morsels & More Cabaret. Our fund raising year concludes with the annual Passover Pastry sale. And, of course, the WoTS Gift Shop is a delightful presence throughout the year.

On behalf of WoTS, we would like to thank all who supported WoTS projects during this successful fund raising year. Some, but not all, of the things that the funds raised by WoTS support are listed below:

• The Temple Sinai Operating Budget
  
• The Standing at Sinai Campaign, fulfilling a pledge made by the WoTS Gift Shop Committee
  
• Scholarships for our youth to travel to Israel and participate in Reform Jewish experiences
  
• Scholarships for our Religious School teachers to enhance their skills and knowledge
  
• Scholarship support for Rabbi Gibson to participate in the Shalom Hartman Institute
  
• Women of Reform Judaism Y.E.S. Fund
  
• Babysitting for Friday night services
  
• Pulpit flowers and Oneg Shabbat sweets
  

Service

The WoTS service year is book ended by community events that are important to all women and those who love them. We begin our year by joining the Social Action Committee in The Walk for the Whisper to support those who are working to find a cure for ovarian cancer and end it on Mother’s Day as we walk, run in or volunteer for The Race for the Cure. In between we spend a lot of our time and resources feeding others. WoTS provides the annual Chanukah dinner for the congregation, prepares and serves at last one meal for the women at Bethlehem Haven Shelter, another for the men at the EECM’s men’s shelter and takes responsibility for the Mitzvah Day dinner. However, not all is food. Throughout the year, WoTS knitters are busy making those “oh so cute!” caps that are given as gifts to our tiniest members, the newborns of our congregation.

Women’s Study and Worship

Last, but certainly not least, women’s study and worship are also a part of what we do and who we are. Each WoTS Steering Committee meeting begins with a prayer to help us focus, to sustain us and to remind us that we do all that we do because we are Jewish women dedicated to living Jewish lives and exemplifying Jewish values. Women engage in spirited study with each other in the WoTS sponsored Rosh Chodesh meetings each month. Many of us studied and learned at the 46th annual WRJ Biennial in San Diego, and all of us are bursting with pride that The Torah, A Women’s Commentary has been published and is in our eager hands. The WoTS Sunday morning women’s book discussion, piloted this year, uses books with Jewish themes of particular interest to women. Finally, in the spring, we arrive at WoTS Shabbat, our special service and a highlight of our program year, which signals us that another program year is near its conclusion.

This year, however, we are changing pace and will conclude with a special Kol Isha, which we are proud to say, grew from an idea within our own sisterhood. As this is being written, the plans have just been finalized for the wonderful WRJ Area Day activity. We are looking forward to Shabbat afternoon, June 7th, when we, and all interested Reform Jewish women of Pittsburgh, will be led in study from the history-making The Torah, A Women’s Commentary by our local Reform women rabbis and join in song with our Reform women cantors and cantorial soloists from 2:00 – 5:00 PM. Rodef Shalom is serving as host. All women are welcome.

Special Thank Yous

We want to publicly thank this year’s steering committee, officers and gift shop volunteers for their dedication to WoTS and giving their precious time and of themselves to support our vibrant sisterhood. We also want to thank the Temple staff, with special recognition to both Carol Rosenthal and Lynn Naman, who throughout this past year have both gone far above and beyond to support and assure that WoTS programs and projects went smoothly and were successful.

Keep This Page

Finally we would like to ask each woman reading this article to pull this page out of the Bulletin and set it aside. Remember where you put it. When the new program year rolls around in the fall and you get your invitation to join WoTS, pull it out and take another look. If you do this, you will not have to ask what sisterhood does and why you should join. You’ll already know. We’re looking forward to counting YOU in for 2008-2009. Thanks, and have a great summer!

Jean Kablack, Chair, office@templesinaipgh.org
Suzie Hvizdash, Vice Chair

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WoTS Scholarship Application

WoTS Passover Recipes

Women of Reform Judaism Biennial (see photos)