Sisterhood Activities
In addition to offering many activities to the community, Sisterhood has many activities that are available only to Sisterhood members. Most of these are offered with no fee, and are run by Sisterhood members for the benefit of other Sisterhood members. These include:
- Sisterhood Circles -- which cover many different interests, and are constantly increasing
- Rosh Chodesh -- which celebrates the beginning of each month
- Annual Membership Supper
- Sisterhood Weekend Away
- Thursday Study Classes with the Rabbis
- Yoga in the Light
- WRJ's YES Brunch
Sisterhood Circles
Are you interested in board games? Books? Dog walking? Walking? Mah jongg? Special needs? Yiddish? "Circles” provide us with opportunities to connect with other Sisterhood members while doing activities that we enjoy. Here’s what’s happening and how to participate.
For privacy, we are publishing contact names only. Please refer to the Sisterhood Directory and/or the Temple Isaiah Directory for phone and e-mail contact information.
Daytime Book Club
Mondays monthly - 10:15 a.m. to Noon
All are welcome. We choose our books and meeting times as we go along. The next meeting will be on
September 20 at Judy Kolodkin’s. We’ll discuss “Little Bee.” On October 18 our book will be “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” We’ll meet at Joy Gilbert’s. Coordinator: Carole Goldberg
Evening Book Club
Mondays, coffee 7:30; discussion 8-9:30 p.m.
The next meeting is September 27th to discuss “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett with Ceci Warsawski as
discussion leader at Esther Isenberg’s. All are welcome. Please see the newsletter for details and the complete fall schedule. Coordinator: Carol Sacerdote
Games
Every other Wednesday 12:30 p.m.
Please join Sisterhood members in the Temple meeting room for about an hour and half of games. We play Taboo, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, Apples to Apples, Encore Celebrity, Set, Speed Scrabble, Boggle, to name a few. New members encouraged and we will teach newcomers. It is lots of laughs and is good to stretch the mind as well!! Coordinator: Abbe Smerling
Dog Walking
Friday Mornings at 9:30 a.m., May through September
We all know that exercise is great for us and for our dogs; therefore we put the two together, and walk with our dogs on leash starting at Lincoln Park, across from the temple. The walk is about an hour on Friday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Hope to see you there. We walk during the months of May through September. Please join us weekly or when you can. We cancel if it is raining. Coordinator: Abbe Smerling
Walking Group
Tuesday and Friday Mornings at 9:15 a.m.
We enjoy exercise and each other’s conversation plus scenery and gardens on residential streets, conservation land and the bike path. This group meets at Peet’s in Lexington center and walks for about an hour, weather permitting, year round. Walk with us whenever you’re available. Please contact Carol Sacerdote to be on the email list, or to be matched with walkers interested in other dates/times.
Caring for Loved Ones who have Special Needs
Friday or Sunday Monthly Lunch
We are mothers, wives, grandmoms, sisters, aunts...who share different but similar experiences. In various ways we support a family member who may live or not live in the home. In our roles as parents and/or caretakers, we come together in a relaxed setting to share resources, stories, tears, and laughs. The loved ones we care for have an array of individual special needs. Coordinator: Karen Arbetter.
Yiddish Anyone?
Meets monthly at various houses. Learn some grammar, vocabulary, and popular Yiddish expressions you may remember from parents or grandparents. Practice speaking Yiddish with friends, share laughs, share stories. The next meeting will be on a weekday afternoon (1 p.m.) in October at Connie Reiffen’s. Anyone who would like to speak Yiddish is welcome. The group includes several men. To participate, please contact Elly Edelstein
New Circles Forming
A number of new groups are forming to provide opportunities for us to get together and share our
interests. Please get in touch with the contact person and join in the fun.
If you have a new idea that isn’t listed here, and you’d like to put together a new circle, please contact Carol
Sacerdote
Bridge
Two bridge players (husband & wife) looking to play bridge with another two players once or twice a month on Saturday night. Doesn't have to be another married couple. Experienced bridge players only, please. Contact Marilyn Baker
Dancing
Would you like to learn Salsa or Zumba, Israeli or Greek dancing? Let Pam know your interests and she’ll put a group together for you. Other dance experiences will be available upon request. Contact Pam Awrach
Gourmet
For further information contact: Sally Huebscher.
Jewelry Making - New Group
Looking for 6-10 women who want to learn to make their own beautiful jewelry. We will meet once a month to work on a set project which will be identified in advance. All materials required will be explained before each
project date. Come have some fun, socialize and produce personal items or gifts that you will be proud to say you made. Contact Barb McIntosh for further info.
Rosh Chodesh
Rosh Chodesh (“Head of the Month”) is the celebration of the new moon – the first of each month of the Jewish calendar. This observance, dating from Biblical times, is recognized as a woman’s holiday; a day associated with women’s renewal and celebration! Rosh Chodesh groups, meeting monthly, offer contemporary Jewish women this special space in time; a time to gather for learning, ritual, spiritual exploration, and to mark life passages.
From October through May, monthly, and near the time of the new moon, Sisterhood women gather at each others’ homes at 7:30 in the evening. Alternating between Mondays and Wednesdays (to afford people the opportunity to come), we take turns hosting and facilitating these meetings, exploring a breadth of subjects on themes related to Judaism or womanhood, sharing learning, ritual, spiritual exploration, and marking life passages. With a new theme each month it is easy to decide to attend at any time, so attendance each month is fluid and varied.
Our past topics have included the women who inspired us growing up, Jewish genealogical research (led by a couple of our members who are experts), when we first felt Jewish, the relationship of the moon and the feminine in art and poetry, Jewish cooking traditions, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law (based on the Book of Ruth), light, the book “A Bintel Brief,” interesting magazine articles, and learning Yiddish songs from one of our older members. Some of our best discussions have been when women were invited to bring something with them to the gathering—such a photo of mother/grandmother, a poem or prayer of Thanksgiving, a favorite Jewish ritual object, and so on.
The schedule is partially planned for the coming year, but there are opportunities to add your voice! If you have a topic of interest that you would be interested in suggesting or facilitating, or would like to host a gathering, please let Barb Levine know. Please mark your calendars with these dates and plan to attend these warm and interesting evenings. Please RSVP to the hostess prior to each event.
See the Sistehood Newsletters for detailed schedules.
Membership Supper
All Sisterhood members who have paid their 2010-2011 dues are invited to attend the Membership Supper for free, but you must still RSVP! We are all looking forward to what is always a fun evening and hope to see many of you there.
Please RSVP by October 31, 2010 to: Lauren Weiss.
We would be very appreciative if you could contribute even a small amount of time to help the committee plan and set up this event. We need volunteers to make appetizers and desserts. Last minute changes? Please call or e-mail if your plans change and you can no longer attend.
Contact: Lynne Fisher or Sandi Rosenfeld
Sisterhood Weekend Away
January 28-31, 2011
Women, the Heart of the Community
Registration Deadline November 24, 2010
At Temple Isaiah this year, our adult learning is focused on the theme of “community.” So, during our Women’s’ Weekend Away, we will examine the significance of community to Jewish women and women to Jewish community. We will learn about ancient and medieval models of women creating community within the Jewish world and how central they were to our survival as a people. We will examine how contemporary Jewish women have taken an extremely active role in Jewish communal leadership, unlike any in generations past. Women on the Board and on the Bima – what has this meant for Jewish communities and how might it impact our future? And we will engage in our own community building that will help to strengthen our connections with one another and our sense of belonging to the broader Temple Isaiah community.
Celebrate Shabbat and Havdallah and study with Rabbi Brown. Make new friends and reconnect with old friends. Relax with yoga. Take a walk or shop in historic Portsmouth. Swim in the indoor pool or work out in the fitness center. Learn, talk, laugh, sing, read, play games. ENJOY!
Registration Form
Name: ________________________________________________
Address:
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Phone Daytime: ________________________________________________
Phone Evening: ________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________
Dietary Restrictions: ________________________________________________
select one of the following:
__ Please pair me with any roommate.
__ I would like to share a room with _____________________________________________
__ I would like a single room. (Single occupancy is $130 additional)
__ I want to add an optional donation of $50 to help Sisterhood pay for the Weekend Away cost.
Mail your Registration form & Check to:
Randi Levine
Deadline for registration is November 24, 2010. Enclose a non-refundable deposit of $100.00 payable to Temple Isaiah Sisterhood.
Sisterhood is subsidizing part of the cost of the Weekend to make it more affordable for more women. You must be a Sisterhood member to attend.
All women will be included in Women’s Weekend Away if their registration is mailed by November 24th. Registrations received after that will be put on a waiting list.
The total cost for the weekend is $275.00
Financial assistance is available. Contact Janine Cohen.
The balance is due by December 17th.
The weekend includes roundtrip bus transportation (leaving from the St. Brigid's parking lot Friday at 1:00 p.m., returning Sunday around 2:00 p.m.); all meals and snacks; room accommodations; and all service charges and taxes.
Dress is casual. All recreational activities are optional.
Information? Questions? Contact Sandy Bornstein at sisterhood@templeisaiah.net.
Thursday Study Classes with the Rabbis
Our fall semester studying with Rabbis Jaffe and Brown begins Thursday morning October 14, 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. We will be studying the Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Micah, Amos and more. They lived in times of turmoil and spoke out against injustice, greed, dishonesty, excessive self-interest. We could use them today. Instead, we will look at what they said, where they said it and learn from them the wisdom we need for today's world.
We will explore each of the major prophets and some of the "minor" prophets (based on the size of the books they bequeathed to us, not the impact that they had). Their names are invoked regularly in the modern world, but few of us have ever really studied their words.
Combining modern scholarship with rabbinic commentary and the historical background of their times, we will come to learn the relevance of their message for then and today.
Dates:
October 14, 21, 28
November 4, 11, 18
December 2, 9, 16
Yoga in the Light
Esther Isenberg leads a gently paced meditative practice, including rejuvenating and relaxing postures that steadily stretch and strengthen major and minor muscle groups and increase the flexibility of hips and spine. The practice focuses movement around the flow of breath as the breath draws together the energies of body, mind, and spirit. Bolsters, pillows, and yoga props can be used for comfort.
We will draw upon the weekly Parshah for the focus of the practice. We will work with poses to open the heart, poses that bring forth the centered warrior, and poses that create an opportunity to find the peaceful center within.
Friday mornings from 10:30 a.m.—12:00 noon at the home and yoga studio of Esther Isenberg:
- October 15
- November 12
- December 17
- January (at Women’s Weekend Away)
- February 18
- March 18
- April 15
- May 13
All levels, ages, and genders are welcome. Mats and props will be provided. However, if you have favorites, please bring them along.
If you want to attend, please let Esther know so we can be sure there is room for everyone. We will make room for those who decide to drop in at the last moment. Cancellations will appear in the e-mailed Temple Weekly Digest.
YES Fund Brunch
Just as our Sisterhood supports the Religious School, LEFTY, college students, and special programs and projects within Temple Isaiah, WRJ provides financial support for similar programs throughout North America and around the world through the Y.E.S. Fund (Youth, Education, and Special Projects).
WRJ’s Y.E.S. Fund represents the collective efforts of local sisterhoods to meet the needs of rabbinical and cantorial students on campuses of Hebrew College-Jewish Institute of Religion and overseas through the World Union of Progressive Judaism and to support high school and college-age youth activities, the Jewish Braille Fund, programs in Israel, and institutions of Reform Judaism.
The Circle of Service is the way individuals can make personal commitments to the Y.E.S. Fund. Membership is $36 per year. A $1,000 contribution entitles the donor to a Lifeline membership. You can join today.
YES Fund Honorees in alphabetical order (as of June 2011)
- Pam Awrach *
- Marjorie Bladd *
- Sandy Bornstein *
- Ella Brehm
- Joann Brennan
- Marsha Byrnes *
- Pat Cooperstein *
- Helen Cravis (z”l)*
- Sandy Dickerman *
- Lynne Fisher
- Ruth Fleischmann *
- Laura Foster *
- Harriet Freedman *
- Betty Lou Furash *
- Didi Gilbert *
- Paula Goldman
- Florence Gould (z”l)*
- Florence Harris
- Susan Hartz *
- Nancy Hodin *
- Shirley Hurwitz
- Judy Izen
- Emilie Klein
- Susi Kline
- Arlene Kolovson *
- Mitzi Kuchin (z”l)*
- Edith Levi
- Cari Luterman (z”l)
- Susan Marx *
- Merle Nierman
- Lesley Nemser
- Sydney Pearlman *
- Judy Roeder
- Sandi Rosenfeld
- Carol Rosenthal *
- Judy Sharenow *
- Anna Schriber (z”l)*
- Carol Siegel
- Abbe Smerling *
- Arlene Stiglitz
- Ann Suskind *
- Sue Tafler *
- Ceci Warsawski
- Janie Weinberg
- Deanna Werrick *
- Nancy Winograd
- Jane Wolfman
- Linda Wolk *
- DiAnne Wyner
- Bonnie Yales
- All Presidents 2005
* Past Presidents
(Note: past president Elaine Brenner chose not to be honored.)