It is hard for me to believe that it is already 2012 and that I am starting my final year as district president.  I have been privileged to represent the district at District President’s meetings and at Shabbatons and Area Events throughout the district.  I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you at those events, as well as during last year’s Leadership Conference in San Francisco and most recently, during WRJ’s 48th Assembly held at the Gaylord Center in the Washington DC area and I look forward to meeting more of you in the coming months.

The Assembly was a truly memorable experience.  There were so many incredible moments. Among them listening to Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Richards applauded the efforts of Past WRJ President, Dolores Wilkenfeld, who was a close friend of Richard’s mom, Gov. Ann Richards, saying “Dolores has been a crusader for social justice and the rights of woman all of her life. We grew up believing, as many of you did, that social action was something worth working for.”  Other inspiring speakers included Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-president and Founder of the National Women’s Law Center, Natan Sharansky, the Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Dr. Wendy Mogel, author of The Blessing of the Skinned Knee and the Blessing of the B-, and of course, there was the incredible message that we heard from President Barack Obama.  For me personally, listening to President Obama say, “I hear that NFTY is in the house,” and then hearing  the cheering from our NFTY kids, and knowing that I was sharing the experience with my daughter, Diana, who was there as a NFTY delegate, made being there, just that much more of a moving experience for me.

There were plenaries on social action and on Israel, workshops on almost everything you could imagine to help you make your sisterhood an even better place to volunteer your time and efforts, and then…there was Shabbat.  Shabbat services and Shabbat dinner with more than 5000 people was an amazing and truly spiritual experience.  I was touched by Rabbi Yoffe’s final sermon as URJ President and the way he used his own family’s experiences to talk about his insights on affiliation and on how vitally important it is for today’s youth to grow up feeling a personal connection to Judaism and Israel.  While attending WRJ’s Lifeline and Endowers’ Reception,  I also was fortunate to be able to hear incoming URJ President, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, speak about his admiration for WRJ and his gratitude for all that WRJ has done to help the youth of our movement.  And as an aside, Rabbi Jacobs also gets major props from me for his direct, personal support of WRJ for taking the opportunity that night to create a Lifeline for his wife, Susan K. Freedman.

As I’m sure that many of you are aware, there was a discussion on a dues increase and after much discussion both pro and con, the increase passed.  We, as a district, want to work with sisterhoods to help them develop creative ways of doing funding to offset the increase.  I also want to remind people that if sisterhoods are not able to fund the dues increase, our district and WRJ both have programs in place for sisterhoods to manage their dues.  On the district level, please work through your Area Director;  for WRJ, contact Rachel Jurisz at rjurisz@wrj.org.   There also were a number of changes made to the WRJ constitution and I urge you to look at the new version when it is published.  For more in depth information on the Assembly, please visit the WRJ website (www.wrj.org) and click on Assebly Highlights.

WRJ has a new Executive Director, Rabbi Marla Feldman.  Marla is a warm, intelligent, engaging woman and I am sure that she will be a wonderful addition to WRJ.  Rabbi Feldman’s professional résumé is impressive. I’m sure that many of you may have recently read Rabbi Feldman’s article in Reform Judaism magazine about her experiences last summer when she spent a week chaperoning one of NFFY’s L’Dor v’Dor groups.  It’s a fascinating article and I think gives wonderful insights into what a mensch  ”Rabbi Marla” is and how lucky we are to have her as WRJ’s Executive Director. Even before I met Marla at the Assembly, I had heard wonderful things about her. My daughter, Diana, was part of the Group 10 mentioned in the article, and I have to tell you that any rabbi who can inspire a 16 a year old high school student to rave about what a wonderful rabbi she is…is special indeed.  To quote my daughter when I told her that Rabbi Feldman was WRJ’s new Executive Director, “Rabbi Marla? NFTY’s Rabbi Marla?  Mom, she’s the best!”  Rabbi Marla has an open door (and email policy), so please feel free to reach out to her.

The Assembly was a life changing experience for me in many ways.  I learned a lot, reconnected with old friends, made new friends, and…slept very little.  I encourage all of you to make Leadership Development a priority in your sisterhoods and to start planning now to attend WRJ’s 50th Assembly in 2013 in San Diego; a special Centennial Celebration where we will celebrate 100 years of sisterhood.

Please remember that I’m just a click or a call away and that I’d love to come and visit your sisterhood and to meet your membership firsthand.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy 2012

Warmly,

Deb