Sisterhood's first meeting of the year will be Thursday, September 14 at 7pm in the Social Hall.  Sisterhood meetings are usually on the third Thursday of the month, but the third Thursday of September is Rosh HaShonah, so we had to push it forward a week.   The topic is "HAPPY FEET" presented by our own Dr. David Kleinbrodt, DPM.  Come learn techniques to keep your feet pain-free and healthy.  RSVPs are appreciated so that we know how many chairs to set up!  RSVP by September 11th to Alyce@[email protected], or just reply to this email.  We will take a few minutes to approve our budget at this meeting. 

Here's the events already on the Sisterhood calendar for the 2017-2018 year.
September meeting (Happy Feet): Sept. 14, 7pm, Social Hall
October meeting (Sukkot in the Sukkah): Oct. 5, 7pm, Jo Schwartz's house
MahJongg Tournament: Oct. 15, 8:30am, Social Hall
Annual paid-up luncheon: Nov. 12, time TBD, Social Hall
Holiday Boutique: Nov. 19. Social Hall
December meeting (Chanuka celebration): Dec. 21, 7pm, Social Hall
January meeting (Tax preparation): Jan 18, 7pm, Social Hall
February meeting (Gender identity): date TBD, 7pm, Social Hall
Women’s Seder: March 15, time TBD, Social Hall
Sisterhood cruise: March 22-26, Princess Cruises
April Meeting (A celebration of Israel): April  19, 7pm, Social Hall
Sisterhood Shabbat: May 11, 7:30pm, Sanctuary
May Meeting (story telling): May 17, 7pm, Social Hall
We hope to add a few more in the coming months.

Here is your reward for reading to the end and putting all these dates in your calendar (you did put all those dates in your calendar, right?)

    Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
    Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be bagels. 

One of Sisterhood's priorities is our Temple youth.  We support and encourage our kids in a lot of different ways.  
We provide apples & honey at Rosh Hashona and Dreidles & Gelt at Chanukah to the Religious School and ECEC kids.  We provide gifts for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah students.  We provide Bibles for the confirmation students.  We provide gifts for the 12th grade class.  We provide funding to both the Religious School and ECEC for "little extras" that their budget might not cover.
Our campership program helps our kids attend camp, and because the kids put in time volunteering to earn their scholarship, the kids feel that they have contributed to funding their camp experience.  We also provide money for scholarships for Avodah, the L'Taken trip, and TASTY convention.  And we provide funding for Alumni Outreach.
We are not alone in our support of our youth.  Many of these programs, such as campership, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah gifts and the Confirmation Bibles, are run jointly with MoTAS.  MoTAS also provides gifts for the 12th grade class.
In addition, our umbrella organization, the Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ), provides an *enormous* amount of support for Jewish youth.  The "Y" in "YES Fund" (WRJ's philanthropic vehicle) stands for YOUTH.  Support of youth is among the YES Fund's proudest achievements. WRJ founded and continues to support NFTY, as well as URJ Camps and Israel programs, where our youth build friendships, establish strong Jewish identities, and develop leadership skills. The YES Fund was among the initial donors of the URJ Campaign for Youth Engagement (CYE) when it launched in 2011 and continues to support programs that engage and inspire Reform Jewish youth. 
We are thankful that we have the resources to support our youth, help encourage their sense of Jewish identity, and promote the continuation of Judaism into the next generation.

Today was our annual leadership training.  In case you are a little curious about what happened, here is a recap of the day.
After a light breakfast, we started by introducing Lillian Burkheim Silver, who is on the WRJ board and is a local Area Director for the Pacific District.  Both your presidents spoke briefly, and then we had an ice-breaker where we paired off and talked about why we joined Sisterhood.  We regrouped and told our partner's stories.  Common themes were: a friend pulled me in; Temple Ahavat Shalom was welcoming; Judaism is important to me so I got involved.
We showed a video about leadership and what it takes to get the job done.  We then broke into smaller groups and built "Sisterhood houses" out of Tinker toys.  We gathered around each "house" and the women who built it explained what the components of their structure were.  Having explored how we viewed Sisterhood with this exercise, we then formulated what we saw as Sisterhood's values and needs.  We wrote them on large post-it notes and put them on the wall.  Each person was given four stickers and she used these to indicate which values and needs she saw as the highest priority.  
The last thing we did before lunch was (still in smaller groups) to talk about our (hidden) talents.  That was quite interesting!  We will have to do more on that!
After lunch, we showed the YES Fund video, which talks about how the YES fund supports our Youth through things like camp scholarships and PJ library, supports educating new clergy through scholarships, and also funds myriad other special projects.  Then Jackie talked briefly about her visit to 6points Sports academy last month.
We then looked at the values and needs that had the most "dots" pasted on them, and used them to revise our Mission statement.  At last year's leadership training, we had looked at our mission statement and decided it needed revising.  This year we attacked the task with vigor.   The revised statement will go to the Board for approval, and (if approved) the Mission statement will then be presented to the Sisterhood membership at our September meeting for their approval.
We then broke into small groups.  Each group chose a Sisterhood program and discussed how we could apply the principles in our newly revised mission statement to the program.  We came back together and the various groups told of the ideas they formulated.
Lillian told a couple of stories about people whose actions impacted others and changed their lives (for the better).  She talked about how you never know how something, that you might think is minor, will help someone else.
We finished up by gathering in a circle and singing the WRJ anthem, Limdu Heiteiv (by Beth Shafer.)  
It's hard to believe that we did all that and still ended within a few minutes of 3pm!  
Lillian was wonderful - we are very grateful for her leadership today.
We hope to see you at our first meeting of the year, which will be on September 14 at the Temple.  A flyer will be coming out in a week or two with details.
This was a long email!  Did you read to the bottom?

With Rosh Hashana around the corner, consider stopping by our Judaica Shop for things you might need for the high holidays, such as apple and honey dishes, hostess gifts, shofars, and Rosh Hashana cards to enhance your High Holidays. It's an easy way to get what you need and support the Sisterhood and the Temple at the same time.  
Year-round, we carry a versatile collection of Judaica – jewelry, tallits, kippahs, mezuzahs, yads, candleholders, yahrzeit memorials, cards for every occasion and much more.
Need a Bar or Bat Mitzvah gift?  Or perhaps you are going to a wedding.  You can get a nice gift and a card to go with it.
The shop is open during Friday Shabbat Onegs and Sundays from 9 am to 11:45 am (when there is Religious School.)

Can't make these times?  Special appointments are no problem.  Call Laraine Miller at 818-993-0796 or Linda Sculler at 818-701-7117.
See attachment for pictures of shop items! 
And, in honor of the High Holidays, we have the following humor:
Gotlieb called his Rabbi and said, "I know tonight is Kol Nidre, but tonight the Yankees start the playoffs.  Rabbi, I'm a lifelong Yankee fan.  I've got to watch the Yankee game on TV."
The Rabbi responds, "Gotlieb, that's what VCRs are for."
Gotlieb is surprised.  "You mean I can tape Kol Nidre"?