WRJ-PD Convention was great!

Upcoming Sisterhood events:

• Thursday, November 15, 7pm - Wine and Wisdom: Conversations with God, moderated by Rabbi Kalfus
• Saturday, November 17, 7:30pm - Jewish Women's Theater: The Accidental Activist
• Thursday, December 6, 7pm - Sisterhood Chanuka Party & gift exchange

We hope to see you at these events! For more information, see our website (www.tassisterhood.org)

Last month, 12 TAS Sisterhood members went to the WRJ-Pacific District convention in San Diego. The weekend was wonderful, filled with excellent speakers, workshops, services and entertainment. Special moments included watching our own Erika Barnathan and Jackie Zev being installed on the WRJ-PD Board, and a gathering of friends of our dear past president, Ellen A. Pollack, to raise a glass in her honor. But best of all was the camaraderie - sharing the weekend with TAS sisters drew us all closer together. WRJ-PD conventions only happen every other year, so you will have to wait until 2020 to go to the next one. It will be in Orange County, practically in our backyard, so it will be very affordable.

Featured Jewish Woman - Penina Moise (1797-1880)
Most synagogue attendees know that Debby Friedman (1951-2011) wrote many of the songs used in modern Jewish services. But long before Debby Friedman there was another Jewish women that made a big difference in Jewish liturgy. Penina Moise (1797-1880) is considered the first Jewish American woman to contribute to the worship service, writing 190 hymns for Congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, S.C., a synagogue founded in 1749 and considered the birthplace of many ideas that later became important in the founding of the Reform movement. By 1932, the Reform Movement’s Union Hymnal still contained 13 of Moise’s hymns.

Growing up in the presence of a diverse, vital, and well-integrated Jewish community, Moise devoted herself to Jewish issues. Her work appeared in both the Jewish and general press. Her 1833 collection of poems, Fancy's Sketch Book, was the first by a Jewish American woman. Moise also wrote columns for newspapers throughout the United States. Her poetry covered a variety of topics, including current events, politics, local life, Judaism, Jewish rights, and Jewish ritual reform.

Thank you for supporting the TAS Sisterhood.