Abby Fisher Named President of WRJ Northeast

Speech by Abby Fisher at WRJ Northeast Biennial

Good evening.  Erev tov.  Bon Soir

This morning we read from parsha Noach. In addition to the story of Noah, this parsha contains the familiar story of the tower of Babel.  In this story, the people come together to build something that is designed to thwart God’s purpose—it will reach into the heavens and prevent the people from being scattered over the world. In punishment, God scatters them and gives them multiple languages so that they can no longer understand each other.

Over the last two years, we in the Northeast District have been doing the opposite.  We, who come from a variety of places and yes, speak several languages—from those of us who Pahk our Cahs in Hahvahd Yahd, to those on Long Island, to “mes souers en Canada qui parle francais”- we have come together, learned to understand each other, and begun to build something designed to do God’s work.  That thing is the Northeast District.

Of course, we have not built the Northeast District from scratch.  We are proud to build upon the foundations of the two great districts from which we were formed and to stand on the shoulders of the great women who came before us.

Our work has gone well, but it is hardly finished.  In fact it is hardly even begun.

There is an old Chinese saying, perhaps a blessing, perhaps a curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  We certainly do.  Our district was born in the early days of the greatest recession most of us have ever seen, and, I pray, will ever see again.  Experts may tell us that the recession is ending or has ended, but we are not where we once were.  Our women are struggling, our sisterhoods are struggling, and our synagogues are struggling. .  Our district and all of WRJ face unprecedented challenges.  We have been losing members, both individuals leaving our sisterhoods and sisterhoods leaving WRJ, for years.  What was once a trickle, however, has become a torrent.  What was bleeding has become a hemorrhage.  It is time to staunch the flow.

We must help our sisterhoods to engage the women in their congregations so that every woman knows the value of Sisterhood membership—not just to help her congregation or the world, but sisterhood membership as a vehicle that adds value to her life.  I can tell you that I would not be the person I am today, nor be in the professional field I am today were it not for sisterhood, and I am not alone.  Sisterhood builds leaders and women thrive in sisterhood.  We have to help women understand that.

We must work so that our sisterhoods know the value of being affiliated with WRJ.  We must act as a resource, a guide, a help.  Our sisterhoods need not call India for tech support with sisterhood problems; they need only call us. And we must reach out to those sisterhoods that have left or have never been part of WRJ.  We must help them to see that affiliation is not just a benefit for us but for them as well.  We must change the thinking from “What does WRJ want from us?” to “what can WRJ do FOR us?”

We must also help our sisterhoods teach their congregations the value of a women’s group.  Single-gender groups are not contrary to the egalitarian nature of our movement.  They are complementary to it.  Women and men thrive in different ways when we are separate than when we are together.  And our groups are also an important tool for membership retention.  A woman who is actively engaged in her sisterhood will not leave her shul when her kids are past b’nai mitzvah or when her nest is empty.  We stay.

We must also continue the work of building a strong and unified District, a district for the second decade of the 21^st century.  We are built on the strong foundations of the past, but we don’t live in the world we once did.  For the sake of our planet, we need to move away from paper and to more electronic communication, but we must do so without losing touch with those of our sisters for whom email is still an alien being. We need to balance using email, conference calls, websites and other technology with the benefits that only face-to-face communication can provide.  We need to reach our so-called younger members where they expect to be reached—on the web, through websites and facebook and we need to be ready for whatever the next big thing out there turns out to be.  We need to be the district of the future without losing sight of from where we come.

And while we are doing all of that, we must continue to learn to understand each other.  To gain new perspectives and new insights from one another.  To talk, discuss and yes, argue, but at the end of the day to agree or to agree to disagree but to learn from and care for each other, as sisters, true sisters, do.  We must integrate new faces and identify future leaders.  And, of course, we must serve our sisterhoods.  Because in the end, that is why we are here—to serve our local sisterhoods.

Will this work be easy?  No.  Must we do it?  Yes.  Will we have fun doing it, even if it’s tough?  Absolutely.   We will work as a team to strengthen what we have already built and to continue building. So grab your trowel and your hammer and nails and join me as we continue to build the Northeast District.

I would be remiss, if I did not thank some very special people.  I want to first thank my friend, Blair Marks, for being our guest this weekend and for installing us. I’d like to thank Debra Winter and Rabbi Elwell for their wonderful leadership and teaching this weekend.  I’d like to thank all my sisters from Beth El Temple Center who are here tonight.  It means a great deal to me to have you here.  I’d also like to thank My Rabbi, Jonathan Kraus, and his wife Amy, for making the trip.  You may not know it, but the two of you were among the first to predict that I would be a sisterhood leader.  So it’s your fault I’m here.

Lastly, I’d like to thank my family.  My Mom and Dad, Ellen and Frank Fisher, who taught me the value of volunteer work and of Reform Judaism.  You also taught me to be proud to say I’m a feminist—and that it’s not a dirty word. My kids, Jamie and Val, thanks for being here tonight and for accepting, however grudgingly at times, that Mom has a life.  Last but certainly not least; I’d like to thank my husband, Steve.  I know that when you met and married me I probably would have been voted “least likely to lead a women’s group.”  Thanks for being there through all the changes I’ve made in my life and in myself.  You have been a constant for all these years and through all those changes.  As Bartles and James used to say: ”Thank you for your support.”

Thanks to each and everyone of you here tonight for being a part of WRJ and for making the Northeast district so wonderful.

Anachnu B’emet od chazakot b’yachad.  We are, truly, stronger together.