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A Call to Action

By Women’s League

Since its inception 100 years ago, Women’s League remains firm in its commitment to social justice. From the early Civil Rights movement to the ongoing refugee crisis, Women’s League has used its annual conventions and sisterhood chapters to spark essential dialogue about what its members can do for those in need.

We see this spirit carried on during sisterhood holiday gift drives for families in need and blanket collections coordinated during the winter. Women’s League regions hold cooking days to support homeless shelters and coordinate soup kitchen visits to help those less fortunate. The many examples of altruism displayed by our members in regions as varied as Los Angeles, where Project Caring provides hospital entertainment, and Philadelphia, where Germantown Jewish Center recently held a Fair Trade Judaica Bazaar supporting Guatemalan artists. Women’s League members spearhead river clean-ups, blood drives, and guest speaker programs intended to both educate and assist. This sense of urgency is felt far and wide across the Conservative Movement, as young people involved with Masorti and USY are mobilizing in the streets and raising their voices for important causes.

To help our members take action, Women’s League has also benefited from the inclusion of our partner organizations, Sharsheret and I Support the Girls. Introduced at our 2017 Convention, Mathilde’s Mentionables, named after our founder Mathilde Schechter, is a collaboration between WLCJ and I Support the Girls intended to collect bras for women in shelters and victims of natural disasters. Learn more about how your sisterhood can participate in this new initiative at https://www.wlcj.org/programs/mathildes-mentionables/.

But what if you aren’t a sisterhood member? What kind of social action fits your life? For suggested fundraisers, visit https://www.wlcj.org/programs/community-service/. Visit the websites and social media channels for Sharsheret, I Support the Girls, and Jewish Women International to learn more about how you can raise awareness of women’s issues. Individual members can also log into the Members Only section of the Women’s League website and download materials related to tikkun olam, sisterhood programming, and full programs for the Jewels in the Crown Awards, which honor exceptional outreach. Feel free to share photos and videos with the rest of the community on social media, if you would like. You can also participate by voting on upcoming Resolutions on www.wlcj.org.

As our 2018 centennial comes to a close, we look to the future (“Atid”) with the hope that our membership body – spanning a wide range of ages and backgrounds – will continue this legacy of social involvement; to pass on the ideals of social activism that this organization was founded on, we sincerely hope that our members will engage with issues relevant to their world.