Kudos to the leadership of the chapters who submitted winning applications and to the WRJ Outreach Committee for their work overseeing the process. As a result of their efforts, thousands of people were reached through WRJ’s weekly email newsletter, their social media sites, and at conferences. WRJ still has funds to allocate and will be accepting and reviewing outreach grant applications on a rolling basis until June 1st, 2018.

For more information on this program, contact WRJ Program & Communications Associate Micaela Sheinhait at msheinhait@wrj.org or 212-650-4060.

Awarded Affiliate Program Highlights

WRJ Sisterhood: Temple Israel Sisterhood, Tulsa, OK
Program: “A Taste of Jewish Life”

Temple Israel has planned an outreach program for women in interfaith relationships and interested non-Jewish women that will combine sessions about Jewish living and culture with a lunch featuring a traditional Jewish meal. Sessions will include learning about Shabbat, making challah; learning about Passover and making charoset; and a tour of the Judaica shop featuring items used in celebrating Jewish life.

WRJ Sisterhood: Women of Temple Beth Torah, Fremont, CA
Program: “Daughters of Miriam Seder”

The Women of Temple Beth Torah is hosting a women’s Seder before Passover. This event will bring together members of 3 local congregations and unaffiliated members, including those in the deaf community. (The California School for the Deaf is located in Fremont.) The event will include “teachable moments” including traditional and non-traditional rituals by seder leaders and Jewish educators.

WRJ Sisterhood: Women of Temple Sinai, Pittsburgh, PA
Program: “Pride Seder”

Temple Sinai will host a Pride Seder in May 2018, a few weeks before LGBTQ Pride Month. They are reaching out to non-Jews and interfaith families within the LGBTQ community beyond their synagogue walls by partnering with a variety of organizations including the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh, other nearby Reform Jewish congregations and the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.

WRJ Sisterhood: Women of Temple Bat Yahm, Newport Beach, CA
Program: “A Shared Seder”

The Temple Bat Yahm WRJ chapter will be holding a “Shared Seder” for interfaith member families, university students, and those exploring Judaism through Taste of Judaism and Introduction to Judaism classes to help them prepare for Passover and feel more comfortable attending the synagogue’s 2nd night Seder.

WRJ Sisterhood: Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood, Dallas, TX
Program: “Navigating the Religion Decision: A Workshop for Interfaith Couples”

This is a 6 session workshop for interfaith couples, led by a counselor. For those that decide to make Jewish choices the sisterhood will encourage them to enroll in the synagogue’s “Goin to the Chuppah” program which will help them understand how to create a Jewish home and also provide a connection with other newly engaged/married couples.

WRJ Sisterhood: Sisterhood of Temple Shalom, Newton, MA
Program: “Becoming Miriam: A series of programs around Miriam and Passover”

Becoming Miriam is a program series for interfaith families, young couples still forming personal traditions and new Jews by choice, using the traditions of Pesach and the Seder to create greater personal and community engagement with Jewish life. This program involves a series of education and engagement events designed to build relationships as well as increase knowledge about making the Seder a rich and enjoyable experience for all.

From the March 9th WRJ Weekly Digest:

“WRJ will provide Outreach Grant funds of up to $1,000 to WRJ sisterhoods and women’s groups to fund programs within their communities that reach out to interfaith families, unaffiliated Jews, and non-Jews who are seeking information about Jewish life. Made possible by the National Center to Encourage Judaism, the grant is designed to encourage and enhance learning about Judaism and to engage participants in Jewish life. An interfaith seder not only engages the community around the holiday of Passover, it brings a larger community together to discuss how we can be more welcoming to others.”

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A key focus of these grants will be on programs that can be replicated.  WRJ rolled out the program to sisterhoods in April 2017.  WRJ created a dedicated Outreach page featuring their grant program partnership with NCEJ and publicized the program through various marketing techniques in order to encourage applications from affiliates.  As a result of these efforts, thousands of people were reached through WRJ’s weekly newsletter and their social media sites. This publicity has developed significant interest in the Outreach grants from WRJ sisterhoods all over the U.S.

For more information on this program, contact WRJ Program & Communications Associate Micaela Sheinhait at msheinhait@wrj.org or 212-650-4060.

Awarded Affiliate Program Highlights

WRJ Sisterhood: Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood, Dallas, TX
Program: “Navigating the Religion Decision: A Workshop for Interfaith Couples”

Navigating the Religion Decision is a 6-session workshop to help interfaith couples have healthy discussions about faith. The course will help guide couples struggling with the religious identity of their future home towards a win-win decision where each other’s religious needs are met. The goal for the couples that choose a Jewish path is for them to go on to the congregation’s other programs for engaged and recently married couples making a Jewish home.  This provides the opportunity to connect with other newly engaged/married couples, and allow them to build a relationship with a rabbi.

The 6-session workshop, facilitated by a professional couples’ counselor, will focus on shaping a healthy religious identity in an interfaith home. It will help participants understand the complexity of religious backgrounds, articulate what their religion means to them and what their religious needs are, how to relate to parents and extended family, transmitting a religious identity to children, and get to a solution or commitment for their children’s religious upbringing.

WRJ Sisterhood: Sisterhood of Temple Shalom, Newton, MA
Program: “Becoming Miriam”

Becoming Miriam is a program series to drive greater personal and community engagement with Jewish life, building upon the themes of Pesach and the Seder. This program is designed as a series of education and engagement events with the following goals:

• Appeal to those who are “New to Jewish” or feel on the fringes of Jewish life
• Reduce barriers to entry, and use various approaches to appeal to different types of people
• Build familiarity and comfort with the traditions of the Seder
• Increase knowledge about ways to make the Seder rich and lively for families of all kinds
• Articulate and affirm the ways that extended families and community members, whether or not they are Jewish, can be made welcome and included
• Help women articulate and select those traditions that they want to foster in their own homes, increasing a sense of personal ownership of Jewish life
• Build interpersonal relationships among women of various generations and synagogue cohorts (e.g. mature women and those with young children) to increase engagement within the synagogue

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