Linked Together

Last Friday, Women's Alliance President Judith Goldkrand sent out the following email to her constituents, reflecting on the past, present, and future of Women's Alliance. 

It is hard to believe that this is the final Shabbat message before the Women's Alliance 52nd Annual Meeting. We have passed the jubilee year (yovel as referred in this week’s parsha) already two years ago. And yet, here we stand at another transition, another opportunity for growth, change, and community. This has been a difficult year for our community large and small, and yet, together we have kept our community intact. We have joined hands to provide meals, jobs, education, and support. We have come together during this time of uncertainty and transition. Because of the work of all of us, lives have been made tolerable and possible and our community has been able to continue and to grow.

Women’s Alliance is also at a point of transition. On Wednesday night we will vote to change our identity to Women’s Philanthropy. This is not a simple step or just a name change. This is a change of identity, a new face for the women in this community. This is an inflection point in which we are empowered publicly as philanthropists. We must be bold, strong, and courageous and go forth with our new banner flying strong. In times of transition, Torah and Jewish tradition give us strength.

This week we will complete the reading of the book of Leviticus. At the end of the book in the scroll of the Torah, there is a white space, a pause, an actual moment of transition. This opportunity to breathe, reassess, and begin again is our moment. At the conclusion of the reading on Shabbat, as has become our Ashkenazik tradition, we will rise and recite the words, “chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek”, be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened. The words come from Moses’ charge to Joshua, “be strong and courageous” and then his words to the people, “be strong and together we will be strengthened”. The word chazak comes from the word chizuk which means solidarity. This is because our strength comes from one another, from being a community. Thank you to all of you who have brought strength to this community, to me, and to each other. You are an amazing community of women of which I am honored to be part. At this moment of transition, may we be strengthened by one another, our passions, our values, our traditions, and our vision.

Chazak, Chazah, V’nitchazek! Shabbat Shalom, Judith Goldkrand