Happening

Pick Up The Phone

Telephone visiting. It’s an easy act of kindness. Make a telephone call to reassure, check in, chat for a few minutes with an elderly relative, a neighbor who’s sick, a disabled family member, colleague—or even a stranger. A recent training session for volunteers sponsored by the Rabbi Isaac N. Trainin Bikur Cholim Coordinating Council, at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, offered suggestions both for the individual caller and for anyone who wants to organize a group of callers. Contact Vicki Rosenstreich, CSW (212)399-2685×229: www.jhhrn.org

Telephone support for caregivers is available to people caring long distance, those caring for elders while caring for children, and for lesbian and gay caregivers. Dorot: Generations Helping Generations, toll-free (877)819-9147.

HEALING

Young Mothers Fight Breast Cancer. How do children cope during a mother’s diagnosis, treatment and post-treatment? Sharsheret, an organization of young Jewish women with breast cancer, has developed “Busy Box Project,” to help women meet the needs of their children. Games and activities for children are included along with a video of a symposium that discusses the obstacles parents face in communicating with their children about breast cancer. Contact: Elana Silber (866)474-2774; www.sharsheret.org

AFTER THE HOLOCAUST

Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust. Thousands of Jewish children survived the brutal carnage of World War II, many of them in hiding. With identities disguised, often physically concealed from the outside world, these youngsters lived in constant fear and danger. A careless remark could lead to discovery and death. A new exhibit explores the remarkable history of children who went—or were sent—underground to escape Nazi persecution. Through September 30 at the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Washington DC. www.ushmm.org

Women’s Holocaust Experiences. The Frances and Kathryn Brandt and LILITH Magazine Women’s Holocaust Memoir Collection is growing. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, this continuing project already has several hundred volumes of memoirs, analysis and history. It is made possible through the generosity of Lilith board member Frances Brandt. www.lib.umich.edu/area/Nean East/judaica.html

The C.A.N.D.L.E.S. Holocaust Museum (for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) in Terre Haute, Indiana, was burned down by arson in November 2003 and needs funds to rebuild. Founded by Eva Kor in 1995, it tells the story of the children who survived and educates the public about the experiments twins were forced to endure. The slogan of the Museum is “Let us remove hatred and prejudice from the world and let it begin with me.” www.candles-museum.com

PLEASURE, PLUS GOOD DEEDS

The Power of Song is a first CD released by The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus, singing together weekly for five years. Founded by social activist and singer-songwriter Bev Grand in 1997, they say their goal is “to change the world, one shaky voice at a time.” The women—of all ages and diverse ethnic backgrounds and walks of life—sing of peace and justice, freedom and struggle. You can listen to an excerpt and purchase it for $15 from www.CDBaby.com

Sabon (soap in Hebrew) is a new shop in Manhattan’s West Village (434 6th Ave at 10th St.) that sells soaps, candles, lotions, Dead Sea salts, and other necessary indulgences— all from Israel. With ten shops in Israel, this is their first in New York City. www.sabonnyc. com

Take a Mezuzah to College. Here’s an activity for high school seniors: making their own personal mezuzah to take with them next fall. One of many suggestions for hiddur mitzvah, the beautification of mitzvot from the Gary Rosenthal Collection. There’s a kit with all the makings, including colored glass from www.collectgatyrosenthal.com 800-962-1545.

IN MEMORY OF

Helping young activists. The Amy Adina Schulman Memorial Fund helps young people who want to be of service to others. Started in 1987 to commemorate the brief but vibrant life of an activist in the progressive Zionist youth movement who died suddenly from an aneurysm while a college junior. This fund has so far distributed over $168,800 to 286 grantees. For guidelines: www.AmyAdina SchulmanFund.org

When a Jewish child dies. After the death of his daughter Rebecca at age 23, social worker Mort Schrag wrote “Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow.” It aims to help other families who are bewildered, overwhelmed and devastated by such losses, offering resources and thoughtful advice. “Try hard to believe that life really is worth living—whether your rationale be to perpetuate your child’s memory: or to resume accomplishing the goals you previously had set for yourself; or to strive toward entirely new goals; or to try to find the answers to the age-old question of “Why?” The free pamphlet is available from Mort Schrag, 2054 Manning Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90025; sabamortla@aol.com

WOMAN MAKING HISTORY

1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Who are the largely unheralded women making peace in the world today? In the 102 years of the Nobel Peace Prize only 11 women have been acknowledged by the committee for their peace work. Here’s how to right this. Help find 1000 women all over the world working for peace in their countries, communities and neighborhoods. Having a thousand women recognized at one time will more than even up the score. It will focus attention on the strategies women utilize and the obstacles they face in transforming conflicts. It will celebrate the courage, creativity and power of women as they respond to poverty, inequity, militarization and armed conflict. And perhaps the recognition will bring women’s peace work from the informal into the formal sphere and strengthen their influence on the official actors. www.1000peacewomen.org

LILITH Magazine’s Lens on Jewish History, a timeline poster highlighting the contributions of women is now free from LILITH. Send $5 for shipping & handling, and ask for up to ten posters which will arrive in a mailing tube. LILITH, 250 W 57th Street, #2432, New York, NY 10107. www.lilthmag.com

“Women, War, and Peace in Jewish and Middle East Contexts” is the theme of Volume 6 of Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues. Guest edited by Alice Shalvi, it includes personal essays by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Galia Golan, Clare Kinberg, Sylvia Fogiel-Bijaoui, Laura Levitt, Rela Mazali, Shulamit Reinharz, Erella Shadmi, Maria Brettschneider, Malka Engker and Judith Stem Peck. Of special interest: Margalit Shilo’s “Women as Victims of War: the British Conquest (1917) and the Blight of Prostitution in the Holy City,” and Sachlav Stoller-Liss’s ‘”Mothers Birth the Nation’: The Social Construction of Zionist Motherhood in Wartime in Israeli Parent’s Manuals.” Subscription information for Nashim: (800)842-6796×9449 or rdussen@indiana.edu