Happening

Mothers and Daughters

Better Don’t Talk! 
A Daughter Discovers her Mother’s Hidden Past is a one woman musical drama by Naava Pietka, daughter of a Yiddish actress who became a star in the Vilna Ghetto. The show can be seen at Brandeis University in Boston on October 6 or at other venues to be arranged.
Naava Pietka (617) 332-3039;
naavapiatka@hotmail.com

Forgive your mother? Lisa Delman in her Letters From the Heart contest invites daughters to write letters of forgiveness to their mothers and possibly find healing in the process. “Winning” letters will be awarded prizes and included in a book. Letters due November 30.
www.LettersFromTheHeart Project.com.

Family History. Research your family on the website of the Genealogy institute at New York’s Center for Jewish History. Useful fact sheets and lists of records available in their collections can be found at www.cjh.org— click on family history; (212)294-8324: gi@cjh.org

Rabble Rousing

The Emma Goldman Papers:
A National Endowment for the Humanities grant will match all donations to this project, documenting Emma Goldman’s extraordinary commitment to women’s rights, freedom of expression and social justice. Two volumes are soon to come out from the University of California Press and a third is planned. (510)642-4708: emma@uclink.berkeley.edu: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/ Goldman. You can also learn about Goldman’s life and Jewish connections, in Lilith’s Winter 2001 issue—$6 from Lilith, 250 W. 57th St., #2432, New York, NY 10107.

Feminist-in-Residence.
Activists, artists and scholars committed to feminist social change are invited to apply for an opportunity to network with colleagues, reflect, and teach for a month at San Diego State University Women’s Studies Department. $5,000 stipend. Apply by October 15 for the spring. Susan E. Cayleff, cayleff@mail.sdsu.edu: www.rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/wsweb.

Thirteen million single moms are raising 20 million children under age 18 in the United States. A campaign asks these women and their families and friends to contribute one dollar each towards grants and scholarships to those trying to raise their standard of living and that of their children by continuing their education and advancing their careers.
Raise the Nation,
www.raisethenation.org: (866)616-1655

Celebrations & Passages

Jewish childbirth preparation classes combine childbirth education with the exploration of Jewish traditions, customs and rituals connected with pregnancy, birth and parenting. Rabbi Marjorie Slome, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. (212)399-3021: mslome@jbfcs. org

A little oil goes a long way. Lower a thermostat a couple of degrees. Replace a standard light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb. Link your Hanukkah celebrations with energy conservation using ideas posted on the website of Coalition on the Environment in Jewish Life. www.coejl.org

Jewish Paganism: For a book, the author is looking for people to interview, email Jen@jenniferhunter.com or call 781-956-3732

Africa

Over 14 million people—half of them children—are at risk of starvation due to a severe food shortage across Southern Africa. Political instability and three years of drought combined with flooding have compounded the problems in Zambia and Malawi. An Israeli “Food for Work” program, organized by Irit Rabinovitz and Yura Vasserman provides food rations for over 1800 orphan children and families in Mongochi district in Malawi. They have organized the distribution of tons of donated maize meals to people in return for road repairs, and beach and graves cleaning. They report that people are happy to work for the food rather than having to beg for it. They also operate HIV awareness classes and help teach in local schools. Contributions and volunteers are welcome. Shachar Zahavi
(972) 55 679 979: szahavi@hotmail.com

A film on the Abayudaya. A 3-minute “trailer” gives a taste of a documentary now in production about a Beit Din’s conversion of over 300 of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda last February. The producers are trying to fund completion of the film and find venues to air it. www.divacommunications. com/AbayuduyaTrailer_win dows.htm for windows media player and www.divacommunications.com/Abayudaya Trailer him for a quicktime file.

Healing

A breast cancer hotline and support program created at the Adelphi University School of Social Work has lists of programs throughout New York State and has helpful hints and information for others as well. 800-877-8077;
nysbchot@adelphi.edu:
www.adelphi.edu/nysbreast cancer

Tikva—hope is for aliens too. Bernard Kaplan started, through his shul in Staten Island, NY, what has become an interdenominational, you don’t have-to-be-affiliated, self-run, no-fee, Jewish cancer-survivors support group that meets in people’s homes. The participants, though they are grateful for the support of others, call themselves aliens because they feel so different. Learn how you can start a group like this in your community.
bbkap@aol.com

Finding Hospice Care in your community for someone who is terminally ill is one of many topics covered in A Helping Hand: The Resource Guide for People with Cancer, 4th edition, from Cancer Care. (800)813-4673; infor@cancercare. org; www.cancercare.org

Help Israel

Donate your frequent flyer miles to artisans and store owners in Israel. In an effort to boost the Israeli economy devastated by a lack of tourism, efforts are being made to defray the costs to Israeli merchants of travel to North America to sell and to take orders that are filled when they return to Israel. The coordinators have arranged with Delta and Continental to allow individuals with frequent flyer miles to purchase round trip tickets from Israel in other people’s names. Contact: Meredith Weiss, mw812@aol.com (718) 796-4730.

One million delicious gourmet kosher chocolate chip cookies, baked by volunteers, are available for sale in one pound gift boxes for $9 each. The Israel Emergency Solidarity Fund and New York restaurant owner Levana Kirschenbaum have teamed up in this effort. Proceeds —estimated at $500,000— will be donated to help the families struck by terror in Israel. To help bake at the JCC of Manhattan call (646)505-4455; to order cookies call (800)672-8411; www.millioncookies.com

Go & Learn

Literacy improvement, peace education and conflict resolution, governance, and education for people with disabilities. Policy-makers, scholars and practitioners will explore how women have used their education to address these global issues, especially in emerging nations at a comferemce November 15-17 in Washington DC International Symposium, AAUW Educational Foundation, fax 202/463-7169; www.aauw.org/7000/ef/ symposium.html

Holocaust Children/Child Survivors Gatherings: This spring marked the tenth anniversary of the First International Gathering of the Hidden Child in New York. A gathering will take place October 11-14, 2002 in Toronto, contact Anita Eckstein, (905)770-1319. aekstein@rogers.com; or Marilyn Maeirovitz at (416)635-2883×272. mmaierovitz@ujafed.org. Another planned for Aug. 31 – Sept. 1, 2003, in Washington, will coincide with a Hidden Child Exhibit at the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Hidden Child Foundation (212)490-2525; hidden-child@adl.org

Mothers of Israel: Why the Rabbis Adopted a Matrilineal Principle by Susan Sorek as well as essays exploring the writing of Leah Goldberg, Shulamith Hareven, Savyon Liebrecht and Yona Wallach appear in Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 2002). www.women-in-judaism.com