Happening

UPDATE ON WOMEN’S HEALTH

Free Fly Fishing Retreats for women recovering from breast cancer. Participants enjoy peace and quiet, nature, companionship, support, and a sport whose movements provide appropriate physical therapy after cancer surgery.
Casting for Recovery, PMB-257, 946 Great Plain Ave., Needham, MA 02492; toll-free: 888-553-3500 or 802-362-4137; cfrprogram@aol.com; www.castingforrecovery. org

BRCAl Screening in a Woman with Breast Cancer. Explore the implications of tests for a patient’s relatives and their right to know the results. In the March/April 2001 issue of Women’s Health Issues. $25 from the Jacobs Institute of Women s Health. 409 12th St. NW, Washington DC 20024- 2188: (202)863-4989; fax (202)488-4229; sfitzer@acog.org

Diabetes. Approximately 8.1 million or 8.2% of all women in the U.S. have diabetes. however, about a third of them don’t know it. With its possible complications— blindness, kidney disease, amputations, heart attack and stroke—diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S. A risk test is free from the American Diabetes Association, 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383); www.diabetes.org/risktest/woman.

TRAVEL

A Haifa Women’s Study Tour. Be inspired by grassroots and mainstream women’s organizations and women from different backgrounds working together to improve the status of women. Listen to lectures by feminist academics on the history and status of women in Israel; meet with activists who established Israel’s first Battered Women’s Shelter, Mayoral Women’s Commission, National Hotline for Victims of Domestic Violence, and more. Contact the Haifa Municipality; (972)4-835- 6751 or the University of Haifa (972)-4-824-0093.

Isolated and at-risk Jewish communities from Alabama to Virginia are assisted with historic preservation of buildings and cemeteries, collecting oral histories and genealogy, cultural programming and exhibits, and the services of a teacher and a circuit-riding rabbi for life-cycle events and holiday shabbat services by the not-for-profit Goldring Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, P.O, Box 16528, Jackson, MS 39236-0528; (601) 362- 6357; fax (601)366-6293; information@msje.org; www.msje.org

CREATIVE ELDERING

I Remember When: Activity Ideas to Help People Reminisce by Howard Thorsheim and Bruce Roberts, two psychologists, is based on their findings that when people share stories of their meaningful life experiences with others they ha\’e a better sense of well-being and greater feelings of community. $18.90 from Elder Books, PO Box 490, Forest Knolls CA 94933; (800)909-2673; fax (415)488-4720; info@.ElderBooks.com

A web site for caregivers offers information and advice on a wide variety of health issues including Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, depression, adult day care, housing, transportation, rehabilitation, respite care, care for the blind and visually impaired, and assistive devices. New York’s Jewish Home and Hospital, an academic nursing home and rehabilitation center with adult day and evening healthcare programs serves 4,000 people daily.
www.JewishHome.org.

Pirkei Imahot: pithy, poignant, some funny and some sad, 50 essays, poems and stories written by synagogue members about their mothers make up a volume of foremother’s wisdom. $14.95 plus shipping from Bryna Cytrynbaum, Jewish Reconstructiotrist Congregation, 303 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60202; (847)328-7678; bryna@jrcevanston.org  

HOLOCAUST

A Hidden Child Exhibit is being assembled at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for the spring of 2003. If you have photographs, passports, false identity cards, dolls, toys, articles of clothing, religious or other objects you managed to preserve and would consider lending or donating to the museum. please fill out an artifact questionnaire available from Kyra Schuster, Division of Collections, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, DC 20024- 2126; fax (202)314-7822; kschuster@ushmm.org; www.ushmm.org

The Swiss Banks Settlement of Claims by Holocaust Survivors is underway, and final claims must be filed by August or September 2001. 560,000 individuals who submitted an initial questionnaire or requested information will automatically receive it in the mail. Contact: Holocaust Victim Assets Program (Swiss Banks) International Organization for Migration (IOM) 1752 N St.NW. # 700, Washington DC 20036-2906; (877) 691- 2862; www.swissbankclaims.com

The Legacy of Holocaust Survivors: the Moral and Ethical Implications for Humanity, the Prime Minister’s International Conference for dignitaries, scholars and educators at all levels, meets, in English, in Jerusalem, April 8-11, 2002. Send an abstract for a paper to be considered for presentation by August 1,2001 to Kathrya Berman and Ephraim Kaye, 3rd International Conference on the Holocaust and Education, International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. FOB 3477, 91034 Jerusalem Israel; (972)2-6443638; fax (972)2-644-3623; conference@yadvashetm.org.il; www.yadvashem. org

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Students working for social justice on college campuses can subscribe to a new email list to keep in touch, share ideas, and coordinate events. The list will be used to plan a conference next year sponsored by Lights in Action for Jewish students about social justice, join by sending an e-mail to jews4justice subscribe @yahoogroups.com; or call Kent at LIA 800-JEWSACT or lia@lia.org

Project Amos. Named for the Biblical prophet most closely identified with the theme of social justice, Amos is a new initiative designed to be a catalyst and provide resources for the Jewish community in the arena of social justice.
Project Amos, 443 Park Ave South , 11th fl., New York, NY 10016-7322; (646)424- 9010: fax (212)686-1353: www.partnertnership.org.

World Politics, Women, and Building Peace is the theme of the summer 2003 issue of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Academicians, international policy makers and those working in nongovernmental organizations may send papers that expand feminist analysis of armed conflict and the creation and maintenance of justice and peace. Submit five copies by October 31, 2001 to: Signs-WPWBP, 1400H Public Policy Bldg. Box 957122: UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7122: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/Signs/instruct.html.

Medieval Jewish Women in History, Literature, Law and Art: A Bibliography, created by Cheryl Tallan, is available, along with other interesting bibliograhies, under Publications, Working Paper #7, June 2000 on the web site of the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women at Brandeis University., http://www.brandeis.edu/hirijw/

B-Mitzvah, a web link under development, is dedicated to providing resources allowing students and families to amplify spirituality during the bat/bar mitzvah journey. Send your bat mitzvah speech/dvar Torah in basic e-mail form (pasted in the message, not as an attachment), or in the form of a photo, painting, song (sheet music, lyrics, or wav file), or poem you created for your bat mitzvah. Share unique ritual or other creative elements that would be exciting for others to consider for their bat mitzvah. Send a separate e-mail describing this as well and it may become a regular feature on the site. (E-mail to: MyDvar@aol.com). B-Mitzvah Link is also seeking gender-inclusive and female centered Jewish graphics which b-mitzvah families can use in their invitations and service booklets. Please send them as gif or jpeg attachments. [Did a bat mitzvah in your family break new ground? Send your recollections for the HERSTORY section of the site. The B-Mitzvah Link is a program of the virtual Jewish community. Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice, founded by Rabbi Goldie Milgram. Looking for creative ways to create a dvar Torah? Visit her current web site www.rebgoldie.com

Sexual Orientation Issues in Congregations and Community Initiative targets Reform rabbinical, cantorial. educational and communal service students and alumni—hoping to raise their awareness of the needs of lesbian and gay Jews and their loved ones and provide practical knowledge of how to combat and transform stereotypes and promote inclusion. A virtual resource center is also planned. SOICC, HUC-.11R, 3077 University Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90007-3796: (213)749-3424: fax (213)747-6128: www.huc.edu

Canadian women’s seders. Did you participate in one? If you are willing to fill out a questionnaire on your experience for a doctoral research project, a study on women’s seders, please contact Sonia Zylberberg, Religion Department, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8. sonia@vax2. concordia.ca 

“Reach for the Moon” is an exhibit of paintings by Ruth Dunkell, who with her husband, Dr. Samuel Dunkell. founded the National Tay Sachs Association, which over 40 years, achieved the virtual elimination of the fatal genetic disease whose victims were mainly Ashkenazic Jewish children. This exhibit shows the artist’s spiritual growth, the link between art and science, and tells the story that culminated in a medical breakthrough. Through July 28 at Yehiva University Museum, 15 W 16th St., New York, NY 10011: (212)294)8330:
www.yu.edu/museum

Old and de-activated cellular phones may be donated to victims of domestic violence and other people in need. Contact your local domestic violence network, police department, or phone company to see who is collecting and distributing them or start a project at your synagogue or community organization. Details at
www.donateaphone.com

Workplace Supports for Interfaith Families. Handling the Holidays: Whose, Which and Where; Getting Married: Guidance for Interfaith Couples; and Raising Children in an Interfaith Marriage are some of the workshops led by Rabbi Marjorie Slome and Eve Coulson, experts in interfaith family isues. In the New York metropolitan area, your company can offer its employees these programs, at no charge, through the Jewish Connections Partnership of the Jewish Outreach Institute, Jewish Board of Family and Children s Services (212)399-2685- x228: mslome@jbfcs.org