Dear Friend,
This Shabbat, it is more important than ever for us to be together in community. For myself, I am honored to be leading Junior Congregation at Temple Beth El for Grades 3-5 on Saturday morning while my children participate in Tot Shabbat. On Sunday, when we come together as families and parents for B’Yachad Religious School, and also participate in the Hebrew Free Loan Association’s 30th anniversary celebration, I look forward to the sense of connection and belonging that happens when we are in community together.
As always, you can find events from our local Jewish community on our website at jewishwesternmass.org/calendar!
Shabbat Shalom,
Am Yisrael Chai!
Nora Gorenstein, CFRE
Chief Executive Officer
Please welcome Jessica Wolfe to Federation! Jessica joined us on Monday as our new Operations Officer.
Thank you so much to Ellie Sesko for your support of our Federation over the past two years, and we wish you great success in your next adventure!
Updates from Jewish Federations of North America
This week, Jewish Federations’ emergency fund exceeded $600 million, with close to $150 million in humanitarian assistance allocated to date. Click here for an update on where the funds have gone. For our blog post, click here. We have now completed three solidarity Fly-Ins to Israel with more to come in the weeks and months ahead.
Close to 2,500 Holocaust survivors and their descendants signed the letter to President Biden thanking him for his support of Israel in the wake of the terrorist attack. To read the letter and see the signatories, click here. For our blog post, click here.
Our Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and Institute on Aging and Trauma is pleased to announce the publication of a resource guide on delivering trauma-informed care to Holocaust survivors and older adults with a history of trauma. Read more here.
We congratulated Jack Lew on his confirmation as US Ambassador to Israel. At his confirmation hearing, Lew, who is an observant Orthodox Jew, said that he would strive “to end the horrific attacks by Hamas” and ensure that Israel has the resources “it needs to defend itself.”
We also advocated vigorously for the passage of $14.3 billion in critical aid to Israel. Share and sign our Action Alert to advocate for more aid to Israel.
Marking Shloshim: The Jewish Agency for Israel is sponsoring a gathering on Sunday, November 5 at noon ET together with our partners–the World Zionist Organization, Keren Hayesod, and the Jewish National Fund–at its Jerusalem office to mark the Shloshim (traditional 30 days of mourning) since the tragic events of October 7. It will be streamed live on the Jewish Agency’s Facebook page.
