City Harvest's Kosher Initiative needs your help to feed New York City's hungry men, women, and children this Passover. The Kosher Initiative is a collaborative project of City Harvest and the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. During the Passover holiday we are especially mindful of our neighbors in need. You can help by running a food drive at your office, place of worship, school or community center and collecting kosher for Passover food or chometz. Below are some tips on how to run a successful Passover food drive:1. Select a collection site that is highly visible and in a secure area. If you'd like a general food drive poster you can download one here. 2. If you are collecting both kosher for Passover food and chometz, please keep in separate, clearly marked boxes. 3. All types of canned and non-perishable sealed, packaged foods are acceptable for collection. NO PERISHABLE FOODS AND NO OPENED PACKAGES, PLEASE.  4. If you have collected 100 pounds or more call Jill Kogan at 917.351.8765 to set up a date for City Harvest to pick up the food. Please indicate if you have collected kosher food. Kosher food must be picked up by March 30th. For chometz, please have it picked up April 11th so it is off your premises in time for Passover. 5. Please provide the names and phone numbers of two contacts for our drivers. Please pack the food in boxes weighing no more than 50 pounds each. Copy paper or similar size boxes are the best. 6. City Harvest must limit its resources to picking up food only.  7. Please spread the word beyond your organization. There are over one million people in New York City who rely on emergency food.

Photo: Sharon Stone planting a tree in Israel.

While in Israel at the invitation of the Peres Center for Peace, Hollywood star Sharon Stone visited Jewish National Fund's only project dedicated to an American President, the John F.  Kennedy Memorial, where she planted an olive tree in the name of peace.  "I was born on a farm and I know about planting with my own hands," she said as she removed her sandals, gently scraped the clod of earth off the sapling and ensured that it was correctly covered and watered.  Ms. Stone arrived in Israel last month for a five-day trip sponsored by the Peres Center for Peace, founded by Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres. Her first visit to Israel, it was spent traveling around the country meeting with various Israeli and Palestinian groups promoting peace. During her visit, the actress played soccer with a group of Israeli and Palestinian children, visited Israeli hospitals that care for Palestinian children and celebrated her 48th birthday with a gala event raising funds for children's educational and health projects. On a perfect spring day in Jerusalem, when the fruit trees were in full bloom as were the pink cyclamen and red anemones that dot the hillside on the way to the Memorial located in the serene valley of Mt. Aminadav in the southwestern Jerusalem Hills, Ms. Stone was welcomed by KKL’s Director General, Yitzhak Eliyashive and Andy Michelson, Director of KKL’s American Department. “It’s a big honor to be here,” she said. Walking around the perimeter of the Memorial, designed as a tree stump to convey the president’s untimely death with 51 pillars, almost 24-ft. high, each representing one of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, she stopped by two pillars to be photographed: Pennsylvania where she was born and California, where she now lives. Inside the Memorial, she was presented with a copy of Psalms 92.13 which refers to the righteous. As she approached the memorial flame she requested a moment of solitude for personal reflection. Outside, at the tree planting site, she read the Tree Planter’s Prayer herself. Offered a hoe to help her plant, she refused and said that “she was a country girl and wanted to touch the land with her hands and feet.” She took off her sandals and quickly knelt down using her hands to plant the tree. “I do this for love,” she said. “You can tell that I am a farm girl.”  Deeply moved, she had tears in her eyes and trouble speaking. “Thank you,” she said haltingly, as she watered her tree. “How grateful I am to come here in peace and for peace. In the name of my sons, Roan and Laird, and with love and desire for peace and joy, I plant and water these trees.” The actress was given a framed tree certificate signed by JNF of America President Ronald Lauder, Chairman Yechiel Leket, and co-chairman Ezra Binyamini.  The John F. Kennedy Memorial was conceived of almost immediately after the president's assassination and inaugurated on July 4, 1966. Inside the building, facing a bronze bust of Kennedy, is a facsimile of the relief and eternal flame at his gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Each of the pillars bears a State coat-of-arms, and the 50 windows between them gaze out on the afforested hill slopes of the enveloping forest. The plaza in front is used for special events fostering friendship ties between the people of the U.S. and Israel. Many celebrities have planted trees in the VIP Tree Planting Center including Senator Edward Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson, and Chris Noth.

Photo: The 33-year-old is adamant her London home is haunted and wants to create a good energy before she gives birth to her second child .

Gwyneth Paltrow is planning to have her home exorcised, it has been reported. The 33-year-old is adamant her London house is haunted and wants to create a good energy before she gives birth to her second child. Gwyneth and husband Chris Martin have repeatedly said their £3.5 million mansion in Belsize Park is full of 'bad energy'. The couple have apparently blamed their home for Gwyneth's turbulent second pregnancy and have sought help from the London Kabbalah Centre - as recommended by pop pal Madonna. It is rumoured that ten male Kabbalah followers will read a series of psalms and blow a ram's horn as part of the exorcism. There were reports last year that Gwyneth and Chris were going to up-sticks and move across the pond to New York, but it looks as though the couple will be staying in the UK, if the exorcism goes to plan.

About the Participants

Katya Gibel Azoulay was born in NYC, made aliya in 1970 after graduating from The Brearley School. During that period, she married, had three children, earned a B.A. and M.A. from Hebrew University; she returned to the U.S. in 1991 to pursue a Ph.D. at Duke University and was invited Grinnell College in 1996 where she is currently Associate Professor in Anthropology & American Studies. Dr. Gibel Azoulay is author of Black, Jewish and Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin and Other Myths of Identity, co-editor of the "Jewish Women of Color" issue of Bridges: Journal of Jewish Feminists, and has published articles in various journals including Cultural Studies, Developing World Bioethics, Identities. Research in African Literatures as well as review essays in American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist and Biography.

Shifra Bronznick is the founder of Bronznick & Co., LLC, a change management firm that specializes in launching new initiatives, restructuring organizations and developing programs for the not-for-profit sector. An expert in the field of leadership and women's advancement, Ms. Bronznick is the founding President of "Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community." In collaboration with her client, Ma'yan, she launched the National Women's Leadership Initiative and Impact & Influence, a summit for Jewish women volunteer leaders. Ms. Bronznick also designed the program for the White House Project's National Women's Leadership Summit, which convened the most influential women in business, government, not-for-profit and academia in 2002 and 2003. Previously, Ms. Bronznick served as Executive Vice-President of Swig, Weiler & Arnow Mgt. Co., Inc., one of the premier commercial real estate firms in New York.

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell has been teaching and writing about Jewish women's history and feminist spirituality for the past twenty years. The founding director of the American Jewish Congress Feminist Center in Los Angeles, Elwell served as the first rabbinic Director of Ma'yan, the Jewish Women's Project of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side in New York City. She has served congregations in California, New Jersey and Virginia, and worked as rabbi and chaplain of Beit T'Shuvah, a residential program for Jewish felons and other recovering addicts. She has worked with congregations across the country to assist them in developing strategies to welcome and integrate GLBT congregants and their families into synagogue life. She currently serves as the Director of the Pennsylvania Council and the Federation of Reform Synagogues of Greater Philadelphia of the Union for Reform Judaism, as well as co-chair of the Bi-National Advisory Board of FaithTrust Institute. Elwell, who earned her doctorate at Indiana University and was ordained by Hebrew Union College, is the mother of two adult daughters. She and her partner Nurit Levi Shein live in Philadelphia.

Sally Gottesman has long been involved in Jewish feminist activities. Perhaps since she was the first girl to have a Saturday morning bat-mitzvah at Temple Shomrei Emunah, a Conservative synagogue in Montclair, New Jersey in 1975. Leaping forward 10 years, in 1985 Sally became the first paid employee of the Israel Women's Network in Jerusalem and in the later half of that decade she was the first New York/Tri-State Director of the New Israel Fund. Since that time, she graduated from the Yale School of Management and has spent the fifteen years as a management consultant to not-for-profit organizations, first for KPMG and now independently. Her clients have beem The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Hillel, Young Survival Coalition, and The Hebrew Free Loan Society. Sally serves as the Chair of Moving Traditions, a new organization that seeks to be the premier resource for those who are looking for inspiration and information to practice Judaism at key life moments. All Moving Traditions programs are informed by a consideration of gender, a respect for the diversity of meaningful Jewish practices, and the desire to make Judaism a force for good in people's lives and in the world. Moving Traditions' project Rosh Hodesh: It's a Girl Thing! will be featured at over 200 institutions nationwide this fall. Sally also currently serves on the Boards of StorahTelling and American Jewish World Service and is a member of Achayot Or, an annual gathering of Jewish feminists.

Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross is an international lecturer and motivational speaker with expertise in the Hebraic Oral Tradition, Hasidick teachings, and Practical Kabbalah. Hadassah is "radiant! An elegant creature in Italian shoes and tailored clothes" (The Forward) and has been identified as "part of a broadening, unconventional movement to teach Torah and prayer to an ever-growing audience across America" (Jerusalem Report). Born in Budapest, Hungary in the mid 1920's, Rebbetzin Gross is descended from an illustrious Hasidic dynasty, is the widow of six prominent rabbis and has established herself in the Jewish community and beyond as a personal soul-trainer to the ultra-orthodox elite (and elitists from all faiths and backgrounds). She has appeared before thousands worldwide in venues such as BAMcafé, The Ashkenaz Festival for New Yiddish Culture (Toronto), The Museum of Jewish Heritage, JCC Manhattan, JCC San Francisco, Burning Man Festival 2003, Lansky Lounge (NYC), the Belt Theater (NYC), Echo Club (LA) and the Limmud NY Conference. Press and media appearances include a cover story for Ha'Aretz Magazine, and a principal role in the Channel 10 Israeli TV series "The Search for the 10 Commandments".

Judith Hauptman is the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Known in particular for her reinterpretation of talmudic sources along feminist lines, Dr. Hauptman has spent her professional life engaged not only in the study of women's roles in Judaic thought, but also in an evaluation of the social and ethical norms of the rabbinic period that served to shape the outlines of a traditional faith passed down through the ages. Dr. Hauptman has also become acclaimed for her synoptic studies - a specialized area of talmudic research in which related texts are examined for their implications about the history of Jewish law. Her books include Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship Between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources and Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice. Her most recent articles, published in Judaism, are "Does the Tosefta Precede the Mishnah?" and "How Old is the Haggadah?" She is currently writing a book on the Mishnah and the Tosefta, two early rabbinic works. Dr. Hauptman is a board member of the Association for Jewish Studies and has served as rabbinics section co-ordinator for the last three annual conferences. Dr. Hauptman received a degree in Talmud from the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at JTS (now Albert A. List College) and a degree in economics from Barnard College and earned a MA and a PhD in Talmud from JTS. In addition, she has studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In May 2003, she was ordained as a rabbi by the Academy for Jewish Religion. She serves as volunteer chaplain to the Jewish residents at the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a Catholic facility in Lower Manhattan.

Rachel Havrelock is a professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago and a pioneering member of the UIC Jewish-Muslim initiative. She is the co-author of Women on the Biblical Road: Ruth, Naomi and the Female Journey, as well as articles on Judaism and gender and feminist commentary. Her current project is a book on the mythic history of the Jordan River. In addition to her academic endeavors, Rachel is a playwright and director. Her play, From Tel Aviv to Ramallah: A Beatbox Journey, was nominated as best new play by the Helen Hayes Awards and continues to tour the U.S.. Soundtrack City Chicago, a hip-hop comedy about urban life, is currently enjoying a run at Chicago's Viaduct Theater.

Elizabeth Holtzman concentrates her practice in government relations at the federal, state and local levels, and in litigation. She joined Herrick, Feinstein after twenty years in government. She served for eight years as a U.S. Congresswoman and won national attention for her role on the House Judiciary committee during Watergate. She was subsequently elected District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn), the only woman ever elected DA in NYC, serving for eight years. As DA, she argued successfully before the United States Supreme Court, and pioneered new strategies for the prosecution of rape and environmental crimes. She led the effort to overturn law allowing blacks to be removed from juries. Liz was also the only woman ever elected Comptroller of New York City. She invested the city's public funds in building hundreds of units of affordable housing. A bill she authored as comptroller was recently signed in to law 12 years later. It holds gun manufacturers liable for the injuries caused by illegal guns. Liz was appointed, by President Clinton, to the Nazi and Japanese Imperial War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group, which is overseeing the declassification of the U.S. government's secret Nazi war crimes files.

Paula Hyman is the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University and President of the American Academy for Jewish Research. While a graduate student at Columbia University, Paula Hyman became a feminist activist, with a particular interest in bringing feminist change into the Jewish community. She is a founding member of Ezrat Nashim, which led the charge for the admission of women to the Conservative rabbinate. Much of her scholarship has focused on the roles and representation of Jewish women. A co-author of The Jewish Woman in America, she published Gender And Assimilation in Modern Jewish History and co-edited (with Deborah Dash Moore) the prize-winning encyclopedia, Jewish Women in America. Most recently, she edited an English-language version of the memoirs of an otherwise forgotten Jewish feminist from Poland, Puah Rakovsky's My Life as a Radical Jew. She is currently co-editing a multi-volume encyclopedia on Jewish women from the Hebrew Bible to the present and beginning a project on antisemitism, gender, and Jewish identity.

Lisa Jervis is the co-founder and publisher of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, a national nonprofit quarterly magazine offering feminist commentary on our intensely mediated world. She is also a founding board member of the media training and advocacy organization Women in Media and News, and editor at large of LiP: Informed Revolt. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and books, including Ms., the San Francisco Chronicle, Utne, Mother Jones, the Women's Review of Books, Bust, Hues, Salon, Girlfriends, Punk Planet, Body Outlaws (Seal Press), and The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order (Penguin). She is the co-editor Young Wives' Tales: New Adventures in Love and Partnership (Seal Press), and is currently at work on a book about the intellectual legacy of gender essentialism and its effect on contemporary feminism.

Faith Jones is a librarian and translator of Yiddish literature. Her translations have appeared in numerous poetry journals and in Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars, an anthology from Warner Books. Her scholarly articles, on topics as diverse as McCarthyism, library history and Yiddish poets, have appeared in Canadian Jewish Studies and the forthcoming issue of Judaica Librarianship. She has contributed entries to several forthcoming encyclopedias: the Yiddish writers volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, the revised edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica, and Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. She co-produced, with Henry Sapoznik, "Live From KlezKamp," a double-CD anthology of live recordings from the famous annual music retreat. She is Yiddish editor of and a contributor to Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, published by Indiana University Press.

Norma Baumel Joseph is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Concordia University, Dr. Norma Baumel Joseph is Director of the Women and Religion specialization, and Graduate Program Director of the Doctoral Program Religion. Her teaching and research areas include women and Judaism, Jewish law and ethics, and women and religion. Norma appeared in and was consultant to the films Half The Kingdom and Untying the Bonds...Jewish Divorce. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the legal decisions of Rabbi Moses Feinstein as they describe and delineate separate spheres for women in the Jewish community. Since the early 1970's she has promoted women's greater participation Jewish religious and communal life. Founding member of the Canadian Coalition of Jewish Women for the Get (Jewish divorce), Dr. Joseph successfully worked with the community and the Federal Government to pass a law in 1990 (Divorce Act, ch.18, 21.1) that would protect Jewish women in difficult divorce situations and aid them in their pursuit of a Jewish divorce. Author of many publications, Norma Baumel Joseph has recieved numerous awards and grants in recognition of her scholarly and pedagogic talents.

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz has been an activist since the early 1960s civil rights movement in Harlem. She graduated from City College-CUNY, and earned her doctorate in Comparative Literature at University of California-Berkeley. She was Co-Chair of the New Jewish Agenda Task Force on Anti-Semitism and Racism. She was the first director and a long-time board member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice in New. She has taught and lectured all over the U.S. and Canada, including as the Jane Watson Irwin Distinguished Professor of Women's Studies at Hamilton College, and the Belle Zeller Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Brooklyn College-CUNY. For several years she directed the Queens College Worker Education Extension Center, and currently teaches in Urban Studies and Comparative Literature at Queens College. Her essays, poetry and fiction are widely anthologized, and her books include My Jewish Face & other stories; The Issue Is Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence, and Resistance; and (co-edited) The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology. Her newest book is The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism. She is co-founder of Beyond the Pale: The Progressive Jewish Radio Hour in New York City, and continues to guest-produce segments.

Irena Klepfisz, born in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941, was one of the estimated half percent of Polish Jewish children to survive World War II. After liberation, Klepfisz and her mother moved briefly to Lodz before going to Sweden in the spring of 1946, and then, in 1949, to the United States. Irena was eight and already spoke Polish, some Yiddish, and Swedish when she began to learn English in New York's P.S. 95. Although she struggled with English, she began to take interest in great world literature at the end of high school, and began also to write poetry. At the same time, she continued to learn Yiddish through emersion in her neighborhood and attendance five afternoons a week and later on weekends at the Arbeter ring shule, the Workmen's Circle secular school. At City College of New York, Klepfisz graduated with honors in English and Yiddish. Her bilingual poetry attests to her deep desire to keep Yiddish alive as a language connected to a deep culture. Klepfisz began publishing her poems in 1971. Her first two published poems, the paired "Searching for My Father's Body" and "The Widow and the Daughter," speak of the devastating impact of the Holocaust on Klepfisz's life. In addition to these experiences, Klepfisz's work explores many other facets of her identity, notably what it means to be a woman, a feminist, a lesbian, a cultural Jew, and an activist against the actions of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians. Klepfisz was the co-founder of Conditions magazine, a feminist magazine emphasizing the writing of lesbians, the co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology, the editorial consultant for Yiddish and Yiddish literature on the Jewish feminist magazine Bridges, and the co-founder of The Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (JWCEO). She currently teaches at Barnard College while continuing to write, speak out for equality of the alienated, and to work for peace.

Lori Lefkovitz is the Sadie Gottesman and Arlene Gottesman Reff Professor of Gender and Judaism and director of Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. As a Fulbright scholar, she held a visiting professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2004, where she taught the literature of American Jewish Feminism. Her other awards include an academic fellowship at the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis, a Woodrow Wilson dissertation fellowship in the Women's Studies Division, and a Golda Meir post-doctoral fellowship at the Hebrew University. She holds a B.A. from Brandeis University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University and is the author of books and articles in the fields of literature, critical theory, and Jewish feminism, including Shaping Losses: Cultural Memory and the Holocaust (co-edited with Julia Epstein). Kolot's programs include Ritualwell.org, an online resource for Jewish feminist liturgy and ceremonies.

Laura Levitt is the Director of Jewish Studies and an Associate Professor of Religion at Temple University where she does extensive teaching in the University's Women's Studies Program. During the spring of 2005, she was a Visiting Professor of Religion at Williams College. She is the author of Jews and Feminism: The Ambivalent Search for Home; co-editor with Miriam Peskowitz of Judaism Since Gende; and with Shelley Hornstein and Laurence Silberstein an editor of Impossible Images: Contemporary Art after the Holocaust. She recently edited and contributed to "Changing Focus: Family Photography and American Jewish Identity" a special issue of The Scholar & The Feminist Online. Her current book project Ordinary Jews looks at 20th century American Jewish life and everyday losses from under the shadow of the Holocaust using family photographs.

Khadijah Miller is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia. Her doctorate is in African American Studies, with a concentration in Black Women's 20th Century American History from Temple University. She has taught African American Studies, African American History and Women's Studies courses at Temple University, Drexel University and West Chester University. Prior to teaching in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Norfolk State University, she was the director of the Women's Studies program at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania. In early 2006, she will have published entries in the Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora, edited by Carole Boyce Davies, Ph.D. and is currently engaged in a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities on "Extending the Reach: Year Long Programming on the African Diaspora."

Gina Nahai is the author of the Pulitzer nominated Cry of the Peacock, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, and Sunday's Silence. Her stories and reviews have appeared in numerous journals including The Southern California Anthology and the Los Angeles Times. Ms. Nahai has a Masters in International Relations from UCLA and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from USC. She is an adjunct professor of Creative Writing at USC, has studied the politics of Iran for the United States Department of Defense, and serves on the advisory board of the International Women's Media Foundation.

Judith Plaskow is professor of religious studies at Manhattan College and a Jewish feminist theologian. She has been teaching, writing and speaking about feminist studies in religion and Jewish feminism for over thirty years. With Carol P. Christ, she co-edited Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion and Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, anthologies of feminist theology used in many women's studies and religious studies courses. With Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, she co-founded the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and she co-edited it for its first decade (1985-94). Her book Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective has become a Jewish feminist classic. A collection of her essays, The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics 1972-2003, was recently published by Beacon Press.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an author, journalist, lecturer and social justice activist. A founding editor of Ms. magazine, she is also the author of nine books, most recently her first novel - Three Daughters - which was published last fall. Among her non-fiction titles are two acclaimed memoirs - Getting Over Getting Older and Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America. In addition, she was the editor of the anthology, Stories for Free Children, and was the editorial consultant on Free to Be, You and Me, Marlo Thomas' groundbreaking children's book, record and television special. Ms. Pogrebin's articles have been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Nation, TV Guide, Harpers Bazaar, Family Circle, and Good Housekeeping, among other publications. She is a regular columnist for Moment magazine, and for ten years, she wrote "The Working Woman" column in The Ladies Home Journal. Ms. Pogrebin has also been a leader in many social justice causes and organizations. She recently completed four years as President of the Authors Guild. Besides serving as an editor at Ms. magazine for nearly twenty years, Ms. Pogrebin also was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus; the Ms. Foundation for Women; and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East . She serves on the advisory boards of the Harvard Divinity School Women in Religion Program and the Brandeis University Women's Studies Program. Her civic activities have included two terms as Chair of the Board of Americans for Peace Now, an advocacy organization that works toward a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She participated for more than ten years in a dialogue group made up of Blacks and Jews, and for five years in a Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Project. Letty Cottin Pogrebin's honors and awards range from Who's Who in America; to a Yale University Poynter Fellowship in Journalism; to an Emmy Award for Free to Be You and Me. She lives in New York City with her husband Bert, an attorney. The couple has three grown children and six grandchildren.

Danya Ruttenberg is the editor of Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism. She serves as a contributing editor to Lilith and Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, as well as contributing writer to Jewschool.com. Her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Tikkun, Bitch, Heeb, Salon, The Best Jewish Writing 2002, The Women's Seder Sourcebook and the forthcoming Encyclopedia Judaica and The Women's Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism. She is also featured in the forthcoming documentary, Young, Jewish and Left. She is currently studying for rabbinic ordination at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and has lectured widely about religion and culture. Danya received her B.A. in Religious Studies from Brown University and her M.A. in Rabbinics from the University of Judaism. She has also studied at Sarah Lawrence College, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, The Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew University and the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.

Naomi Schemnan was born in Brooklyn, grew up on Long Island, and graduated from Barnard in 1968. Since 1975 she has been part of the NY-Jewish diaspora, living first in Ottawa and then in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where she is Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies. A collection of her essays, Engenderings: Constructions of Knowledge, Authority, and Privilege, was published in 1993. She thinks, teaches, and writes on a wide range of topics, all of which end up puzzling over the same set of fundamental questions: how can we understand the concepts we use to construct and explain ourselves and each other, taking into account differences of social location, especially concerning inequalities of power and privilege, which destabilize both the "we" that does the constructing and explaining and the critical, reflective "we" that tries to understand it all. Her particular interest in social locations that are, in normative terms, impossible or unintelligible has led her to reflect on her own identity as a secular, non-Zionist, strongly Jewish-identified, morally committed atheist. She has explored her Jewish identity most directly in two essays (which will appear in her second collection, tentatively titled, Shifting Ground: Margins, Diasporas, and the Reading of Wittgenstein, "Terminal Moraine," and "Queering the Center by Centering the Queer: Reflections on Transsexuals and Secular Jews."

Nancy Schwartzman is the director of "Between Us" a documentary-in-progress set in Jerusalem and New York. She is a founding editor and Creative Director of Heeb Magazine, responsible for the photo stories "Word to Your Bubbe," "Jewess" and "The Passion." She is the founder of NYC-safestreets.org a non-profit dedicated to linking businesses and creating maps in Brooklyn and Manhattan to help women travel safely.Ê For five years she has been the grants officer for Media, Visual Arts and Performing Arts at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in Art History and a minor in Film. ÊCurrently she lives in New York City.

Alisa Solomon has just joined Columbia University's faculty as director of the Arts and Culture major in the new MA program at School of Journalism. She was a professor for nearly 20 years at Baruch College-City University of New York in English/Journalism and at the CUNY Graduate Center in the Ph.D. programs in Theater and in English. A theater critic, scholar and journalist, she was a staff writer at the Village Voice for 14 years and still freelances for the Voice, where she has won awards for her reporting on U.S. immigration policy, reproductive rights, and electoral politics. She has also written for The Nation, The Forward, the New York Times and other publications. She is the author of Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, and co-editor (with Tony Kushner) of Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and (with Framji Minwalla) of The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater.

Photo: Blair Belcher.

Los Angeles, CA– Blair Belcher received the “Harriet Award,” Warren Breslow and was honored with the “Moses Award”. And the Skirball Foundation has been chosen as the recipient of the “T’Shuvah Award” at Beit T’Shuvah’s The Steps to Recovery annual gala which took place, last month at the Beverly Hilton Hotel as announced by Beit T’Shuvah Chief Executive Officer, Harriett Rossetto.  “We could not have chosen a more deserving trio to be honored this year.  They exemplify what ‘giving back’ to the community is all about,” according to Rossetto, CEO and Founder of Beit T’Shuvah   “There is nothing so moving as being witness to the transformation of the human spirit,” she adds. The Gala Dinner began at 5:30 PM with a Silent Auction with one-of-a-kind items including a ride for two in the Goodyear Blimp, a party of 18 in the Laker Suite, tickets to the Grammy Awards, and amazing cruises.  Laving dinner was served at 7 PM. 

Lynn Bider and Heidi Praw are gala dinner Co-Chairs.  Jeremy Zimmer Chairs the Honorary Dinner Committee with members Scott Berg, Jim Berkus, Tevia Celli, Donald Deline, Toby Emmerich, John Gatins, Adam Goodman, John Goldwyn and Jeff Klein, Clark Gregg and Jennifer Grey, Lynn Harris and Marty Leshem, Tracey Jacobs, Carole Katleman, David Kramer, Tom and Romi Lassally, Amy Lederman, Julianna Margulies, Kevin McCormick, Brian Robbins, Brad Ruderman, Scott Sassa, Caitlin Scanlon, Alex Schwartz, Stacey Sher, Mike Tollin, David Weber, Tom Werner and Julie Yorn.  

Photo:  Chief Executive Harriett Rossetto,  creator and Director of Beit T’Shuvah.

Rossetto, always a woman in search of her “calling”,  knew she had found it 15 years ago when a small want ad in the Los Angeles Times caught her eye. Person of Jewish background and culture to work with Jewish criminal offenders. Masters in Social Work required. Harriet soon realized that the majority of Jews behind bars were there as a by-product of addictive/compulsive behaviors. Their addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, money and power were stronger than their fear of punishment, creating a revolving door in and out of jails and prisons. Many of them wanted to change and came to the JCPS office when they got out. They were penniless, homeless, hopeless, and helpless. Harriet gratefully accepted the mission to establish a Jewish home to welcome them upon release and help them to heal their souls. The blessing is that the process has been reciprocal. Harriet’s energy and conviction that people can change has sustained Beit T’Shuvah since 1984. The power of her belief and a God-given gift to inspire people has drawn others who want to help.

At San Francisco's Congregation Sherith Israel, you won't find young women rejecting the title of "Jewish Mother". Instead, here they embrace it. Just ask the young mothers who make up the Sherith Israel Mamas, a support group designed to help women create a Jewish home for their families. The group, which began almost 18 months ago, is committed to making parenting a spiritual journey.  Lida Morgenstein, a new mother and congregation member, created "Mamas". She saw the need for a small, consistent group that would meet weekly and share experiences about the specific issues of both parenting small children and creating a Jewish home. Mimi Greisman, Sherith Israel's Early Childhood Educator, joins in part of the time with child rearing advice, and Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller, herself a new mom, helps the group understand the Jewish ways of doing things, but the mothers themselves run the program. The group read "The Blessing of the Skinned Knee", a book on being a Jewish parent, and that first ten week session led to another and another and another until it lasted for 40 weeks. "It is important that this group is lay-led, " said Lida. "Sharing advice with each other rather than from experts somehow feels better and is more palatable. There are so many different approaches to parenting. But we all have kids going through the "terrible twos" or the defiant 3's, and we all have husbands who don't necessarily see things the way we do and none of us want to confuse the kids." Lida cautions that none of the parents claim to be experts they are just sharing experiences, and it is the sharing of intimate stories that makes the group work. "If women are not comfortable sharing, if they are really private people, this may not be the right place for them," she added.

Creating a Jewish home and strengthening a feeling of community are the real goals of the Mamas group. Members come from all levels of Jewish education and backgrounds; for example, some have celebrated the Sabbath consistently in the past, some never. "Now we feel like we are taking 'Shabbat 101' together so it takes away the pressure to do it right," said Lida. The women discuss how to make Shabbat meaningful and relevant in their own homes. For some it means a slower, quieter meal, holding hands, a family hug; others invite another family to share the meal. Through the year, the group studies the major Jewish holidays, what they mean, how to make them relevant to the children, what craft projects might be appropriate. Many of the mothers welcome this first experience with ritual, and they have added family potlucks, holiday decorating parties, and other social gatherings.  The Mamas group has space for 10 women at a time, and a new one is forming now. It is ideal for women with children under the age of 3 who want to incorporate Jewish traditions and values in their parenting. Meetings are every Friday morning for 10 weeks. Fee is $120 for members/$150 for nonmembers. For more info, email lida@morgenstein.net. Contact: Miriam Goodman: 415 626 5149
 

Under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe Wiener, Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI) has become one of the best and greatest humanitarian and socio-cultural organizations in the United States. The council offers enormous assistance and help to the Jewish community at many levels.

Photo: Rabbi Moshe Wiener: Leadership and pure goodness.

The Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island is a 501(c)(3) private not-for-profit tax-exempt organization founded in 1973 to provide a wide range of social services to South Brooklyn's low income residents and to foster neighborhood stabilization. During the past decade the council has experienced extraordinary growth and became the central address for services of all segments of the population including the aged, the vocationally disadvantaged poor, refugees, and educationally at-risk youth. In addition, the council provides non-profit community based organizations with technical assistance in upgrading their management capacity.

On January 1, 2006 a new Medicare Prescription drug plan went into effect for more than 500,000 low-income, elderly, and disabled New Yorkers. This transition from Medicaid to Medicare drug coverage created a new structure that will have significant implications for beneficiaries, particularly those referred to as Dual Eligibles (i.e., individuals with both Medicare and Medicaid). Specifically, the new law requires most beneficiaries to pay premiums and co-payments. Given the extent of the changes under Medicare Part D, a large number of Medicare recipients would require professional assistance to determine how this new law affects them. Early reports have indicated that beneficiaries are having trouble obtaining medications from pharmacies because of problems with paperwork and a lack of clarity about the new requirements. This has caused some individuals to seek care and medications from costly hospital emergency rooms. Nearly every day, the media reports another story about seniors who've been stranded by Medicare Part D. Many are in line at the pharmacy before they learn they're no longer covered for the medications they need. For poor seniors, paying full price for medication is simply not an option. Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI) is helping fix the crisis that Part D created. And they're doing it so well, they've received requests for help from as far away as California. The Medicare Part D Walk-In Center at the Jewish Community Community of Greater Coney Island opened in November with a grant from the New York City Department of Aging through the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. And while the center gets a number of seniors who simply need information, it's no less than a lifeline for the large number of seniors who fear losing coverage altogether. According to the center's facilitator, Veronica Beres, the large number of seniors who receive both Medicare and Medicaid are the most likely to come in panicking, unsure of what the new prescription drug plan means and how it will impact them.  "Many have already been turned down for medications they need. They were told, 'Sorry, you're not covered,' and they walked out of the pharmacy empty-handed. They're miserable." "People just don't know where to go," Beres says. "Pharmacists don't have the time to explain the program to each and every customer. Not everybody who comes into our information center is panicking, but everybody who comes in is worried." "There's a lot of confusion," says the JCC's Executive Director, Rabbi Moshe Wiener. "A lot of people can't get the medication they need. For some seniors, Part D has created a crisis." According to Beres, the center's staff assesses each senior's needs and helps them select the best prescription drug plan. "We find a plan that covers all the medication the senior needs. Then we help them with the paperwork. If they don't know something, we call their doctor or pharmacist and do the research for them. Sometimes the doctor can prescribe a different medication. But some of them have four or five medications that are not covered. We enroll those people in a new plan of their choice, based on information we provide and with the guidance of their family, friends and medical practitioners." Nearly every hour, another crisis is solved. The center has been busy almost since day one. The center recently hired a second case worker who is Spanish speaking to help manage the high volume of clients.  Beres, who is Russian-speaking, says the JCC's Medicare center has acquired such a reputation for effectiveness, it's drawing clients from outside Coney Island. "People are coming from other areas of Brooklyn. I'm getting calls from Queens. I even had one phone call from Santa Monica! They heard about us in Santa Monica and called to ask for help!" "People walk in concerned, they walk out relieved," Rabbi Wiener says. "When they go, they know everything has been taken care of." For more information or to make an appointment for assistance, call the JCC of Greater Coney Island's Medicare walk-in center directly at 718-449-5000 ext. 277 to speak with a trained and qualified case worker. Contact  Rabbi Moshe Wiener, Executive Director, Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, Inc., 3001 West 37th Street * Brooklyn, New York 11224-1479. Tel: 718-449-5000 ext. 220, Fax: 718-946-8240. E-Mail: m.wiener@jccgci.org

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Get your peanuts!  Get your popcorn!  Get your… falafel?

In a groundbreaking effort to bring the joys of America's pastime to Israel, Jewish National Fund (JNF) has partnered with the Israel Baseball League to dot Israel’s landscape with community baseball fields and provide a place for every Israeli to enjoy the sport.  "To me, the game of baseball is the greatest game on earth," said Larry Baras, a Massachusetts resident who founded the Israel Baseball League, an organization dedicated to promoting and developing baseball in Israel. "It embodies the values of patience, sportsmanship, teamwork, and interdependence.  The baseball field can be a meeting place for people of different ages, nationalities, genders and religions.  As a relatively new sport to Israel, it can literally provide a level playing field for all Israelis — Arabs, secular Jews, Orthodox Jews, Bedouins — to learn a sport together."   In Jerusalem, where baseball’s popularity is the greatest, the main field is little more than an empty lot filled with dust, rocks, and thorns.  In Bet Shemesh, the only baseball field is built on a slope, forcing the 250 children in the local youth league to run uphill as they head towards first base. In Tel Aviv, players rush to their positions between innings because there are no lights on the field and all play must end at dusk.  Haifa, Be’er Sheva, and Tiberias have interested players but no baseball fields at all.   JNF will build new fields throughout Israel and improve or replace makeshift ones so that each city will eventually have its own baseball field.   Construction will be done with great attention to Israel’s unique environmental concerns, including its severe water shortage.  All fields will be covered with synthetic turf to avoid the need for constant watering, and catch basins will be installed beneath the turf wherever possible to collect rainfall.  In a country better known for its avid soccer fans, baseball’s popularity has increased significantly among Israelis in recent years.  According to a letter published in the Palestine Post in 1948, baseball’s humble beginnings in Israel can be traced back to July 4th, 1927.  On this day, the letter details, the governess of the Sephardic Orphanage in Jerusalem tried to teach a group of boys to play baseball.  Unaware that they could be used for anything else, the boys promptly dropped the baseballs to the ground and began kicking them around. Today, it is estimated that the number of regular baseball players in Israel exceeds 2,000.  Two organizations, the Israel Association of Baseball and the Israel Softball Association, organize youth and adult leagues throughout the country, and Israeli teams compete in international tournaments.  The Israel Association of Baseball holds an annual Peace Tournament in Tel Aviv where Arab and Israeli students come together to learn the fundamentals of baseball and play in integrated games.    As part of its mission to promote baseball in Israel, the Israel Baseball League will host a two-week baseball camp in July run by professional instructors and former Major League players, and has also begun to recruit players to compete on the women’s softball team in the 2008 Summer Olympics.  The IBL hopes to eventually establish a professional baseball league in Israel. 

Seventh Annual Women's Health  Symposium   at the 92nd Street  Y

Photo: Bestselling author, Gail Sheehy.

Empowering  Women to Make Informed Healthcare Decisions and  Lifestyle Choices about Disease Prevention, Disease Management and Healthy  Aging Opening Keynote Address by Bestselling  Author Gail Sheehy, “Pursuing the Passionate Life”. Bring Your Mother, Your Daughter, Your  Sister, Your Girlfriend … and Yourself  Symposium: Women’s Health Symposium,  Sunday, April 2,  2006, 9:15 am – 5  pm at 92nd  Street Y , 1395 Lexington  Avenue (92nd Street), New York, NY. Cost:    $59/$44 Oxford Health  Plan members for a full-day package (includes keynote sessions plus a choice of  three concurrent one-hour seminars).  Individual keynote addresses ($25 each)  and seminars ($22 each), subject to availability. Registration: By Phone (212-415-5500).  By Fax (212-415-5788) or Mail (92nd Street Y, 1375 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10128) with completed  registration  form found on inside back cover of event brochure or online. In Person: Visit the 92nd Street Y Box  Office (1375 Lexington  Avenue). About the  Symposium:  Medical  research, health studies and public information often provide women with  conflicting information that can be overwhelming and confusing.  This annual full-day event provides a  wonderful way for women of all ages to get their questions answered by health  care professionals – each chosen for their expertise in their noted  field. Opening  Keynote Address by Gail Sheehy: “Pursuing the Passionate Life,” who shares  inspirational stories of seasoned women successfully embracing their “second  adulthoods.”  Closing  Keynote Address by D. Lindsey Berkson, MA, DC, “Helping Yourself to Healthy  Hormones” (how our health is affected by the foods we eat and the environment in  which we live, work, play and sleep).  She will discuss how everyday to protect your children's health and intelligence, choose the  hormone replacement therapy that is safest for you, safeguard your home - room  by room, and discover the least toxic foods and household products.  Did you know that dust we track home, steam from  showers and dishwashers, and plastic wrappings for meat and cheese all send  manmade hormone-disrupting chemicals into our bodies?  Although it is  unknown as to the extent to which this exposure affects human  health, evidence suggests that it may be responsible for recent worldwide  increases in health problems, including breast cancer and declining sperm  counts.   Twelve  concurrent seminars on a wide range of topics concerning women’s health:   *   Dismantling Depression: A  Self-Coaching Approach - Joseph Luciani, PhD  *   Gastrointestinal Distress: New  Reasons Not to Worry – Jennifer Christie, MD  *   Stop Breaking Your Heart (stress  and heart disease link) – Nieca  Goldberg, MD   *   Figuring Out Gynecological Facts  and Fiction – Carol Livoti, MD  *   Battling Back Pain (minimally  invasive treatment) – Emile M. Hiesiger, MD   *   Preventing Breast Cancer Naturally  – Christine Horner, MD, FACS 
 *   The Ex Factor (metabolism-boosting  exercises) – Mirabai Holland, MFA *   Hints for Health from a Nurse’s  Notebook – Patricia Carroll, RN  *   Psyching Up Your Skin (science of  psychodermatology – how strong emotions affect skin health and beauty) –  Richard Fried, MD, PhD  *   Building Beautiful Bones (without  hormones) – Leon Root, MD  *   Food for Fitting into Your Genes  (science  of nutrigenomics - creating customized diets based on genetic makeup) – Jack  Challem   *   Healthy Sexuality at Every Age –  Barbara Bartlik, MD. Additionally, the symposium  features:  *   Free health screenings  (osteoporosis, skin cancer, podiatry and cardiovascular and hypertension) by  Mount Sinai  Medical Center  *   Spa samplings – free hand paraffin treatments and free warmed neck  wraps   *   Healthcare educational  materials   *   Healthcare book sales and signings  by many of the event speakers. More information, contact: SamuellaMaltese@aol.com
 

MARK BOROVITZ: A MOST EXTRAORDINARY RABBI

"I met this rabbi. Picture the rabbi from central casting. Long white beard. Long black robe. Hunched over. Myopic. Soft-spoken. Inaccessible. That's not him. Sixteen years ago Rabbi Mark Borovitz was in a prison cell... for the second time. He was a mobster, gangster, con man, gambler, thief, and drunk. Then trapped in a ten-by-twelve-foot cage, he found his soul. Rabbi Mark's incredible story is something no fiction writer could make up. His life is larger than life. It is TONY SOPRANO MEETS HAROLD KUSHNER. ", wrote author, Alan Eisenstock. Rabbi Borovitz is one those Danteisque-Maimonidish unforgettable images. Mesmerizing when he talks. Bigger than life when you get to sail in his soul...and dare to explore his past and present. Once upon a time, Mark Borovitz was a real-life gangster. Today, he walks on the path of holiness And his friend, Alan Eisenstock painted the image of Mark with affectionate shadows and bursting lights. He wrote: "Rabbi Mark is a wrestler and a thief. He wrestles your devils and steals your sins, then sends them adrift into the sea. He is there, in your life, giving you a hug, a push, whatever you need. He is a force. "

Mark’s message is being carried to the far corners of the country as invitations come for him to speak at conferences and institutions. He draws attention to the problem of addiction in the Jewish community and to the powerful ammunition against it, both to counteract and to prevent. Mark has been invited to speak at numerous Temples, Federations and Jewish Community Centers across the United States. He has been a panelist at many seminars discussing Spirituality and Recovery. In this past month, Mark was one of 7 people invited to a roundtable discussion with President George W. Bush about faith and recovery. Mark was also mentioned in President Bush’s speech before the 11th Conference on Faith-Based Initiatives. He has been on a panel with the President at the National Conference on Faith-Based Initiatives.

Unquestionably, Rabbi Mark Borovitz is one of the most fascinating men you will ever meet in your life.