By Lori Snow, WLCJ International Vice President and International Torah Fund Chair
The Time Has Come…
Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of the Torah Fund Creating New Spaces (Spaces) special project! We plan to close the Spaces Campaign in June; we need to raise about $4,000 to fulfill our goal.
We ask for your support to help us finish Spaces. Like Am Yisrael Chai, the Spaces Campaign mirrors the Torah Fund spirit by using small grassroots donations to reach a common goal. In 2019 we started the Spaces Campaign under then-International President Margie Miller, and under the guidance of Past International President, Carol Simon.
Spaces promotes safe physical and spiritual spaces for students at both JTS and Ziegler rabbinical schools. Our $200,000 goal equally funds two important projects: A “Women’s League Study Space” – a safe and enveloping place for our JTS students in the List College Residence Hall; and, at Ziegler, the new “Women’s League Institute on Gender Bias and Harassment” — which will train future rabbis and movement leaders, with guidance from Rabbi Cheryl Peretz.
We recognize the long-seated misconception that only men can be rabbis. Rabbi Peretz has engaged with and influenced multiple clergy search committees to have less gender bias in their discussions and decisions. I am proud to tell you the Gender Bias and Harassment program has been used in over 60 sessions across Conservative Jewish communities. Also, in January 2025, Rabbi Peretz led two sessions for Women’s League titled “You, Me & We Too: Overcoming Bias and Harassment,” guiding participants through exercises on unconscious bias, personal experiences of feeling different and biblical examples of women’s strength. You can find both recordings on the Women League’s website and they are worth your time!
When the Spaces campaign ends, a designated area on the fourth floor of the List College Residence Hall will be formally named “The Women’s League Study Space.” The space includes the resident director’s apartment, making it ideal for helping first-year students become acquainted with their new surroundings. Two resident assistants also live there and provide resources and programs to help new students become acclimated. Thirty students live on the fourth floor and have close access to the study room, but all students in the building can use the space. The comfortably furnished and designed study space sits adjacent to the dining area and is conducive to studying, reading, or spending leisure time. WLCJ plans to produce a book for the space listing our Spaces supporters. Wouldn’t you be glad to know your name is printed there for posterity?
We thank everyone who gives their support to Spaces and look forward to closing out the campaign this June by meeting our $200,000 goal. Thank you for being part of our vision to enhance the student experience and provide strong leaders to our movement.
Shabbat shalom,
Lori Snow
WLCJ International Vice President and International Torah Fund Chair
Lsnow@wlcj.org
