The Steering Committee members of the Women's Leadership for YIBE would like to express our gratitude to the Board Members for their support and confidence in our first of many Community Events for Women and families.

The Steering Committee Members did a great job in planning, buying, donating and setting up our Social Hall.

Kudos to  Atti, Bea, Chavie, Esther, Felisha, Sarita, Sarah, and Renee, without their countless hours of dedication and work, we could not have pulled off this event.

Our appreciation to all those who attended the event and made it a memorable 7th night of Chanukah. We hope that you will enjoy the prizes you won at our mini auction and raffle drawings.

We are so happy to have had our first YIBE Women's event in 20 years!

Thank you Rabbi Snow for a brilliant talk on Chanukah and the Halachos of lighting candles. Thank you Dan Becker for all your support.  Your music set the tone for our joyous event.  

We hope you will attend our upcoming event in January. Stay tuned for more details

Shabbath Shalom

The New Women's Leadership consortium,

Atti, Chavie, Esther, Felisha, Sarita, Renee   

On Shabbos Chanukah I was fortunate to be able to attend an Oorah Shabbaton as a staff member. As I was retiring to my bunk room on motzai shabbos, I encountered two amazing teens that are the source of inspiration for this article. They were engaging, witty, and well versed in slang. We conversed about a variety of topics and it was evident that they possessed latent potential, which if tapped, developed, and refined, would lead to an unimaginably great future. 

What is the key for the actualization of potential? Not conceptualizing potential as something that can be instantly unlocked! Instead, it is necessary to recognize who you are now, construct a vision of who you want to be, and implement a plan of action-- consisting of incremental steps-- to reach your goal. 

This lesson is reflected in the terminology that Hillel used when a convert asked: "teach me the whole Torah while standing on one foot." Hillel insightfully answered: "don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you." Everything else, Hillel added, was an explanation of this central tenet. The commentaries ask, however, that when the Torah discusses this idea it states: "love your friend as you love yourself." Why did Hillel paraphrase instead of directly quoting from the Torah? My rebbe explained that Hillel was aware that growth takes place in steps and, therefore, started with the elementary step of not harming others because you don't want to be harmed. The convert was not yet ready for the next and more altruistic level of social relations-to love someone as you love yourself.

Let us embrace this ideal-the recognition that the actualization of potential is a long, persistent, character-building journey composed of small steps of advancement-and appreciate the challenges that await us.