On March 22 there will be staged in Washington the biennial convention of the largest Jewish women’s organization in the country; the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
The activities of this group, which functions not only in the United States and Canada but also in England, South Africa and Panama, are in the main devoted to a three-fold ideal: peace, education and religion. To translate the prophetic vision of Israel—a world in which the sword will be hammered into ploughshares—into actual reality, that is the dream, and the mission of these women who generously devote themselves to the service not only of their own race, their own people, but to the service of humanity. They realize, of course, that this idea of peace can only be approached by the road of education, an education that is addressed to the parents as well as the children, to those who are taught and those who teach themselves. This education again leads ultimately to religion. Religion not in the sense of slavishly observing an ancient ceremonial, but religion as a living spirit, a pillar of fire on the road of progress.
WORK GOES ON
Although the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods has sustained a great loss in the death of Martha Levy Steinfeld, who for the past five years had been the president of the organization, the work she has so splendidly inaugurated goes on in honor of her memory. During her administration the national committee on peace of the N. F. T. S. published a book, “Jewish Peace Stories.”
A second and similar volume is now in preparation bearing a page of dedication to and appreciation of the late leader. This new volume is to be used in adult study groups and the N. F. T. S. will release, in addition to it, a new series of study syllabi valuable for Sisterhood study groups or open meetings. This series will include the following works: “The Jew looks at War and Peace: A Study of Pacifism from the Jewish Point of View,” by Ronald Gittelson: “Dramatic Moments in Jewish History” by A. L. Sachar, and “A Bird’s Eye View of Jewish Literature” by A. H. Friedland.
SCHOLARSHIPS GIVEN
The organization has also awarded a number of scholarships to religious school teachers from small communities where there are no rabbis by which those teachers were then enabled to attend the Teachers’ Summer School at the Hebrew Union College.
For educational as well as purely humane reasons the N. F. T. S. supports the Jewish Braille Institute of New York which publishes a magazine of Jewish contents in braille. This magazine is distributed without charge to all-English-speaking Jewish braille readers throughout the world, The library of the Institute—the only library in the country which has braille books of exclusively Jewish contents and interests—has also been largely built up through the work of the various groups of the N. F. T. S. and the circulation of these books is national thanks to special franking privileges.
The youth of the country is reached and imbued with the ideals for which the organization stands by the well-known monthly magazine, Young Israel. For adults, the Federation has just launched a bi-monthly publication, Topics and Trends. Thus, representative of the very noblest Jewish ideals, the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods can report at its forthcoming convention on a splendid record of successful service.
National officers of the organization are: Mrs. Abram Simon, Washington, honorary president; Mrs. Henry Nathan, Buffalo, acting president and first vice-president; Mrs. Adolph Rosenberg, Cincinnati, second vice-president; Mrs. Albert J. May, New York, third vice-president; Mrs. David Lefkowitz, Dallas, fourth vice-president; Mrs. Joseph Stolz, Chicago, recording secretary; Mrs. Frenkel, Cincinnati, treasurer; Miss Jane Evans, Cincinnati, executive secretary.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
