Four Faces of Social Justice

Women of Holy Blossom Presents at the WRJ Social Justice Conference

By Cheryl Sylvester, Women of Holy Blossom

What could climate change with a gender lens, seeking justice for sexual violence victims on October 7, a musical concert with works by under-represented artists and supportive care kits for women who have had abortions possibly have in common? It turns out a lot!

At the Marla J. Feldman Women of Reform Judaism Social Justice conference, they were in fact different faces of successful social justice programs created by four different WRJ women’s groups across North America, including our own here at Holy Blossom Temple. These four programs constituted a workshop entitled “From Concept to Fruition: WRJ Successful Social Justice Programs” at the conference. The panel was hosted by Trina Novak, who also pointed us to WRJ’s resources for undertaking social justice advocacy action on issues.

I was honoured to represent Women of Holy Blossom and to speak as a panellist about our work in the  Women’s Advocacy Group of Women of Holy Blossom. I spoke about the March 2024 program: Seeking Justice for the Victims of Sexual Violence on October 7 — and Why This Matters to All Victims of Sexual Violence.

More to come on this inspirational panel in this article, but I want to share just a bit of background on the conference.  The WRJ Social Justice Conference was held in Washington, DC, April 4-7, 2025. Social Justice is one of the three pillars of WRJ, the others being Sisterhood and Spirituality. It was inspiring and enriching to learn and connect with nearly 300 highly engaged and engaging Reform Jewish women doing social justice work in their local communities, as well as nationally and internationally.  To get a glimpse of the exuberant energy of the event and some snippets of the social justice, spirituality and sisterhood in action, click to watch a brief video!

Women of Reform Judaism’s social justice focus at the conference was on three core issues: Reproductive Health, Democracy, and Israel. With the support of the Reform Action Center, more than 200 women were trained in the key messages around these three core issues, and then went to Capitol Hill to meet with elected representatives and members of Congress on the last day of the conference.  Although as a Canadian, I was not able to participate in these efforts, I was impressed by the important and impactful work these women from across the US were taking to engage in their democracy and to stand up and voice their hopes and concerns for voting rights in their democracy, women’s reproductive rights and the support of Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.

Back to the panel, here, too, was a focus on reproductive rights and health. Carol Schuster’s women’s group at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, Washington, asked themselves how they could make a local impact on the abortion issue? They wanted to remove some of the negative social pressure and perceived stigma from those who needed this medical treatment. Their answer was to partner with a local abortion clinic to support the women who have abortions there with post-abortion care kits. These kits were sewn by some of the women in their group, and assembled at their temple, with comforts items and cards of support that the women wrote.

Rachel Ciraldo, with Sisterhood of Temple B’nei Israel in Hattiesburg, Missouri created a chamber music event called “Into the Light.” On the panel she shared about her small Jewish community, and their goal to bring works by composers whose careers were or are currently, impacted by social injustices and feature works centred around the themes of social justice.

From Women of Temple Rodeo Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia, Andrea Stillman shared their educational panel program around Climate change and the intersection with gender and poverty.  Andrea has written a further article about her learning about the intersection of gender and poverty and the impacts of climate change, and how WRJ will be taking leadership on this social justice issue going forward.  https://wrj.org/blog/new-perspective-climate-change

For my portion of the panel, I spoke about the why, how and what the Women’s Advocacy Group or Women Holy Blossom of creating the program Seeking Justice for the Victims of Sexual Violence on October 7 — and Why This Matters to All Victims of Sexual Violence.  I highly recommend learning from the excellent legal and social justice panellists, who addressed the sexual violence on October 7th with important perspectives on justice. The panel included Megan Stephens, a lawyer and advocate for women’s rights in the justice system, and my Co-Chair of the Women’s Advocacy Group. In the WRJ workshop, I also spoke about how the panel addressed the serious implications for the legal protections gained for victims of sexual violence, who are at risk with the denial or dismissal of the Israeli victims. We were supported in the endeavour by WRJ’s micro-grant program, for which we are grateful.

These four successful social justice programs addressed such different and significant social justice issues and brought them to our respective communities. What we had in common was a passion for the issue at hand and a willingness to take action to create a program to engage our communities in education and action!  These were all achievements by volunteers, in partnership with their congregations.

I remain honoured to have shared the workshop stage with such a fine group of women, each contributing to social justice in concert with her community to bring new ideas to life and to create impact in positive and unique ways.  Personally, they also lived into the “sisterhood” pillar of WRJ’s values. When a family issue arose during the preparation stage, which delayed my contribution a little, this group of WRJ women were lovely, and sent kind words of support and encouragement.

I was also grateful to experience WRJ’s third pillar of “spirituality” when I joined in a Shabbat morning meditation with Sara Waxman, Founder of At the Well, where they share monthly wellness practices rooted in Jewish wisdom. I’m a big fan, and it was a beautiful preparation for the joyous Shabbat morning worship service that at WRJ always includes women dancing in the spirit of Miriam, during the Mi Chamocha portion of the service.

Just a further note from the conference on the topic of sexual violence on October 7. Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a legal scholar and human rights advocate, was the recipient of the Jane Evans Social Justice Award at the WRJ Social Justice Conference for her work as the founder and chair of the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.  Their team is diligently documenting evidence and raising international awareness of the war crimes and gender-based violence committed by Hamas and their collaborators against women, children and families. Together with Sara Charney, Immediate Past President of Women of Reform Judaism and a Past-President of Women of Holy Blossom, we began a conversation about bringing Dr. Elkayam-Levy to speak at Holy Blossom Temple later in 2025.  Stay tuned!

I share these words with gratitude to Women of Holy Blossom, as well as to Women of Reform Judaism, for their support, which enables me to have the opportunity to participate in the conference.