Expressing Gratitude, an 80th Anniversary D’var Torah

Torah Fund is 80 years old! Let’s celebrate! Mazal Tov! 

November is a month when we say thank you many times over. There are no Jewish holidays in November, but there are a number of opportunities to say thank you. Each week we thank God for whatever we are feeling at that moment: Your good health. A bountiful harvest. Family and friends. 

On Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada, we thank the armed forces and veterans for their duty now, in the past, and in the future. Flags are placed on military graves in solemn ceremonies, among other recognitions. 

We say thank you again on Thanksgiving Day. It is a time when family and friends celebrate together. Giving thanks seems to be a universal need. Although people may practice different religions and honor God in different ways, we all recognize that we owe gratitude for our good fortune. We have much for which to be thankful.  

One thing we have to be thankful for is Torah Fund. 

After Women’s League was founded in 1918, Mathilde Schechter and her fellow leaders provided housing and meals for rabbinical students. Eighty years ago, in 1942, President Dora Spiegel and her Women’s League colleagues founded Torah Fund, establishing our philanthropy to provide scholarships and housing for rabbinical students. We have grown in our support of students, now at five global Conservative/Masorti institutions of higher education. It is time to say thank you to Mathilde and Dora for their forethought and to all the rabbis, cantors, educators, and lay leaders who have attended the schools we support. Let us honor each of them with a donation to Torah Fund. Today, Women’s League, through Torah Fund, supports scholarships, programs, and special projects. Our students from all over the world teach us. We pray side by side with them at Ziegler and the Women’s League Seminary Synagogue of JTS. We attend ordinations of rabbis and cantors at JTS, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Schechter Institutes, Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, and Zacharias Frankel College. 

How can we celebrate this milestone? Each of us can make a special donation of $80 to recognize Mathilde Schechter and Dora Spiegel’s legacy.