Women's Leadership Institute AZ

It's almost time! Our annual Celebration of Achievement and Cohort 10 Graduation are coming up next week on Thursday, May 14 from 6:30-8pm. It's not too late to register and celebrate another generation of incredible women leaders in our community.

https://www.jotform.com/form/260815958280061

Yesterday, WLI participants and alumnae, along with their moms, kids, friends, and coworkers, joined together at Ryan House to cook meals and prep birthday boxes for kids with life limiting diagnoses and their families. We were hosted by Ryan House Executive Director Tracy Leonard Warner, who is a WLI alumna herself, and our work was funded by a generous grant from Repair the World. At WLI, we put Jewish values into action in our leadership and we’re so proud to have acts of tikkun olam built into our programming year, thanks to the vision and hard work of WLI alum Leah Zigmond.

Another fabulous Hadassah EVOLVE event put together by Cohort 10 mentees Brooke Khaz, Lisa DeLuca, and Karri Bernstein along with the support of their mentors and our friends at Hadassah Valley of The Sun Chapter. And a special shout out to our new friend Jim at Total Wine for leading the group through a tasting of Israeli wines! We’re so proud to see this community flourishing with Brooke, Lisa, and Karri’s leadership!

Shabbat shalom, everyone, and l’chayim!

Seems like every week we’re kvelling over the incredible women in Cohort 10! This time we’re celebrating Alana Everett Raizer who, with the support of her mentor Ellen Romer Weiss and Jamie Kornbluth ran a mahjong fundraiser this weekend raising over $4000 for scholarships for Camp Daisy and Harry Stein!

Meanwhile, Cohort 10 mentee Madison Oberg, along with her mentor Tina Sheinbein and co-mentee Lisa DeLuca was at the Phoenix Holocaust Association Yom haShoah commemoration, an event she worked to support in so many ways, including organizing the entries in the Book of Remembrance.

Kol hakavod to Alana and Madison. We’re so proud of you and of what Jewish women can accomplish when we learn and lead together.

Want to hear more about the work Cohort 10 mentees have been doing in our community? Sign up today to join us at our Graduation on May 14th from 6:30-8pm:
https://pci.jotform.com/form/260815958280061

Thank you to Cohort 9 alum Jacquelyn Johnson for featuring us in the weekly newsletter for her business, Organized by JJ! We're so proud to have you as an alum and to be able to highlight your leadership in our community.

https://www.organizedbyjj.com/post/fan-girl-friday-the-women-s-leadership-institute

Jacquelyn is organizing a women's clothing swap event in May to inspire women to refresh their closets and to give back; all remaining clothing at the end of the day will be donated to AZ Jews for Justice. Want the link to register? Comment below and we'll send you more info!

(Thanks Lexy Popa for this great picture of Jacquelyn and her husband Michael at last year's graduation!)

Wishing everyone a joyful and expansive Passover celebration. May we all dance forward to freedom following the leadership of the women in our lives!

WLI had a busy week out and about in the community! Last Sunday, Cohort 10 mentee, Geanna Levin and her mentor Samantha Lieberman partnered with CJP to successfully launch Geanna’s project, a Newcomers Brunch for over twenty people new to our community! Meanwhile, downstairs at the J, Rabbi Emily was leading the Gesher Model Seder along with many WLI alumnae in attendance as professionals and volunteers!

Then on Thursday, Cohort 10 mentee Laurel Perlow, with the support of mentors Louise Zirretta and Rachel Rabinovich, led an incredible panel on women’s leadership attended by community members and alumnae alike.

We love seeing WLI making a difference in our community!

Registration is now open! Register today to join us in celebrating Cohort 10's Graduation and as we honor a decade of achievement of our wonderful alumnae.

https://pci.jotform.com/form/260815958280061

WLI alumna and board member, Nicole Perilstein, shares this beautiful reflection on the special woman who inspires her leadership:

"Women's History Month was established in 1987 to celebrate and acknowledge contributions that women have made and are often overlooked. The woman I want to honor is unfortunately not alive anymore to be able to hear what an impact she made on my life. My grandma, Alma Guthrie, was a woman ahead of her time. She was someone who quietly and humbly lived out her values.

She was born into a society that believed women belong in the home taking care of their husbands and children, but she entered the workforce and held a job while raising her two children alone while her husband (my Grandpa) served abroad in the Navy.

She matured during a time when society believed some people were inferior because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation. But she was kind, warm, and accepting to all people. She was always seeking to understand, rather than judge, people who were different from her.

And she had a strong Christian faith that she passed down to her children and grandchildren.

When I was 25 years old, I converted from Christianity to Judaism. This must have been shocking and maybe even upsetting to her, but she never had a word of judgement or criticism about it. In fact, she enthusiastically leaned into it. She celebrated Jewish holidays with me and my husband and children. She used to ask my then-husband to make her matzo ball soup, even when it wasn't passover. After seder one year she took the Haggadah home and read it cover to cover so she could really study and absorb it. She taught me what true unconditional love looks like.

One day my children will be old enough to choose their own religion. I hope they choose Judaism, but if they don't I will follow my grandma's example. Because loving one another is the most important thing. If we choose love first, nothing else matters."

Thank you, Nicole, for embodying your Grandma Alma's love and generosity in your own leadership of our community!

As we turn to a new book of Torah, Leviticus, we're reflecting on the sacrifices as a system for connection, and honoring the ways WLI has built new technologies for bringing each other closer: spiritual, and otherwise (we're looking at you, Cohort 6, the Covid Cohort!)

Check out this week's teaching, on the blog:

Vayikra: Spiritual Technology for Connection | The Women's Leadership Institute Every year when we arrive at the book of Leviticus, my little vegetarian heart thinks: "Oh no, this again?" This week's Torah portion describes for us the system of sacrifices the Israelites were commanded to use. Describes it in graphic, gory, meaty detail. And I'm sure even the non-vegetarians amo...