Pin Packing and Our Meaningful Oseh Shalom Pin   

Thank you to our dedicated “pin packing” volunteers who came to the Torah Fund office at JTS on September 11. Lynette Seader, Ilene Rothman, Linda Klempner, Sandy Koppell, Barbara Kaplan and Sheila Blutstein-Green (who came all the way from Florida) did a spectacular job. They were visited in the Torah Fund office by Women’s League International President Julia Loeb and Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz. See the photo below of this happy, productive group. After all the available pins were packed, the volunteers had time for lunch at Tom’s Restaurant, which is featured prominently in Seinfeld episodes.  

Thank you as well to Barbara Ezring, Esta Lichtenstein, Debbie Bettan and Elise Norwitz who also volunteered, but did not pack pins because the group event did not take place a second day.  We appreciate the generosity of our volunteers, some of whom come year after year to get the job done and make the beautiful pins available to all of us. 

On September 29, once the remainder of the pins were released from U.S. Customs, it was Women’s League’s turn. Women’s League for Conservative Judaism executive director Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields and digital content manager Karen Ballena, as well as Torah Fund vice chair communications, Shelley Szwalbenest and Torah Fund director Lisa Paule finished packing pins for the regions and for Torah Fund upper-level donors, sent individually. We also thank Torah Fund Legacy Society co-chair Donna Burkat and her husband for volunteering to pack pins on September 30, but the September 29 group was able to save them the trip by completing the task. It “takes a village” to get this done, and it would not be possible without our dedicated, enthusiastic volunteers. Torah Fund truly appreciates their efforts.