By Bobbi Sloan, VP Torah Fund
The Torah Fund pins are here! Those of you who made a donation last year at the level of Benefactor or above will be given pins this year. Edie Taylor is helping me out by distributing them at the High Holy Day services. Look for Edie with her basket of pins. We have extra pins for those who wish to increase their donation to $180 or who wish to make a first-time donation. Please respond to the recent campaign letter I sent out which includes a pledge card and an envelope to be sent directly to the New York Torah Fund office.
I want to use this article to retell a bit of history as to how our PJTC Rae Goodstein Memorial Torah Fund began at our synagogue. For those of you who are not familiar with the name Rae Goodstein and wonder about her connection with Sisterhood’s Torah Fund project, here is the story:
Rachel, or Rae, was the oldest daughter of Rebecca and Isadore Press, who were among the early founders of PJTC. Rae married Charles Goodstein and soon had a daughter, Mariam. In 1937, Rae gave birth to twin daughters, Marlene and Nadine. At the age of six weeks both infants developed pneumonia. During the long vigil at home, Rebecca Press vowed that if her infant granddaughters were spared, she would start an education fund at the synagogue by having a yearly fundraising program and paying all the expenses herself. Marlene and Nadine survived and Rebecca undertook the project. Every January, shortly after the twins’ birthday, they sponsored a dinner. There was entertainment: Rebecca wrote plays, partly in Yiddish, in which members of the family took part. Funds were raised and turned over to the congregation to be used for a variety of causes, most often to help provide Hebrew school scholarships, but sometimes to pay the electric bill or buy urgently needed supplies.
The project continued year after year including the period of World War II. Mariam, who married Hy Vego, joined her mother and grandmother, and the twins assisted as they grew older. After the death of Rebecca, Rae Goodstein was the guiding force, continuing with what had become a tradition, preparing all the food and making arrangements with the help of family and friends.
When our Sisterhood affiliated with National Women’s League almost 50 years ago, this endeavor became an integral part of Sisterhood activities. Rebecca Press and Rachel Goodstein’s project was called Torah Fund and the Press-Goodstein-Vego family continued to chair and fund the event. Upon the untimely death of Rae Goodstein in 1964, the Sisterhood of this Temple voted to name their annual Torah Fund event in her memory.
Education is one of the most important means of transferring the wealth of tradition from one generation to the next. When it comes to Torah Fund, you are interest. Investing in the future of our children – an investment in knowledge pays the best. Torah Fund supports the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Israel, the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires, and the Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany.
Thank you to all of our donors for your continued generosity. You are definitely making a difference!
