Olami - Aish JWI 2014

foreign the goal of the jwi is we want to be the ultimate Hub and destination for all Jewish women to come and be inspired and educated to bring back Jewish values to their families it nurtures my soul the weekly classes the monthly growth group it's from me and it's for my family my son's Bar Mitzvah was coming up and I knew it had to be at the Western Wall that never would have happened without the jwi I kept a blog when I was in Israel and every day I shared it with my husband and now my husband Phil is going on the next men's trip to Israel with jmi the way that I live my life now is much richer because of jwi Hannah and Sharon are not just our teachers they're our mentors they guide us they Inspire us to be the best that we can be our team Ruckel Sharon amuna michali they make the jwi the trip to Israel was really just a party favor the real party is right here in LA with our growth groups and our classes the learning connects the women to their purpose and each other we have such an amazing group of women in the jwi who are taking leadership roles and it's an expression of their gratitude I jumped at the opportunity to chair the Shabbos of unity the Shabbos of unity brought together women from all branches of Judaism we explored connecting to our spouses to our children to our community and to God where else is that going to happen only with the jwi when I took over the care and concern program from Lisa cotomer it was primarily for bereavement my vision is to have leaders in each community so we can be there for everybody this is a community of women that really want to be there for one another in their times of need Suzanne Kelly Stacy and I we all had a vision for expressing our gratitude and the jewelry was a perfect vehicle our jewelry line is called attitude of gratitude and that name was inspired by all of the learning that takes place at jwi what better way to have that constant reminder on your wrist we're a group of women who are social entrepreneurs we want this line to be meaningful and successful it was the high holidays we were swapping recipes back and forth and I thought wow we have enough recipes for a cookbook the idea for our cookbook was based on giving back and It produced a book that was just filled with so much love it was about honoring those that came before us and it was about creating new memories for our families I was blown away by the success of this award-winning cookbook is completely due to the 23 women who stood up and said I'll join you the goals for the fundraising programs are for all our activities growth group classes shabbaton of course our trip to Israel the excitement that I feel about jwi is spilling over into my family my husband Mark is about to embark on his Jewish Journey on the next men's trip to Israel the mission of jwi is if you change a woman you change a family and if you change a family you change a community and I've seen my community change the woman is the centerpiece of the Jewish Home inspire a Jewish woman and she will inspire everyone around her