Monday, January 18, 8 am - 5 pm, AJCC 

The Presidential Inauguration Committee is offering a Day of Service to celebrate and honor the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. You can do your part by contributing to the Alpert Jewish Community Center's Non-Perishable Food Drive. Help feed communities throughout the Greater Long Beach area, especially during Covid-19, offering each of us the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.

Here is a list of in-demand items:

Canned Vegetables, Beans and Fruits

Canned Fish and Meat: Tuna, Chicken, etc.

Household Items: Paper Products, Personal Hygiene, Cleaning Supplies, Baby Supplies, Laundry Supplies

Cereal and Breakfast Foods

Peanut Butter

Boxed and Canned Meals: Soup, Mac & Cheese, Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper

Powdered, Canned or Shelf-Stable Milk

Juice in shelf-stable plastic bottles or juice boxes

All donations may be dropped off into the boxes provided near the Health Screen area between the hours of 8 am - 5 pm at the AJCC.

Tuesday, January 19, 4 - 6 pm, Zoom 

NCJW-CA is a member of the Steering Committee of the Stronger California Advocates Network (SCAN), a collaboration of over 50 CA organizations and advocacy coalitions partnering with the Californnia Legislative Women’s Caucus to promote policy reform to improve the economic security of California's women and families. SCAN's Legislative Reception is the annual kick-off for each legislative year. Please join us and hear what key legislators and members of the Network say about their priorities at this Zoom webinar.

Wednesday, January 20, 7 pm, Zoom 

We have No Sew Throw Blanket Kits (size 4’ by 5’) that can safely be delivered to you to make easily and quickly on your own. Once completed, they will be picked up for delivery to several wonderful local organizations that help the homeless, refugees, and women and children in shelters. The need is greater than ever, especially during the cold winter months ahead.

If you are interested in making a fleece blanket, please contact Bobbi Horowitz at (657) 235-2511 or email info@ncjwlongbeach.org. Bobbi will be hosting 2 Zoom sessions with easy "how-to" instructions on Wednesday, January 20, at 7 pm, and Monday, January 25, at 11 am -- you're welcome to come to one or both (if you want to attend both, you'll have to register twice). We can work together to make blankets virtually, or you can do so on your own. Or just come to schmooze with all of us!

Please help either by delivering blankets to NCJW members, making blankets, or picking up and delivering completed blankets. This is truly a project we can feel good about while we stay safe during COVID-19. Thank you for helping us make a difference!

Pins and pendants are available for $36 and $50. Purchases can be made via our local NCJW website.

Thursday, January 21, 9:30 - 11 am, Zoom 

This event represents the coming together of California's childcare coalition with the End Child Poverty coalition, of which NCJW-CA is also an active member. Advocates and legislators will present their priorities for the year in key policy areas including child care, housing, health care, and the broader safety net. (In the afternoon, some of the advocates will meet with their legislators).

Join us to share your thoughts about NCJW's priorities as we go forward with the new administration.

Participation in the zoom discussion is free. For more information, call (657) 235-2511 or email programs@ncjwlongbeach.org.

Join us to hear Jill Wine-Banks, the author of The Watergate Girl -- My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President. This is the selection for our annual book review program, jointly sponsored by NCJW Greater Long Beach & West Orange County and Sharon-Carmel Hadassah. We are sure you will find this a very interesting and informative event. Note: the correct time of this event is 4 pm.

Jill Wine-Banks began her career as an organized crime prosecutor at the US Dept of Justice and became one of three assistant special prosecutors in the trial of President Nixon's top aides for obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal. She served as general counsel of the US Army, solicitor general and deputy attorney general of the State of Illinois and COO of the American Bar Association. She was the first woman to hold these positions. While at the Pentagon, she worked to eliminate the Woman’s Army Corps and integrate women into the Regular Army as well as into West Point and basic training. More recently Ms. Wine-Banks was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to the Judicial Proceedings Panel’s Subcommittee on Sexual Assault in the Military, where she served 2014-2017. She is currently an MSNBC legal analyst appearing regularly on the network's prime time shows.

The program is free; a donation to NCJW Greater Long Beach and West Orange County is appreciated. Your donation will help strengthen our role in advocating for issues important to women, children and families. For more information, call (657) 235-2511 or email programs@ncjwlongbeach.org.

Join us for our Fourth Thursday Movie Night discussion in January. In the 2016 movie "The Women’s Balcony," an Orthodox community attempts to cope with a new rabbi who is more rigid than the community. When he demands changes, the women rebel. The resulting saga elicits laughter from the audience while, at the same time, raising the question of what constitutes faith. Watch the movie on your own (available for a nominal fee on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and others), then come to share your thoughts!

For more information email programs@ncjwlongbeach.org or call (657) 235-2511.

Wouldn't it be fun to bake a birthday cake for a foster child?

For Goodness Cakes is a nonprofit organization that gives underprivileged youth in the foster care system the chance to have a birthday by matching volunteers to bake special cakes just for them. Its mission is to give individual youth one special moment that is about them, helping to nurture optimism and confidence at a critical age. What a wonderful and meaningful opportunity for our Section to get involved.

Here’s how it works: For Goodness Cakes receives requests from nonprofit agencies that work with at-risk youth for cake orders. After you complete an online orientation and quiz, you are accepted as part of the Sprinkle Squad, which allows you to pick a cake-making assignment according to YOUR schedule. To learn more, visit the For Goodness Cakes website at https://www.forgoodnesscakes.org/volunteer/. Once you have joined the Sprinkle Squad, please contact Bobbi Horowitz at (657) 235-2511 or email info@ncjwlongbeach.org.

Orange County Jewish Coalition for Refugees (OCJCR) presents a panel of legal and policy experts who will discuss HIAS's advocacy priorities for 2021, including current protocols and future goals for refugee children, asylum seekers on our southern border, and those would-be refugees seeking to resettle in the United States from the Muslim world. You'll hear about the current state of asylum law and refugee programs, as well as gain insights as to how you can partner with the OCJCR to advocate for the protection of vulnerable refugees and displaced persons.

Go to https://theocjcr.wixsite.com/website for more information and to register.

Let's get together to share what you have read and seen related to anti-racism and how it has affected you and the groups to which you belong.

Please watch The Manchurian Candidate, either the 1962 version or the 2016 version, or both (available on Amazon Prime), and then join us to discuss. Among other topics, let's look at how the roles of women and men have changed over the last 54 years!

February 4: Board meeting, 7 pm. RSVP for Zoom link.

March 4: Board meeting, 7 pm. RSVP for Zoom link.

March 11: Game Day. TBA. RSVP here for Game Day.

March 18: 3rd Thursday Discussion Group, 7 pm. Status of the ERA in the current administration. What did you do in the 1970s about the ERA issue? RSVP here.

March 25: 4th Thursday Movie Discussion Group, 7 pm. Movie: Suffragettes (available on Netflex or Amazon Prime). RSVP here.

Email us at info@ncjwlongbeach.org, call (657) 235-2511, or send mail to NCJW Greater Long Beach & West Orange County, 6216 E. Pacific Coast Highway, #239, Long Beach, CA 90803. Please add this contact information to your contacts list.