Thinking pink
Temple’s Sisterhood celebrates Pink Week
Temple Beth Orr’s Sisterhood raised breast cancer awareness with its annual Pink Week that began with an educational event and continued with a pink challah bake.
The kick-off event took place at the synagogue located in Coral Springs on Oct. 8 and featured speakers Dr. Fred Kalman, a hematologist and oncologist in Tamarac, present “DNA and the new Chemotherapies” and Tali Amihud from the American Cancer Society discuss how money raised helps the community.
Judie Goren, coordinator for Pink Week, estimated approximately 60 people attended the opening educational event and said that Kalman and Amihud’s presentations were “fabulous.”
When asked what she thought stood out from the presentations, Goren responded, “The fact that there is hope, the fact that we we’re working on a cure and that there are so many different kinds of chemo that can help people.”
Goren said the audience was very impressed with the information and kept Kalman for approximately 45 minutes afterward to answer questions.
“I think the people were happy to hear there’s an explosion of new treatments and
“I feel it’s good to bring awareness to Pink Week and to share this with our congregation. The fact that the challah is pink and everyone shares it is meaningful.” -- Lynn Silvern, Temple Beth Orr Sisterhood
new diagnostic things that we can do now to help cure more people with breast cancer and to have those who are not curable live a lot longer than they did years ago,” Kalman said.
Kalman said he tried to highlight a couple of things in his presentation.
“One is some new advances in treatment of breast cancer and I also tried to walk the people who were at the temple what it’s like to be diagnosed with breast cancer and how we evaluate people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer,” he noted.
Sisterhood members also baked pink challah on Oct. 12. While the bread’s crust was the typical brown color, its interior was pink. At press time, this challah bread is intended to be used on Oct. 13 for the synagogue’s annual breast cancer awareness “Pink Shabbat.”
Sisterhood member Lynn Silvern said, “I feel it’s good to bring awareness to Pink Week and to share this with our congregation. The fact that the challah is pink and
everyone shares it is meaningful.”
Lynn Trachtman, a Sisterhood member and breast cancer survivor of six years, said about her challah baking experience for awareness, “It makes me feel very blessed and thankful that I am here and alive to be doing this.”
The Sisterhood has its Pink Week walk on Oct. 28 when its team, “TBO Sisterhood We’re Pink” walks at Huizenga Park in Fort Lauderdale for the annual “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” Walk in memory of Sisterhood members who died of cancer. Visit makingstrideswalk.org/ browardfl to join the team and walk or donate. Contact Goren at judiegfl@hotmail.com for more information on the walk.
Call the synagogue at 954-753-3232 for more information on Pink Week.