
March 2023
Shabbat Morning Torah Study
Torah Study will be via diverse access: in person in the Feuerstein Family Activity Center or on Zoom You can connect via your computer or telephone using Zoom. You can register just once for all future sessions, by clicking HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Come occasionally or come every week. These eclectic and lively discussions about the week’s Torah portion consider the text through traditional and modern commentaries, as well…
Find out more »Shabbat Lay Led Service
An informal service, open to all, featuring prayer, singing and Torah discussion in a relaxed and friendly setting. Located in the Foster Family Chapel, or via the Beth Israel Chapel YouTube Channel. Please contact Gordon Glenn at gaglenn@prodigy.net to be added to the Lay Led Service list. For those attending virtually and who do not have your own Mishkan Ti’filah for Shabbat, you can get a Kindle version for $4.99 at the following link: Amazon/Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mishkan-Tfilah-Shabbat-Reform-Siddur-ebook/dp/B016R0HSLU/ref=sr_1_2 If you have an…
Find out more »Men’s Club Discussion Group
The purpose of the Men’s Discussion Group is to create a forum for men who are members of Congregation Beth Israel to meet together, enjoy camaraderie and to discuss relevant issues. Participation is not limited to Beth Israel members and a reservation is not required. Discussion topics depend on what participants wish to discuss. Meetings are held via Zoom every second and fourth Monday of each month. Please RSVP via email to Marty Stern at mrstern847@gmail.com.
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »The Jewish American Paradox Embracing Choice in a Changing World
Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity? The situation of American Jews today is deeply paradoxical. Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence, and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But this extraordinarily diverse community now also faces four critical and often divisive challenges: rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance,…
Find out more »April 2023
Shabbat Morning Torah Study
Torah Study will be via diverse access: in person in the Feuerstein Family Activity Center or on Zoom You can connect via your computer or telephone using Zoom. You can register just once for all future sessions, by clicking HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Come occasionally or come every week. These eclectic and lively discussions about the week’s Torah portion consider the text through traditional and modern commentaries, as well…
Find out more »Shabbat Lay Led Service
An informal service, open to all, featuring prayer, singing and Torah discussion in a relaxed and friendly setting. Located in the Foster Family Chapel, or via the Beth Israel Chapel YouTube Channel. Please contact Gordon Glenn at gaglenn@prodigy.net to be added to the Lay Led Service list. For those attending virtually and who do not have your own Mishkan Ti’filah for Shabbat, you can get a Kindle version for $4.99 at the following link: Amazon/Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mishkan-Tfilah-Shabbat-Reform-Siddur-ebook/dp/B016R0HSLU/ref=sr_1_2 If you have an…
Find out more »Jewish Tunisia At a Crossroads of Civilization
Tunisia, the former seat of Cartaghe's empire, has been home to different Jewish communities for more than 2000 years. Its central location at a crossroads of civilizations led to multiple influences in food, culture, language and identity. Rafram will take us through the different elements of the complex Jewish layer of Tunisia, which took a fateful turn in 1967 after the Six-Day War. He will talk about how Jewish life looks today in Tunisia and about his work as a…
Find out more »Egypt, the Exodus, and the Passover Story
We all know the story of the Exodus – we hear each year in the Torah reading, we discuss it yearly at our sedars, and we have our conceptions of illustrations firmly embedded in our minds-eye. But when we look at the story through the lens of Egypt, with actual Egyptian artifacts, what can we see? Not the pyramids, and not the chain-gang slave marches of Hollywood, rather a glimpse of life, a peak at what could be understood in…
Find out more »DayTimers Book Club
DayTimers Book Club members share the wonder they discover "between the lines." Limited openings in the book club are available for newcomers interested in attending regularly and willing to lead book discussions. Men and women are welcome! This series is held in the Rotunda on the 3rd floor of Beth Israel. RSVP at least one week in advance to Randy Savarese at randybeth@aol.com. No fee (Beth Israel members only) December 6, 2022 - "The Women in the Castle" by Jessica Shattuck,…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »Shabbat Morning Torah Study
Torah Study will be via diverse access: in person in the Feuerstein Family Activity Center or on Zoom You can connect via your computer or telephone using Zoom. You can register just once for all future sessions, by clicking HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Come occasionally or come every week. These eclectic and lively discussions about the week’s Torah portion consider the text through traditional and modern commentaries, as well…
Find out more »Shabbat Lay Led Service
An informal service, open to all, featuring prayer, singing and Torah discussion in a relaxed and friendly setting. Located in the Foster Family Chapel, or via the Beth Israel Chapel YouTube Channel. Please contact Gordon Glenn at gaglenn@prodigy.net to be added to the Lay Led Service list. For those attending virtually and who do not have your own Mishkan Ti’filah for Shabbat, you can get a Kindle version for $4.99 at the following link: Amazon/Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mishkan-Tfilah-Shabbat-Reform-Siddur-ebook/dp/B016R0HSLU/ref=sr_1_2 If you have an…
Find out more »Pharaoh in Canaan Egyptian Presence in Israel
The name “Canaan,” which derives from the Bible and from ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern records, generally refers to the region of present-day Israel, western Jordan, Lebanon, and coastal and southern Syria and is more or less equivalent to the modern term “Levant.” Ancient texts from the region indicate that its population was of Semitic origin. The earliest mention of Canaan and Canaanites dates from the eighteenth century BCE, but the terms are now often applied to the region and…
Find out more »Men’s Club Discussion Group
The purpose of the Men’s Discussion Group is to create a forum for men who are members of Congregation Beth Israel to meet together, enjoy camaraderie and to discuss relevant issues. Participation is not limited to Beth Israel members and a reservation is not required. Discussion topics depend on what participants wish to discuss. Meetings are held via Zoom every second and fourth Monday of each month. Please RSVP via email to Marty Stern at mrstern847@gmail.com.
Find out more »“I’m Sorry I ate Your Fish” The Sturgeon Controversy and the Fish that Divided the Ashkenazic World
The debate over the kashrut of the sturgeon in turn of the 19th century Hungary began as a relatively minor Halachic dispute. Within a couple of years it erupted into a full-blown war of words replete with denunciations and threats of excommunication. Beyond the original fish question, at stake in this explosive controversy was the dynamic nature of Jewish law and whether or not long-established conventional tools of halachic-based innovation were still acceptable in the modern world. In the end,…
Find out more »Shabbat Morning Torah Study
Torah Study will be via diverse access: in person in the Feuerstein Family Activity Center or on Zoom You can connect via your computer or telephone using Zoom. You can register just once for all future sessions, by clicking HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Come occasionally or come every week. These eclectic and lively discussions about the week’s Torah portion consider the text through traditional and modern commentaries, as well…
Find out more »Shabbat Lay Led Service
An informal service, open to all, featuring prayer, singing and Torah discussion in a relaxed and friendly setting. Located in the Foster Family Chapel, or via the Beth Israel Chapel YouTube Channel. Please contact Gordon Glenn at gaglenn@prodigy.net to be added to the Lay Led Service list. For those attending virtually and who do not have your own Mishkan Ti’filah for Shabbat, you can get a Kindle version for $4.99 at the following link: Amazon/Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mishkan-Tfilah-Shabbat-Reform-Siddur-ebook/dp/B016R0HSLU/ref=sr_1_2 If you have an…
Find out more »The Jews of Summer Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America
In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearful that growing affluence and suburbanization threatened the future of Jewish life. Many communal educators and rabbis contended that without educational interventions, Judaism as they understood it would disappear altogether. They pinned their hopes on residential summer camps for Jewish youth: institutions that sprang up across the U.S. in the postwar decades as places for children and…
Find out more »Morning Mindfulness with Julie Potiker
Wednesdays mornings from 10:00-10:45 am Give yourself the gift of calm. Join Julie Potiker for this grounding way to start the day and move from a place of fear to a place of calm. In these forty-five-minute mindfulness sessions, you will experience bringing your attention to the present moment without judgment. For past sessions, visit: https://blubrry.com/balancedmind/ About Julie: Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert with extensive teacher training in a variety of tools and methods, including Mindful Self-Compassion. Through her…
Find out more »