blog

Dear Friends,

We are writing with important community news to share. After 21 years as the Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel, Rabbi Justin David has accepted the position of Dean of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College, to begin on July 1, 2023. While we are excited for Rabbi David, we will miss his extraordinary leadership at CBI. The CBI leadership team is here to support our community...Read more...

We are very excited to announce that enrollment is now open for our brand new teen education program called CHALLAH! At no point in recent history has CBI held regular, ongoing classes for teens beyond the b'nai mitzvah age, and we are glad that we can now provide those in grades 8th - 11th an opportunity to sink...Read more...

[Photo: Architect Maryann Thompson and director at large, building committee member and former co-president Max Page facilitate a group discussion]

A big thanks to everyone who came out for the recent community discussion! Following the Abundance Farm Spring Work Day, we met with architect Maryann Thompson to learn more about...Read more...

Dear CBI Community, 

We are thrilled to share that Rabbi Ariella Rosen will be joining the Congregation B’nai Israel community as our new Director of Youth and Family Education and Engagement (DYFEE) on June 1, 2022.

After a thorough six-month search process, led by a search committee whose members ranged in age from thirteen to seventy, Rabbi Rosen emerged as the standout leader. Her deep and...Read more...

Dear Friends,

The recent anti-Semitic attacks and other incidents reported nationally arouse grave concern and prompt us to ask a number of critical questions about ourselves and our engagement as a Jewish community.  For each of us in different ways, such events may strike us either as unexpected or alternatively as familiar, but nevertheless they are shocking.  Looking to lessons learned over the past several years, I...Read more...

“Sha’alu Shalom Yerushalayim, Seek the Peace of Jerusalem…”

Psalms, 123: 6

Dear Friends,

My most basic, human response to the violence in Jerusalem, in Gaza, and numerous cities within Israel  is heartbreak.  In the face of lives lost, pervasive fear, dreams broken and rage unleashed, a...Read more...

Dear Friends,

I am very excited to share that I will be teaching a 5-session series on Reparations and Jewish Tradition, Sundays at 10:00 AM, April 11 - May 9.  

These sessions will explore the sources that people are look to for guidance in response to the call from the Black community and communities of color generally to compensate victims of slavery and systemic racism in our society.  Drawing on...Read more...

Dear Friends,

I know you join me in the sense of horror over the murders in Atlanta that left 8 people dead, 6 of whom were of Asian descent.  If you have read about this tragedy, you have also read how this incident reflects an alarming rise against Asian-Americans generally.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, there have been nearly 3800 incidents against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the past year. ...Read more...

Dear Friends,

By now, you may have heard of the devastating fire at the Martin Luther King Community Presbyterian Church in Springfield.  The church is a predominantly Black church, and the fire is being investigated by city, state and federal agencies.  According to several news reports, it has not yet been determined whether this fire was an act of arson or a hate crime.

I have reached out to the church directly as well as...Read more...

Shalom Friends,

Here is the link to tomorrow's Talmud study.  Tomorrow is Hanukkah, so in addition to our usual morning prayers beginning at 9:30, we'll also chant Hallel as part of the holiday.  That means our study will begin a little bit later - closer to 10:15 than our usual 10:00.

Also, I apologize for no video d'var Torah...yet!  Hopefully, I'll be able to record and send something after Shabbat.

Finally,...Read more...