- Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
…f it: the sons giving their mother a tallit. When our heritage is passed mi-dor le-dor – from generation to generation – we expect it to go only in one direction, not the other. I was thrilled by the beautiful gift, and even more thrilled that they understood how important such a thing would be to me, and how precious, coming from them. They also gave me a bicycle, by the way, which sent an altogether different message. At the women’s service 15 y…
…your fellow loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent (Deut. 22:1-4). “You must not remain indifferent.” The root, ayin, lamed, mem, means to hide, to conceal. In this verse, the verb is in the reflexive form, so it means you must not hide yourself, and by extension, it means you mustn’t ignore or run away from your neighbor’s needs. If you see someone’s beast of burden fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must help him raise it. Th…
…. Everyone has multiple claims on their limited resources. But BEKI is a do-it-yourself enterprise, as we all know. Luckily, that means that a lot of people are willing to pitch in, in a lot of different ways, and don’t wait to be asked. It was easy to pull off a successful silent auction at the Annual Meeting, and a wonderful morning of landscape work last Sunday. In VaEthanan, we see that the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness were winding…
…Thus I am pleased to report to you that, though long overdue, the shul’s 40-year-old underground heating oil storage tanks were removed this past fall without incident. There had been no leaks. In this we were lucky since their life expectancies had long since expired. However, the tanks are just the beginning. Their removal sensitized us to the critical need to continue renovating our entire heating and cooling infrastructure. Our furnace is anci…
…17 Oct Drive-By Food Collection October 17, 2021 10:00 am – 11:00 am Home Page Interior Page The next drive-by food collection will be held Sunday, October 17 from 10 to 11 am in the BEKI parking lot. Call 203.671.4705 to arrange […] More Info…
…uld we be? Sincere effort is made to be kind and respectful to extended non-Jewish family members at life-cycle events. Indeed, many non-Jewish people participate happily in most aspects of our synagogue community. Even more so at other Jewish institutions such as the Jewish Community Center or Jewish Family Service; everyone is most welcome. And more importantly, many non-Jewish people have achieved great success in raising Jewish children. It’s…
…on context – a Google search turned up coming out as Canadian, as a cancer-survivor, as a neo-con, as an atheist. So this is the meaning of the text: be honest with yourself in all that you do. Lying with a man as with a woman is a metaphor for lying to yourself, (perhaps the English resonance of lying is not coincidental!), for not facing the truth of your life and sharing it with others. If we are not honest with ourselves, we cannot be present…
…population. Major funding for the first year of Saul’s Circle (5760 – 1999-2000) was provided by a grant from the The Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven and by Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel (BEKI). BEKI has taken a lead regionally in programs for adults and children with special needs. In 1994, the Congregation became the first in our region to offer a Special Education Hebrew School, the Talmud Torah Meyuhad, which it founded as part of…
