- 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
…ans can be accomplished safely. Federal Holidays & Special Days Sunday and weekday morning services 9:00a (not 7:00a) on the following Federal Holidays: 1 January (observed day), Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day (Fourth of July), Labor Day Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday, and 25 December (observed day). No Afternoon or Evening services on Thanksgiving and first and second nights of Passover unless otherwise announced. S…
…op giftshop@beki.org Directory directory@beki.org Main Office Hours Monday 9:00a to 5:00p Tuesday Working remotely (available by phone 9:00a to 5:00p) Wednesday 9:00a to 5:00p Thursday Working remotely (available by phone 9:00a to 5:00p) Friday 9:00a to 3:00p Closed on Federal Holidays and major Jewish Festivals (Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atseret-Simhat Torah, Passover, Shavuot). Informational recordings, voice-mail messaging a…
…editor in chief of the [New Haven] Advocate, is about to be published. The book is called Thirteen and a Day, and it’s a look at contemporary American Judaism through the institution of the bar- and bat-mitzva. Mark visited a lot of synagogues to see how they handle their benei mitzva preparations and celebrations, and he happened to come to BEKI on the Shabbat of Annie Bass’s bat mitzva. Later, he interviewed the Basses, the rabbi and me. I think…
…the obligations of each: Passover, where we eat unleavened bread for seven days; the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, seven weeks later, the season of the giving of the Torah; and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles which ends with Simhat Torah, when the yearly reading of the Torah is completed and begun again. Parallels for us? I’d like to comment briefly on Shavuot and why we chose this day to come before you. Whereas on Passover there is a prescription…
…that is set to the portion that we are reading on the given occasion. The weekly reading goes in sequence, so each shabbat we begin reading from the spot we left of the previous week. But on festivals and other occasions we may read from another place, and so to prevent tirha de’tsibbur (imposition on the congregation) we do not roll the scrolls while everyone waits but instead set them before the service. As a matter of our own convention, at BE…
…Jewish values; second, a commandment that appears at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion that makes no sense today; and finally, a position held by the Conservative movement that — to my mind — also makes no sense and ought to be altered, in light of the values that my mother taught. First things first. As many of you know, my mother Shulamit Lubarr passed away last year. She was a gifted Hebrew teacher. She taught kitah aleph and bet for m…
…n to welcome us. I felt embraced, and I didn’t feel invisible anymore. One day I was speaking with my brother-in-law on the phone. I was talking about BEKI (which by this time I had joined) and the feeling that I have here. And I confided in him that one day I’d like to get up on the bima and read from the Torah. And as I said these words I began to tremble. The very thought was overpowering to me. To even think of myself as playing such an honore…
…are holders for the siddurim and chumashim on the chairs, what are in the bookcases? Extras? The bookcases could hold extra prayer books and chumashim (Bibles), as well as large-print editions, Megillot (readings for Purim and other holidays), alternative versions of these books, and commentaries. The shelves could also provide temporary storage for tallit bags during service times. Accessibility, Ark, and Ark Platform/Bimah How have we accommoda…
…e shelter, meals, and fellowship from early evening through breakfast each day for one week. The program is named to remind us Abraham’s hospitality to strangers from the book of Genesis in the Bible. BEKI has participated in this outstanding initiative since the winter of 2010-11, working closely each year with our partners (and after all these years – our friends) at the Church of the Holy Spirit (COHS) in West Haven. BEKI has been the primary h…
…onest about our lives. And it’s a lesson that is useful for all of us. The weekday morning liturgy affirms this biblical instruction and includes this powerful statement about honesty: A person should always be in awe of Heaven in private and in public, and admit the truth and speak truth in one’s heart. We recite this line before we recite the Shema, that powerful affirmation of the oneness of God and the interconnection of all things and our rol…
