- 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
…h the functions of the priests; that is to say, it deals with the tangible day-to-day reality of the Jewish religion while the Temple stood. The rest of the Torah has historical, philosophical, and legal interest to Jews of the Temple period, but VaYiqra, as a guidebook to sacrifice and the atonement of sin, contained an immediate, practical, concrete blueprint for how to get right with God. This was the owner’s manual of the Jewish way of being i…
…ou all. Please help us again, this time by passing along our thanks to the number of congregants who are away this weekend of Thanksgiving, giving thanks of their own elsewhere. The morning of the surgery I prayed and learned another prayerbook lesson, this time explicit. At my request, Marsha had brought me a copy of our Siddur, Sim Shalom. Uncharacteristically, I admit, I started from the beginning of the Shaharit, or morning, service. There I d…
…children are needed to help strengthen the community and fellowship every day of the year. Captains are needed to help organize daily services. Master Chefs, Vegetable Choppers & Shoppers – Cooks, cleaners, shoppers and organizers are needed to participate in the four Kiddush Preparation Teams managed by the Kiddush Committee, and the same is needed for the Benei Mitzva Kiddush Committee. On most Shabbatot and festivals, the Congregation provide…
…e east coast in 2019. Lisa had worked as a Literacy Specialist at a Jewish Day School in Los Angeles for many years, and as the Educational Director for OROT, a program for Jewish children with learning differences, in Philadelphia for 2 years. Mike is a California Land Use Attorney who works on various planning, zoning, and entitlement issues for clients in Southern California. Lisa and Mike moved to Woodbridge in mid-2022 and are enjoying “count…
…le, by the way, which sent an altogether different message. At the women’s service 15 years ago, when we took out the Torah, instead of carrying it around the room for people to touch and kiss, we passed it from one person to another. As we stood and waited for the Torah to come from row to row, it looked almost as if women were embracing and handing a child to each other. While we did this, we sang a verse from the siddur: “ve-kulam miqablim alei…
…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…
…t sister, Gilah, who sat with me for many hours teaching me the psalms and services that I sang today; and my father and rabbi, Jon-Jay, for helping me write my devar Torah and for enthusiastically correcting my Hebrew accents and pronunciations. I want to thank my loving mother who taught me the haftora portion and trope. Thank you, Tsvi and Noam, for all of your brotherly love. And thank you to all of you here today for sitting through my captiv…
…e made a few changes in the decoration and lighting of the sanctuary for today’s services. With a desire to seek beauty in the services, members of the Singers’ Circle have prepared a few songs and new harmonies for the services and the Qiddush. And finally in our exploration of art in the synagogue, we are fortunate also to have some beautiful pictures of Moroccan synagogues displayed in the lobby. They were created by one of our prospective memb…
…taphor for what has separated my Jewish soul from my Jewish home all these years. I think the waters parted for me a few years ago. I had been living in Connecticut for a few years now and had toyed for a long time with the idea of seeking out a synagogue. I got on the mailing lists of all kinds of synagogues in the area. Each month I read the brochures and made a promise to myself to visit a synagogue. But each week I found excuses. Then I read a…
…ll be carried into the main lobby and new chapel and library in the coming year, and one day farther down the road, into the sanctuary. You can feel good about your donation to the renovationsÿugwe making the shul safer, more accessible, more energy efficient, and more logically arranged for everyday use. Not fancier or prettier. OK, maybe a little prettier. Turning from the haftara to the Torah portion, Parashat Pequdei concludes the book of Exod…
