- 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
…r Shabbat lunch or for the High Holiday meals. (BEKI provides clients with free tickets for High Holiday services.) In the summertime, Kulanu participants may have a joint program with one of BEKI’s social action committees—they will clean up Beaver Pond Park in southern Connecticut, where congregants have held Tashlich services during Rosh Hashana. Kulanu also plans to provide a job training sight at BEKI for adults with developmental disabilitie…
…Group BINA (our religious school) Teen Kesher USY and Kadima youth groups Free High Holy Day tickets Support from our Hesed Committee Shiva minyanim Choice of two affiliated cemeteries Programming for children and adults All Jews are invited to become members of BEKI, including: Jews by birth and Jews by choice (converts) Jews in mixed marriages and couples who are both Jewish Jews of all races Jews of all gender identities or sexual orientations…
…To fear something that – like water – They do not have. Instead, they are free To keen, to wail, to mourn. Loved by G-d, They can feel their loss, The loss of the man Who stood at the cusp of life and death To save kol ha-eydah. Aaron was not the red heifer. But if Miriam’s death Was a sudden and lonely death In the wilderness, At a time so fragile That no one mourned, Aaron’s death was, like the red heifer’s, A death that purifies: An ending wit…
…teachers’ and friends’ guidance, but I must make my own choices. It is my free will. That’s an exciting but scary realization. Like Jacob, I am aware that I might not always make good choices. I will have to use the guidance and advice I have received to choose the right paths throughout my life. And, like in Jacob’s dream, I hope that there may be new angels that will come to accompany me through the next stage of my life. One reason to be optim…
…r a quick fix. And so I sought her out and, as luck would have it, she was free to see me. She asked me many questions…questions about my relationship to God and Judaism. She truly had a gift because the words began pouring out of me. I told her that Judaism was something that haunted me…the melodies haunted me, the faces of the elders haunted me, even the movements during prayer haunted me…that I felt that it was a part of me but that I was not a…
…Torah publicly, but usually don’t because they haven’t yet learned how. We promote youth reading Torah because we are a learning congregation with a progressive outlook (or, alternatively, we are desperate for more Torah readers). Thanks to the Qiddush Committee, formed in 2004, for substantially enhancing the food presentations after Shabbat and Festival services. This has significantly improved the experience of members and visitors. The efforts…
…documented by the Mishna and other rabbinic texts, endorses the values of free speech, intellectual integrity and democracy. Individual sages were allowed to teach whatever they actually believed, even if it was not in keeping with the majorityʼs view. The sages could speak their minds and vote their consciences. It is true that the State of Israel has an official “Chief Rabbinate” (actually, two official Chief Rabbinates) whose determinations on…
…This recognition emerges from a study of Midrash, in which the sages felt free to create dialog for God for educational or inspirational purposes. While Midrash expresses profound truth, no one other than the fundamentalist or ignoramus would claim it to be an actual record of Divine dialog or veritable history. More than that, our sages recognized that any literary presentation of God is inherently limited by human experience and intelligence. R…
…bis. Our president, Donna Levine, explicitly said to me, “Jon-Jay, you are free to change your sexual orientation.” It is commonly believed that Beth El or Keser Israel has engaged quietly gay rabbis in the past. Our congregation, like many, simply accepts Gay and Lesbian individuals and families on the same basis as we accept everyone else. If you’re Jewish, and your check clears the bank, you can be a member. There are no ritual debilities and n…
…Best for infants through 4 year olds and their caregivers. This series is free to attend and brought to you by Shalom Baby, an initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven’s Women’s Philanthropy—designed to welcome Jewish babies and their families to the Jewish community in the Greater New Haven area. Co-sponsored by PJ Library. Join the Shalom Baby Meetups WhatsApp! Questions? Contact Young Family Engagement Coordinator, Elisabeth Wa…
