Celebrating Shabbat

Acharei Kiddush - “American Musical Shakespeare and the Jewish Voice” cancelled

Irene Dash, Ph.D., a professor at Hunter College and author of Wooing, Wedding and Power: Women in Shakespeare’s Plays and Shakespeare and the American Musical, will speak about the many Jewish voices that emerge as adaptors of Shakespeare created new American musicals for our time.

Her most recent book focuses on five productions from 1938 through 1971–The Boys from Syracuse (The Comedy of Errors), Kiss Me, Kate (The Taming of the Shrew), West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet), Your Own Thing (Twelfth Night), and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

This lecture was originally scheduled for February 7.

3-4 Grade Family Shabbat Dinner

This is a special Friday night service followed by a Family Shabbat Dinner for Kitot Gimmel and Dalet/Grades 3-4.

Day School families are invited to participate.

TGIS (Thank God It's Shabbat)

This family-friendly Shabbat morning service, which runs parallel to the main service, is for students in grades 2 to 5 and their families. We will have a light lunch including blessings, songs and surprises. Dates include:

November 7
January 30
March 13
May 1

Junior Congregation (ages 7 - 11)

School-age children of all ages and abilities are welcome to join this prayer service led by our own Bet Am Teens. This joyous group shares the experience of community prayer and song and explores the weekly parashah through parashah plays and discussion.

Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat) for Early Bedtimers


Join us as the Rabbi leads a very special Shabbat service from 5:30 - 6:00 PM for young children, their families, grandparents and friends.

Shabbat Congregational Dinner-cancelled

Our communal Shabbat dinner after the service is an enjoyable way to dine with old, new, and soon-to-be friends in the congregation. Come sing Shabbat songs, learn some Torah, and have some fun with our member Don Capelin’s audience-participation trivia game. Guests are most welcome.

This dinner has been cancelled--next dinner will be in the fall.

Homemade Kiddush

Enjoy delicious salads, kugels, desserts and other interesting, tasty dishes prepared by fellow congregants.

If you would like to volunteer to help prepare a dish please contact Michelle Billig at mskbillig [at] gmail [dot] com or Ilene Semiatin at ilene [at] cloud9 [dot] net as soon as possible.

Shabbat Meditation Before Tefilah

Have you been interested in cultivating meditative skills as a way of quieting the mind, entering contemplative states, expanding self awareness, and having greater access to a direct experience of prayer that holds personal meaning?  We cannot promise that all this will happen after our first meeting, but what we can offer is a series of experiences with our congregant teacher to take place before Shabbat Tefilah in the Synagogue  from 9 to 10 a.m. It is our hope that those wishing to enter a contemplative path will have an opportunity to create an ongoing practice.

Dates: October 2, November 6, December 4, January 8, February 5, March 5, April 2 and May 7.

Junior Congregation

School-age children of all ages and abilities are welcome to join this prayer service led by our own Bet Am Teens. This joyous group shares the experience of community prayer and song and explores the weekly parashah through parashah plays and discussion.

Dates: October 2, October 9, October 16, October 23, November 20, December 4, December 11, December 18, January 15, January 22, January 29, February 5, February 19, March 5, March 12, March 19, April 9, April 30, May 7, May 14 and May 21

Tot Shabbat (ages 2-6 years)

Preschoolers and their parents share Shabbat morning engaged in playful song and dance as well as age-appropriate prayer and torah study. The program is free and open to members and non-members. It meets monthly on Saturday mornings starting October 2. Subsequent sessions on: 11/20, 12/11, 1/22, 2/12, 3/5, 4/9 and 5/7.