Welcome to
Congregation Beth
Israel
Mission Statement: Congregation Beth Israel seeks to be a welcoming, diverse Jewish community, that promotes spiritual growth, lifelong learning, charity, and social justice.
Congregation Beth Israel provides Charlottesville, Albemarle and surrounding counties with a welcoming Jewish environment in which people can study, worship, socialize and take part in helping others. CBI offers both Reform and Conservative worship services.
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In November, CBI hosted a staged reading of “Both Sides of the Family”, which explored the issues faced by mixed-faith families. Special thanks to Robin Macklin for taking these wonderful photos of the performance, the panel discussion, and the luncheon conversations which followed. Conversations about inclusion, affiliation, and engagement continue with Inclusion & Integration Discussions, scheduled for Thursday, February 23, at 7:30 p.m.at the Laufer residence. Please contact Liora Laufer at lioralaufer@earthlink.net for location and directions.
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Tzedakah Fund
Nine years ago the Social Action Committee formed the Tzedakah Fund to give CBI members an opportunity to support local nonprofit organizations. Since its inception, the Fund has distributed over $54,000 to approximately 35 local human service organizations. What makes this fund unique is that we have targeted our resources primarily to nonprofits where small sums of money can make a huge difference in their success.
The Tzedakah Fund supports local agencies that provide direct services to benefit those in need. The Fund also supports synagogue-wide initiatives such as IMPACT (a local group of religious organizations involved with social justice) and Habitat for Humanity. The Free Clinic, Region Ten, and The Salvation Army have also received grants for specific programs.
The Social Action Committee and the Tzedakah Fund highlight Congregation Beth Israel’s commitment to the betterment of the greater Charlottesville community. The Tzedakah Fund is now accepting applications from local non-profit human service organizations through February 28, 2012. To download an application, please click here. You may also call the CBI office at (434) 295-6382, or email at office@cbicville.org. If you know an organization which might be interested in making application for a grant this year, please encourage them to apply.
We hope local businesses, as well as individuals, will consider giving to the Tzedakah Fund. Checks should be made payable to CBI, memoed “Tzedakah Fund” and mailed to the CBI office at P. O. Box 320, Charlottesville, VA 22902.
Sandy Schustek, Tzedakah Fund Chair
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To download instructions for Online Ordering of Purim Baskets, click here.
To download a hard copy of the Purim Basket Order Form, click here.
The CBI Religious School invites you to join in the Purim tradition of “Mishloach Manot,” celebrating friendship through the giving of gift baskets. Purim Basket Orders will be taken on our secure website through the log-in above. A letter was sent to all member households in January regarding Purim baskets, including your exclusive log-in code. You will need this code to log-in. All orders must be completed by February 20. We will also continue to take paper order forms in the CBI office until Wednesday, February 17. Purim Baskets will be delivered on Sunday, March 4. The Purim Basket program is a Religious School fundraiser and helps support scholarships, as well as special events. Thank you for your support!
If you have trouble logging in or placing your order, please contact Emily Leblang at eleblang@hotmail.com, or Pam Morris at pamela@cbicville.org.
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Online Oneg and Kiddush Sign-Up
CBI has created a new online calendar that anyone can use to sign up to host an Oneg or Kiddush! Just click on the link to open the calendar, add your name on the date you wish to host, be sure to save the document, and that's it! Hosting an Oneg or Kiddush is a generous and thoughtful way to contribute to the CBI community. Celebrate a birthday, wedding, or birth of a child; congratulate a fellow member on an achievement; commemorate a loved one, or just use it as a chance to meet your fellow members.
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by Evelyne Klein When our (fabulous) Membership Director asked if I would host a Shabbat dinner at our house, as a way to have long-standing members meet new members, I thought: What a terrific idea!! There were so many new members we did not know, and members we saw at temple events only. What better way to bring old and new together, get to know other members better, than around the Shabbat dinner table? I was amazed at the synergies between the old and new members who came: the conversation flowed around the table, with everyone introducing themselves, and topics ranging from the impact of Hillel on college students to training for boards, to activities for disabled youngsters and numerous other topics, both personal and otherwise. The conversation was lively and vigorous the entire evening. When our kids were young, my father would insist we come for Shabbat dinner on [...]
by Craig Parks I am a very rare breed in the Reform Movement. Out of over 900 congregations I am one of the very few full time Directors of Youth Programming that has been in my job over ten years. I have now spoken at my third national Biennial in a row and do so with great fervor. When those attendees come to my presentations and hear about the 60 -70 kids coming to our Teen Shabbat Jam 2 hour Friday night service once a month or our well over 100 9-12 graders participating in our programs such as the social action youth group Tikkun Project, or the summer camp that brings in gobs of kids and teens who work on staff I sometimes have to reach for napkins to wipe the drool off the faces. I can’t even tell you how many times I have heard the phrase “Can [...]
The Obama’s dog? No, it’s not that “Bo” my friend We’re talking Torah! In this week’s portion Pesach observance described A law for all time Kids are gonna ask What’s this seder mean to you? You must answer them Exodus 12:26-27 Your children may ask you, ‘What is this service to you?’ You must answer, ‘It is the Passover service to God. He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, sparing our homes.’
by Rabbi Henry Jay Karp In my first installment in this series, I spoke about the merger discussions between our congregation and the Tri City Jewish Center. At that time I stated that since I addressed institutional reasons for why the resulting congregation should affiliate with the Reform movement in my answers to the Merger Task Force’s questionnaire, therefore in this series I would restrict the focus of these articles to personal ideological reasons for my love of and commitment to Reform Judaism. However, as I now conclude this series, I wish to remove that self-imposed restriction and revisit why I feel so strongly about our congregation’s connection to the institutions and organizations of Reform Judaism. While ideology, practice, culture, all are important, they do not exist in a vacuum. They do not spring up overnight, born of thin air. Rather they are the product of like-minded people coming together [...]
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