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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Camp CBI 2012 Registration Now Open!
Camp CBI 2012 registration is now open! Camp CBI is a place for campers to create positive Jewish experiences which will last a lifetime. Our camp offers an enriched atmosphere in which Jewish themes and activities are interwoven into programming through music, crafts, sports, field trips, swimming and more! Camp CBI offers something for everyone; from preschoolers to high schoolers. Camp CBI is a fun, interactive and exciting way for your child to spend their summer. Register today and take advantage of our early bird savings! Questions? Please contact Shelby Apple (shelbyapple@yahoo.com) for campers entering grades 1-9 or Zac Price (preschool@cbicville.org) for preschool campers.
Please click on the following link to register your child for Camp CBI Summer 2012!
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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 Rabbi Leora Kaye I’m a rabbi, and my husband’s an atheist. My husband Doug’s atheism is well thought-out. He’s a loving, intelligent guy who doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t since he was eleven. He is moral, compassionate and Jewish, and he does not believe that his ethics are related to God. We believe parenting should be deliberate and purposeful, much like Reform Judaism. Choices should be based on knowledge, specifically knowledge about what kind of parent you want to be, what works in your family system and what works for your son or daughter. In this week’s Jewish Parenting Podcast, psychologist Richard Weissbourd says that while most parents do care about raising moral children, few make it their number one priority. Outside of the conversations my husband and I had trying to decide if a relationship between an atheist and a rabbi could work, we had one discussion [...]
The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern Mi Shebeirach tune. Growing up, that was all I ever knew of her – just a name above the words on a page. I grew up attending a Reform congregation, but I did not grow up “in the Movement,” per se. My mother and I were members of a small congregation in Northeast Ohio where there was no organized youth group, no NFTY or BBYO. There were just six students in my bat mitzvah class, and though we considered ourselves friends, we all attended different schools, which made friendships difficult outside of synagogue-related activities – and at my suburban public school, I was one of just two Jewish students. Needless to say, though I always identified as Jewish, I did [...]
by Lucy H. F. Dinner This year, I have the pleasure of studying the Book of Exodus together with the lay-led Hebrew Bible study group at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I serve as senior rabbi. Thisd’var Torah draws on comments and realizations from members of the study group. The Ten Commandments, iconic through the ages, open with a statement of God’s redeeming power. The Israelites are poised at the base of Mount Sinai; a thick cloud has descended. God’s Voice bellows in the thunder: “I the Eternal am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me” (Exodus 20:2–3). Some say that the first two commandments were all that the Israelites actually heard. The rest were transmitted to them through Moses. Rabbi Hezekiah b. Manoah, who compiled an anthology of earlier commentators, explains: [...]
by Susan Wiener I can still remember the day, my daughter Tracey ran into the house and announced my neighbor, Nancy, would like Jacob to be Adam’s mitzvah project for his bar mitzvah. Before I could even open my mouth and scream NO, my father, who was visiting, quietly said “be nice, say ok”. I swallowed my words and said “ok”. But it wasn’t. Next time I went to my synagogue I saw my Rabbi and tried to rationalize this request, but ended up pleading with him to agree with me “my son is not a mitzvah project”. In the end I had to tell my neighbor that this wasn’t going to work. A couple of years later the town in which I live in began an alternative sports league for children with disabilities. The program has a head coach and the opportunity for teens to volunteer for their mitzvah [...]
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