TBI’s Response to COVID-19
Sept 24, 2021: Please see Updated Reopening Guidelines (PDF).
To keep our community together, we are livestreaming numerous services, classes, and events, and some learning opportunities will be recorded so that you can watch at your convenience. To get the most up-to-date information, subscribe to This Week @ TBI, the weekly e-newsletter, sent each Wednesday afternoon. If you are in need of assistance, or if you have questions, please call the office at 541.485.7218.
Temple Beth Israel (TBI) is a center for Jewish life, embracing traditional wisdom with contemporary insight. We promote the spiritual, educational, and social well-being of our members, the Jewish people of Lane County, and the larger community.
TBI is a member of the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement. We welcome people of all Jewish backgrounds, interfaith families, and people exploring Judaism, as well as Jews and explorers of Judaism of all races and of all sexual and gender identities. Whether you are religious, cultural, atheist, agnostic, or searching, there is a place for you at TBI!
Mondays, Nov 1, 8, & 15, 7:00-8:15pm, via Zoom
with Barry Nobel, JD, PhD
» Register here Deadline is October 27th!
Given the intensity of controversy swirling across our nation, this workshop provides an opportunity to strengthen our abilities to communicate honestly, respectfully, and effectively with others with whom we disagree, in order to learn and grow individually, interpersonally, and as one human family!
Our tradition provides wise guidance on how to engage in controversies for the sake of Heaven. We will explore, and begin to apply, these teachings to current affairs. We’ll examine (and perhaps disagree about?) these principles and select controversial topics for discussion. We will converse about these topics and debrief our time together, sharing what went well and how the workshop (and we, ourselves) can improve in the future.
Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family
Monday, Oct 25, 7:00pm, via Zoom (registration required)
Book preorder – Amazon or direct from the publisher.
Laura Arnold Leibman is a Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon (USA) and the author of The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects (Bard Graduate Center, 2020) which won three National Jewish Book Awards. Her earlier book Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (2012) won a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award and a National Jewish Book Award. Her work focuses religion and the daily lives of women and children in early America and uses everyday objects to help bring their stories back to life. She has been a visiting fellow at Oxford University, a Fulbright scholar at the University of Utrecht, the University of Panama, and the Leon Levy Foundation Professor of Jewish Material Culture at Bard Graduate Center.
Global Day of Jewish Learning is just around the corner. TBI will join hundreds of communities, large and small, for one day of intercontinental Jewish learning, powered by Limmud. Launched in 2010 as an effort to connect Jews around the world in mutual appreciation of Jewish wisdom, the Global Day of Jewish Learning is inspired by the vision and leadership of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z”l. The topic for this Global Day of Jewish Learning is The Bonds Between Us.
In the morning you’re invited to join in with our Talmud Torah Families for three sessions aimed at families with students ages 5 – 13. All are welcome.
9:30-10:05am – Learning with Rabbi Ruhi Sophia – Keeping our Bonds Strong: becoming a ‘student of Aaron,’ a peacemaker
10:05-10:35am – Music with Morah Mina
10:35-11:00am – Learning with Rabbi Solomon – Who is Your Haver/a (Friend) and Why
The Zoom link is here.
From 12:00-1:00pm Rabbi Solomon will offer an additional session titled: “What is My Connection with God?” – Text Study and Learning with Rabbi Solomon – for TT parents and the TBI community via zoom (please see pages 1 & 2 of this PDF).
The Zoom link for the noon session is here.
In honor of TBI’s theme for 5782, “pursuing peace,” this series explores the efforts and experiences of Israelis and Palestinians who invest their energy and resources in building the shared society they envision. It is our hope that their presentations will help break down the false binary of “supporting Israel” versus “supporting Palestinians” and instead allow our members to engage with the many possible visions of a just society in Israel–and to get to know and support the Israelis and Palestinians already working towards those visions.
Series via Zoom and hosted by Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein
Sunday, October 31, 11:00am: Standing Together
Alon-Lee Green, is the founding National Director of Standing Together, a progressive grassroots movement established in the winter of 2015, which mobilizes people around issues of peace, equality, and social justice. As an adolescent, Alon-Lee was active in organizing Israel’s first trade union of waiters who worked for a chain of coffee-shops. He went on to found Israel’s first National Waiters Union, and has appeared numerous times in the media regarding young workers’ rights. In the summer of 2011, he was a prominent leader of Israel’s social protest movement and convened some of its largest rallies. He worked in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as a political adviser for five years, involved in the legislative process and building citizens’ campaigns that influenced parliamentary decisions.
Sally Abed is a staff member and an elected member of the national leadership at Standing Together. In recent years, Sally has become a prominent Palestinian voice in Israel that is putting forward the holistic view that identifies the interrelation between the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories, growing social and economic disparities within Israeli society, the threat of climate change, and attacks by the government on democratic freedoms and Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. Sally is a recurring guest on the Promised Podcast and the Co-host of the new podcast Groundwork – a mini series about Palestinians and Jews refusing to accept the status quo and working together for change.
Sunday, November 21, 11:30am Pacific time: Friends of Roots
“At a time when both sides are convinced ‘there is no partner for peace,’ we have found otherwise.”
Friends of Roots (friendsofroots.net/) is “A unique network of local Palestinians and Israelis who have come to see each other as the partners we both need to make changes to end our conflict. Based on a mutual recognition of each People’s connection to the Land, we are developing understanding and solidarity despite our ideological differences. Roots is a place where local peoples can take responsibility. Our work is aimed at challenging the assumptions our communities hold about each other, building trust and creating a new discourse around the conflict in our respective societies. This is a grassroots and local model for making change — from the bottom up. Despite living so close to each other, Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank exist in almost complete separation, and both sides have little knowledge of each other’s lives or humanity. Stereotypes are generally reinforced by exposure to only the aggression of the other; whether through media or personal experience of violence and trauma.
Through our projects and workshops, we create trust and partnership — the societal foundations upon which future political agreements can be built.”
Temple Beth Israel in Eugene and Temple Beth Sholom in Salem present two members of the Roots Palestinian-Israeli Network, Noor Awad and Rabbi Shaul Judelman, presenting the amazing work of Friends of Roots.
Please register for this event. If you are not a member of either TBS or TBI, and we do not recognize your name from registering, you will not be admitted into the meeting.
Sunday, December 19, 10:00am Pacific time: Parents Circle – Families Forum in Israel & Palestine
The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Moreover, the PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable peace. The organization thus utilizes all resources available in education, public meetings and the media, to spread these ideas. Learn more here.
Sunday, December 5, 10:30am, via Zoom
Hosted by Havurah Shalom, Portland, Oregon
This online program features two of Hand in Hand school principals from Israel, Manar Hayadre and Efrat Meyer, who will discuss the important work they do.
The Israeli organization, Hand in Hand, established a network of integrated Jewish-Arab schools in Israel, with thousands of Jewish and Arab students. This social movement proves that people can live together as Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians.
Sundays, 10:00am, via Zoom (See the e-news for the Zoom link.)
with Deborah Green, Professor of Ancient Religion, Bible, and Rabbinic Interpretation
Learn about נ”ך (naḥ) – the Prophets and Writings parts of the Hebrew Bible. Deborah Green, professor of ancient religion, Bible, and rabbinic interpretation will lead a weekly discussion on these two often overlooked sections of the Bible. Our ḥevruta (study group) will read together in English and explore one or two chapters each week. You need access only to a Jewish Bible in English, preferably the Jewish Publication Society translation, and an inquisitive mind.
You can leave a Jewish legacy. It’s actually quite simple! By securing legacy gifts, Temple Beth Israel can be certain that we will be here for future generations.
Community members who do not have a printed copy of Kol Haneshamah can use these links to view or download PDF files and follow along with live-streamed services from home.
» Daily Prayerbook
» Shabbat Vehagim
» Prayers for a House of Mourning
Shalom, families! Temple Beth Israel has a variety of programming for all ages. There’s something for everyone!
Our congregational theme for 5782 is Rodef Shalom, pursuing peace. Our offerings this fall aim to provide pathways for us to become pursuers of peace, each in our own way.
