B'nai Israel Congregation

$36 for members; $50 for nonmembers Learn the art and logic of chanting Haftarah! This is a practical skills-focused class that will culminate with an opportunity to chant Haftarah at shul on a Shabbat morning. Open to students at all levels.

An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmother’s maternal line. In this talk, Professor Leibman overturns the reclusive heiress’s assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor, Christian, and enslaved in Barbados. Leibman traces the siblings’ extraordinary journey around the Atlantic world, using artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten people of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived.

Every year at the seder we celebrate our liberation from Egypt. Surprisingly, however, the seder contains very little information about what our enslavement in Egypt was like or how we managed to survive our time there. Join us as we study rabbinic texts about what the Jewish people endured in Egypt and the strategies they used to survive and even flourish under Egyptian rule. Along the way we'll ask ourselves: what are the tools that enable human beings to endure oppression? What do human beings need, in times of trauma, to create meaning and even joy? What does it look like to insist on one's own humanity in a world that seeks to deny it--and what might this teach us about what it means to be human in the first place? This is a special offering for Pesah 2022 and registration for this course includes two lectures that will take place on Zoom.

A new year and a new tractate of Talmud! Join us to study Tractate Berakhot which includes a comprehensive discussion of the Shema and Amidah, the essential components of the prayer service. Newcomers are more than welcome to join us. No prior knowledge is necessary.

Each grade leads significant components of our Shabbat Morning Youth & Family Services, demonstrating their mastery of the prayers and offering insights on the weekly Torah portion.

Join us on selected Saturday mornings for discussions about the weekly Torah parsha. Interested in leading a session? Contact Wendy Fanaroff (wfanaroff@gmail.com).

We will host Gadeer Kamal Mreeh, Senior Envoy to DC from the Jewish Agency for Israel, on Saturday, March 26. She will address the congregation during Shabbat services. Click here for virtual access information.

Now offered almost every week, Family Minyan includes spirited prayer, an engaging Torah reading, and lively conversation about the weekly Torah portion. This service is organized by our shlicha, Netta Asner-Minster, who leads it alongside Rabbi Mitchell Berkowitz, and Moshe Ben-Lev, Educational Director.