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Melissa Schapiro
About Melissa Schapiro
Posts by Melissa Schapiro:
Kulshan Chorus Postponed
POSTPONED — WILL BE RESCHEDULED
If you’ve made a donation to Kulshan Chorus and want a refund, please email: treasurer@kulshanchorus.org
Congregation Beth Israel Presents:
Why We Sing, A Kulshan Chorus Concert
7 p.m. Saturday, January 15, 2022 (doors open 6:30 p.m.)
751 San Juan Boulevard, Bellingham
COVID PROTOCOLS:
- All attendees (including children) and performers must be fully vaccinated and wear masks
- Registration is required (deadline: Thursday, January 13).
- Registration requires all adults provide name, phone and email (just in case contact tracing becomes necessary)
- At door check-in, proof of vaccination is required for all ages, and photo ID is required for adults and teens.
- Attendance is limited to 300 so there is room for social distancing by family/friend pods.
We’re sorry we can’t welcome children too young to be vaccinated—for everyone’s safety.
Click here
Click here to register for the event. to donate directly to Kulshan Chorus. Suggested donation: $20 adults/$10 students or children 18 and younger.
Kulshan Chorus Concert registration
Beyond the Count
“Beyond the Count” discussion is Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021
The next program in CBI’s Jews, Race, and Justice series is Sunday, Dec. 12 at 4 PM, on Zoom. We will discuss the report published in August by the Jews of Color Initiative: “Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color.”
Emily Weiner, Programming Committee co-chair, will lead this session as a participatory discussion. We will talk about what each of us personally learned from the report, and also how we want the information to influence CBI.
Contact the CBI office for the Zoom link.
The Jews of Color Initiative published Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color. You can read it at https://jewsofcolorinitiative.
“I am often treated like a person just learning about Judaism instead of a Jew who is active in many communities. I went to Shabbat services recently, and a woman came up to me and said, without introducing herself, ‘Shabbat Shalom. So are you here for a religion class? Did you convert?’”
Shanah Tovah 5782
August 23, 2021
Shalom Friends,
Whether you are a life-long member or new to Congregation Beth Israel, we want to welcome you to our wonderful community and wish you a Shanah Tovah.
We are very excited to be offering hybrid services during the upcoming High Holy Days. What does this mean? You will have the choice of attending services either in person or remotely via Zoom. After much consultation with our COVID Task Force, we feel confident that we can provide a safe space for congregants to worship together. And for those who are hesitant, we encourage you to join us virtually. Either way, we are looking forward to seeing you.
The Board of Directors has recently adopted specific guidelines for in-person worshippers to follow while on the CBI campus. Please read these carefully. We will have ushers helping to enforce these rules.
COVID Reopening Task Force PLAN FOR HIGH HOLY DAYS
1. All attendees 12 years and older will be fully vaccinated.
2. All attendees will wear a mask covering both mouth and nose.
3. All attendees will sign in with contact information (name, phone number or e-mail address).
4. Social distancing will be maintained; households/relatives will be seated together as a ‘pod’ by ushers.
5. Prayerbooks will be placed on chairs prior to services.
6. Ushers will assist with having Family Service attendees exit onto the patio at the conclusion of the Family Service.
7. Tents/canopies will be set up on the patio/plaza for overflow and for children.
8. The shofar will be sounded at the patio/plaza doors facing the outside.
9. Aliyahs will be restricted to members of one household each; all those performing honors during a service must be in the sanctuary.
10. Ushers will assist with seating and with exiting, and with security, (especially at the open patio/plaza doors).
11. The front door and the 4 patio/plaza doors will remain open and the building fan will be on, for maximum ventilation.
12. Children under 12 years old will be allowed to attend all services but will be encouraged to limit attendance to the Family Service and the concluding service when the shofars are sounded, if at all possible/feasible.
We know there a lot of rules to follow. But as Jews, we love rules! After all, we are observing the High Holy Days because we are commanded to. In all seriousness, the safety of our community is of the utmost importance to us and we feel confident that however you worship with us, you will have a safe and meaningful experience.
For those planning on attending virtually, if you would like to have a machzor to follow along with, these are the following days when you can pick one up at the synagogue for your family to share.
……..Wednesday, August 25 12:00 – 4:00 pm
……..Friday, August 27 1:00 – 3:00 pm
……..Monday, August 30 12:00 – 4:00 pm
……..Wednesday, September 1 12:00 – 4:00 pm
For those planning on attending in person, we ask that you let us know which services you will be going to and how many there will be in your party. Contact the office for a link to an online form.
Lastly, this link will take you to our High Holy Day schedule. Contact the office for Zoom links.
We are grateful for your support (and patience) during this time and we hope that you and your loved ones have a very sweet year ahead, filled with blessings, good health, and peace.
Josh Greenberg, President
Rabbi Joshua Samuels
Book Discussion
Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 and Thursday, Aug. 25, 2021
Both sessions at 7 p.m. on Zoom
Professor Marc Dollinger’s talk on Jews and the Civil Rights Movement was well-received by CBI congregants on July 1. If you missed it, you can access the video on our website.
We will follow up that conversation with a two-session book study series on Dollinger’s book, Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s, on Aug. 16, 2021 and Aug. 25, 2021 at 7 p.m. on Zoom. The book charts the transformation of American Jewish political culture from the Cold War liberal consensus of the early postwar years to the rise and influence of Black Power-inspired ethnic nationalism. Undermining widely held beliefs about the black-Jewish alliance, Dollinger describes a new political consensus, based on identity politics, that drew blacks and Jews together and altered the course of American liberalism.
The first session, on August 16, will be led by Dr. Sarah Zarrow, Assistant Professor of History at WWU, who holds an endowed chair in Jewish History at Western. Professor Dollinger will tell about the back story during his session on August 25. Both sessions are at 7 p.m.Prof. Marc Dollinger interview
The Program and Social Action Committees were honored to host Professor Marc Dollinger as a speaker July 1, 2021. A video of his lecture, “Jews and the Civil Rights Movement,” is now available:
Kesher Library
The Kesher Youth Library has acquired tons of new books and is under construction!
We are super excited for the library makeover, and for how much we are going to utilize this space when we return in person.
Our deepest thanks go to Tamar Clarke and Joan Wayne for all their hard work organizing, building, and now remodeling this soon to be revealed space!
Check out our Kesher Library collection for early years through high school: Tinyurl.com/maxglass
Author Interview/Q&A
Author Jonathan Ned Katz talks about his newly released book (May 18, 2021), The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams. Congregant and Katz’s longtime friend, Emily Weiner, interviews Jonathan and moderates a Q&A (watch above). Historian Katz uncovers the until-now forgotten story of radical lesbian Eve Adams and her long-lost book Lesbian Love, which led to her arrest, deportation and eventual murder by the Nazis at Auschwitz.
To purchase The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams from Village Books (and simultaneously support Congregation Beth Israel’s education program), click here.
This CBI Programming Committee event is co-sponsored by Village Books and two units of Western Washington University: Western Libraries’ Heritage Resources and The Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity.
Author/Poetry Reading
CBI congregant Richard Widerkehr reads from and discusses his latest collection of poetry, “At the Grace Cafe,” on May 10, 2021. His new book of poems is available at Village Books.
“Widerkehr’s writing has been described as having: a freshness and ease of manner . . . and at times a kind of other worldly aura, ‘that strange gift from the other side’ ” (Gayle Kaune, author of “All the Birds Awake”)