Melissa Schapiro

About Melissa Schapiro

Posts by Melissa Schapiro:

Prof. Marc Dollinger interview

July 9, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in Past Event Videos

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

May 7, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in Kesher Center for Jewish Learning

Kesher Library is always open through our catalog: В Tinyurl.com/maxglass

The Kesher Library welcomes all of our members to stop by when the synagogue is open and take home a book (or two or four.) We are located on the lower level by the teacher’s room. The collection centers around books that include and reflect a diverse range of Jewish experience for the early years through teen-agers. Come browse our board, picture, early readers, middle grade, and YA book titles as well as children’s books in Hebrew.

Books are checked out on the honor system. We hope you enjoy having these books in your home and bring them back so that others may enjoy as well.

Author Interview/Q&A

May 4, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in Past Event Videos

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 IsraelвЂ™s education program), click here.

This CBI Programming Committee event is co-sponsored by Village Books and two units of Western Washington University: Western LibrariesвЂ™ Heritage Resources and The Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity.

Author/Poetry Reading

May 3, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in Past Event Videos

CBI congregantВ 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”)

Women Of the Wall

March 19, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in Past Event Videos

Sunday, April 4 at 10 a.m. Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, spoke with Congregation Beth Israel via Zoom about the fight for gender equality in Israeli society. Hoffman founded and has led the advocacy organization Women of the Wall for the past three decades. Her talk to CBI is titled, “The Cracks in the Wall Let the Light In: The Battle for Equal Rights at the Western Wall.” For more information about Anat Hoffman and her work, see the front page article in the March/April Shul Shofar.

Watch a recording of the April 4, 2021 event here:

Biennial

January 22, 2021 By Melissa Schapiro in URJ

Join with thousands of Jews from across North America and around the world to learn, pray, share ideas, dance and sing, hear from inspiring speakers and the leaders of our Movement; reunite with old friends, create new connections, and make decisions about the policies of the Reform Movement.

URJ Biennial 2019 is over, but you can still view videos of the experience вЂ” 5,000 Jews from across North America and around the world gathered to learn, pray, share ideas, dance and sing, heard from inspiring speakers and the leaders of our Movement; reunited with old friends, created new connections, and made decisions about the policies of the Reform Movement.

Watch the videos of the 2019 URJ Biennial plenary sessions, services and Shabbat song sessions at urjbiennial.org

Make sure to watch the Friday morning plenary session where the URJ and the RAC launched our 2020 Civic Engagement Campaign and vote on social justice resolutions, including one on reparations for U.S. slavery and ongoing racism.

Make plans toВ В join us at the next URJ Biennial, December 8-11, 2021 in Washington D.C. (National Harbor)!