Congregation Beth Israel offers many ways to help support the community, from making general or targeted donations to synagogue funds and participating in the Scrip program, to participating in our Capital Campaign and Dedication program for our new synagogue building.
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Scrip
Double Your Mitzvah!
Just like exercise, using Beth Israel Scrip is most successful when it’s part of your regular routine. We all buy groceries and prescriptions regularly, and many of us give gift cards as presents. Make it easy on yourselves, and have a regular Scrip order – it can be monthly, or quarterly, whatever works best for you! Our Scrip coordinator, Joan Wayne, will make sure to get the gift cards to you on a routine basis. It’s one less thing for you to have to remember, and it becomes a regular donation to our congregation!
Scrip can also be used to make donations to other organizations, or people in need. For example, a Bellingham family lost their home to a fire, and all four family members were hospitalized due to their injuries. An amazing outpouring of support found them a temporary home and furnishings, but they also accepted donations of gift cards to places like Fred Meyer, Haggen, and the Food Co-op because food, clothing and other every day necessities were a longer-term need. If you buy Scrip from Beth Israel, and donate it to a cause such as this, it’s a DOUBLE MITZVAH! Check with the local organizations you support, and they likely would welcome gift card donations to help out their clients.
Who knew that a piece of plastic could be part of Tikkun Olam?
For a complete list of participating merchants, go to www.glscrip.com, or contact Joan Wayne, jawayne2@gmail.com; download an order form, or call the Beth Israel office at 733-8890.
Privacy Policy
Congregation Beth Israel is firmly committed to maintaining the privacy of visitors to our website. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices. By using this site, you consent to the terms and conditions of this privacy policy. Congregation Beth Israel reserves the right to modify its privacy policy at any time.
Information Collection and Use
Congregation Beth Israel believes that personally identifying information, such as your name, postal and email address or telephone number, is private and confidential. You can have general access to our site without providing any personally identifying information. Congregation Beth Israel collects personally identifying information only when you voluntarily submit it, such as when you email comments, request information, place an order, register for a discussion group or an event.
Release of Information to Third Parties
Congregation Beth Israel does not release your personally identifying information to third parties, unless such release is required to comply with the law or to protect the rights or safety of Congregation Beth Israel or our website users. Collected information will not be sold, shared with, or rented to, any outside company or organization. Information that is collected will be used solely for the purpose for which it is given.
Members Only
The members-only section of our site will require unique identifiers (sign-ons and passwords), which will be issued by Congregation Beth Israel.
Links to Other Sites
Our website contains links to other sites. Congregation Beth Israel is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other any other website.
Public Forums
Congregation Beth Israel may sponsor discussion groups for our members and other interested parties. These discussion groups are a free service to enable members to share comments about a wide variety of topics. Only individuals older than 13 years of age may participate, and by participating you are certifying that you are old enough to participate. We ask that participants refrain from including profanity, obscenities, hateful, and/or defamatory language. Congregation Beth Israel does review items before they are posted and reserves the right to remove any information posted. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information, and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE ANYONE FROM THE LIST WHO VIOLATES THESE PROCEDURES.
Photographs
No photograph will be posted on this website without prior permission of identifiable persons. Names will only be used with permission.
Contacting the Webmaster
All information on this website is the property of Congregation Beth Israel, excluding material attributed to or hyperlinked to external sites, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the congregation. To request such permission, contact the webmaster.
Choice/Opt-Out, Correct/Update: To remove information from our database and to be excluded from future communications, to change or modify information previously provided, or for information about this privacy statement or the practices of this site, contact the webmaster.
Email Webmaster@bethisraelbellingham.org, or send mail to Webmaster, Congregation Beth Israel, 751 San Juan Boulevard, Bellingham, WA 98229
Resolutions
Kesher Center for Jewish Learning Documents
2018-19 School Calendar
Financial Aid
FINANCIAL AID: To apply for financial assistance for the 2016-17 school year, please fill out and return this form to the Beth Israel office by Aug. 30, 2016.
Music
Bylaws
The congregation will be asked to approve some changes to the bylaws at the May 22, 2016 annual meeting. These proposed changes were approved by the Board of Directors at their regular April 2016 meeting.
Bylaws updated 10/10/2011 (PDF 37.89 KB)
Resolutions
The positions of the Reform Movement are based primarily in two sources: Resolutions adopted by the Union for Reform Judaism, and resolutions adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
With regard to the resolutions adopted by the Union for Reform Judaism, ultimately it is the members of Reform congregations who set the policy for the Movement. During the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial General Assembly, delegates from the over 900 member congregations consider and vote on resolutions that reflect the consensus positions of our membership. This democratic process and the commitment of the Reform Movement to speak out on issues of concern is as old as the Movement itself, and is evidenced by the hundreds of resolutions adopted since its inception.
Both the CCAR and the Union’s database of resolutions may be search by topic, date or keyword.
- Resolutions of the Union for Reform Judaism
- Resolutions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis
In addition, you may wish to consult the Central Conference of American Rabbis Responsa and the Reform platforms
What is Reform Judaism?
Throughout history, Jews have remained firmly rooted in Jewish tradition, even as we learned much from our encounters with other cultures. Nevertheless, since its earliest days, Reform Judaism has asserted that a Judaism frozen in time is an heirloom, not a living fountain.
The great contribution of Reform Judaism is that it has enabled the Jewish people to introduce innovation while preserving tradition, to embrace diversity while asserting commonality, to affirm beliefs without rejecting those who doubt, and to bring faith to sacred texts without sacrificing critical scholarship.
Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. We believe that all human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam — repairing the world — is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people.
Reform Jews accept the Torah as the foundation of Jewish life containing God’s ongoing revelation to our people and the record of our people’s ongoing relationship with God. We see the Torah as God inspired, a living document that enables us to confront the timeless and timely challenges of our everyday lives.
In addition to our belief that Judaism must change and adapt to the needs of the day to survive and our firm commitment to Tikkun Olam , the following principles distinguish Reform Jews from other streams of Judaism in North America.
- Reform Jews are committed to the principle of inclusion, not exclusion. Since 1978 the Reform Movement has been reaching out to Jews-by-choice and interfaith families, encouraging them to embrace Judaism. Reform Jews consider children to be Jewish if they are the child of a Jewish father or mother, so long as the child is raised as a Jew.
- Reform Jews are committed to the absolute equality of women in all areas of Jewish life. We were the first movement to ordain women rabbis, invest women cantors, and elect women presidents of our synagogues.
- Reform Jews are also committed to the full participation of gays and lesbians in synagogue life as well as society at large.
Divrei Torah/Sermons
Sermons by Rabbi Joshua Samuels (unless otherwise noted):
2025:
Erev Rosh Hashanah: Choosing Each Other in the Chaos
Rosh Hashanah Morning: Antisemitism
Kol Nidre: The Weight We Carry, The Hope We Hold
Simchat Torah: Two Years Later
2024:
Erev Rosh Hashanah: If I am not for me
Rosh Hashanah Morning: Chaos on Campus
Kol Nidre: Pidyon Shvuyim
Yom Kippur: Lessons About Death
2023:
Erev Rosh Hashanah: God Re-visited
Rosh Hashanah Morning: Judaism and Gender
Kol Nidre: Life After Death
Yom Kippur: Holiness
2022:
Erev Rosh Hashanah (Awe Wonder and the Cosmos)
Rosh Hashanah Morning (Reproductive Justice)
Rosh Hashanah Day 2, The Akedah (by David Schlitt)
Kol Nidre (Regret)
Yom Kippur Morning (Loving-Kindness)
2021:
Erev Rosh Hashanah (What Brings Us Here Tonight)
Rosh Hashanah Morning (The Z Word)
Kol Nidre (We Are All Flawed)
Yom Kippur Morning (My Ethical Will)
2020:
2019:
Yom Kippur: Jewish Elderhood
Kol Nidre: Judaism and Guns
Rosh Hashana Day 2: What do Jews Believe? by Stuart Berman
Rosh Hashana morning: Judge Not — The Jewish Perspective on Casting JudgmentВ
Erev Rosh Hashana: Why I am Proud to be a member of CBI
2018:
YK morning Tochecha- Rebuke Lovingly
YK Kol Nidre Love your neighbor as yourself
Shabbat Shuvah, Guest Sermon by Roby Blecker
Rosh Hashana morning: To Be a Super Hero
Erev Rosh Hashana: Why I am Proud to be a Reform Jew
2017:
2017 Yom Kippur Morning: Finding Resilience
2017 Kol Nidre: Scapegoating
2017 Rosh Hashana morning: Mahloket L’shem Shamayim
2017 Erev Rosh Hashana: Why I am Proud to be a Jew
2016:
Yom Kippur Morning 2016: Jewish Response to Black Lives Matter
Kol Nidre 2016: Forgiveness
Erev Rosh Hashana 2016: Happiness, Happiness You Shall Pursue
Rosh Hashana 2016 Day 1 — Carving a New Future
Rosh Hashana 2016 Day 2 — Guest Sermon by Roby Blecker
2015:
Kol Nidre 2015, Holding a Grudge
Yom Kippur Morning 2015, How Do We Want to Be Remembered?
Erev Rosh Hashana 2015, Storytelling
Rosh Hashana 2015 Day 1, Empowered Judaism
Rosh Hashana 2015 Day 2 — Guest Sermon by Roby Blecker
2014:
Chol Chamoed Pesach 2014 — Guest Sermon by Roby Blecker
Va’yetzei Nov. 28, 2014 — Guest Sermon by Roby Blecker
Kol Nidre 2014, Let’s Talk About Israel
Yom Kippur morning 2014, Jewish Bucket List
Rosh Hashana morning, 2014 – Let’s Talk About God
Erev Rosh Hashana 2014 – Be a Blesser
B’har Leaving One’s Home May 2014
2013:
Parashat Vayeshev Nov. 22, 2013
Yom Kippur morning 2013 – Israel
Kol Nidre 2013 – Computer crash
Rosh Hashana morning: Relational Judaism
Rosh Hashana evening: Inspiration from Two Women
Elul Reflections: Preparing for the Yamim Nora’im 2013
Shofetim Aug. 9, 2013
Va’etchanan Honoring our Parents 2013
B’haalot’cha May 24, 2013 (PDF 95.73 KB)
Teacher Appreciation May 31 2013 (PDF 61.12 KB)
Getting Dirty for Pesach March 22, 2013 (PDF 21.14 KB)
MLK 2013 (PDF 64.33 KB)
2012:
Vayigash 2012 (PDF 87.50 KB)
Lech Lecha (PDF 87.61 KB)
Women of the Wall October 2012 (PDF 75.73 KB)
Rosh Hashanah – Abayudaya (PDF 92.65 KB)
Rosh Hashanah – Family Issues (PDF 107.73 KB)
Rosh Hashanah Day 2 – Financial Meltdown (PDF 100.89 KB)
Yom Kippur – Apologizing (PDF 156.70 KB)
Yom Kippur – Rachel Corrie (PDF 125.15 KB)
Ki Teitzay – Aug. 31, 2012 (PDF 83.35 KB)
Elul – Aug. 24, 2012 (PDF 62.91 KB)
