Click below to watch Rabbi Joshua Samuels deliver the opening prayer at the House of Representatives in Olympia March 28, 2019
From the Rabbi
Message to our community
October 27, 2018
Dear Friends,
We are overcome with grief and heartbreak.
This morning as many of us were beginning our day, an antisemitic gunman entered the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 congregants. Once again, a fellow citizen armed with hatred and an arsenal has sown destruction in a house of worship. Once again, antisemitism has reared its ugly head, this time in a community very much like our own.
Our Jewish tradition teaches us to keep quiet in a house of mourning as rarely can words ever express a way to comfort those grieving. Our presence is sometimes the most effective way to communicate to mourners that we are holding them in our hearts. Words cannot express how sad, angry, frustrated, and bereaved we are in this moment. We will take the time we need to mourn and then we will rise up. We will reach out to our fellow congregation and offer to help in any way possible. We will continue to gather for Shabbat services and Torah Study and all the other ways each of us participate in the Jewish life of Congregation Beth Israel.
We are, and will remain, vigilant in protecting our community’s freedom to worship, study and celebrate Judaism. We work constantly to align our security measures with best practices, and we are routinely in touch with law enforcement.
Interfaith marriage at CBI
June 14, 2018
To the Congregation Beth Israel Community,
We write to share a significant outcome from our latest Board of Directors meeting. Two nights ago the members of our Board approved a new policy regarding interfaith weddings at our Beth Israel campus.
The policy reads as follows:
In regards to officiating at interfaith weddings in the Beth Israel synagogue and throughout its grounds, the Rabbi shall use his/her discretion in performing marriages between Jews and non-Jews. This is the sole decision of the Rabbi who has freedom of the pulpit.
With great respect to the customs and traditions of Congregation Beth Israel, the following are guidelines that CBI requires its clergy to follow when considering the officiation of a wedding between a Jew and a non-Jew at Congregation Beth Israel: