Welcome to Beth El

Beth El, our House of God, is a welcoming place, and our congregation is full of friendly people. We invite you to attend our Shabbat and festival services, get to know our active members, and explore the wide range of activities available for all age groups.

For the little ones we have the Alef-Bet pre-school (ages 3-5) which meets for an hour (10 am – 11 am) on Sunday mornings, and a bi-monthly 6:30 pm Shabbat experience (for half an hour) led by a talented story teller and guitar player.

For children 5-16 we have a very well organized religious school, meeting on Sundays from 9:30 am until noon, and covering Kindergarten through Confirmation in the 10th grade. Our school director is a certified public high school teacher.

She and the rest of the faculty are all volunteers, along with our rabbi. In addition to regular allocations of tsedakah, our school has adopted as our community outreach project for this year a residential facility for seniors, and we visit the residents on a monthly basis.

Our Youth Group, known as BERTY (Beth El Reform Temple Youth) brings together our widely dispersed young people for social and cultural events throughout the year. There are regular opportunities to participate in regional NFTY events held throughout the mid-Atlantic region of which we are a part.

The Temple’s Sisterhood has a long and illustrious history of service to the synagogue, to our larger community, and to the region. They often meet to prepare gallons of soup for the Congregational Community Action Program (CCAP). Meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month at 7 pm. Sisterhood sponsors the Oneg Shabbats for the Friday night of a Bar/Bat Mitzvah weekend, and holds an annual Sisterhood Sabbath in the fall, which is always a highlight of the season.

Our Men’s Group, which meets monthly on Sunday mornings from 10 am – noon, has provided an opportunity for frank and open discussion on political, cultural, and intellectual issues that arise.

Ladies Night Out meets at 6:30 pm on the first Monday of each month at a different restaurant each month.  LNO is a social gathering for women of the congregation who want to meet, have dinner, and enjoy the company of other Beth El women.   

 

Senior Shmoozers (we don’t ask your age!) gathers monthly at the homes of members to discuss topics of Jewish and general interest.

And we have a Torah minyan and brunch one Shabbat each month, from 10 am – 11:45 am. It is always well attended.

As of January 2009, we offer an opportunity each Sunday morning, while religous school is in session, from 9:30 am – 10:45 am at our Member Breakfast Shmooze. Here we meet and greet parents who’ve dropped their kids off for the religious school or the Alef-Bet pre-school, and folks who just want to chat comfortably with other members. There are always plenty of bagels and shmears, muffins, orange juice and coffee, all for a $3 donation.

Beth El also offers you the opportunity of joining its book club, which reviews books of Jewish interest at 10:30 am on a Sunday morning, usually the last Sunday of the month.

And if music is your thing, we offer our Alternative Music Group, which provides guitar and choral accompaniment to some of our services, and an occasional visit from the very talented Anita Thornton.