Welcome to B'nai Sholom

We Are Very Glad To Welcome You To B’nai Sholom

We are a place that Reform Jews and their families — from all backgrounds — can truly call “home.”

A warm, welcoming community in an active Reform synagogue, we provide opportunities for spiritual growth, continuous learning, social action and fun. Our programs deepen and broaden the engagement of both current and prospective members in Jewish life and service.

B’nai Sholom welcomes newcomers to our congregation, including people in interfaith marriages and of all races, abilities, sexual orientations and gender identities.

Currently, we are dealing with a dynamic and challenging situation as the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread worldwide. B’nai Sholom has moved to a multi-access platform, offering services both in-person and virtually while learning remains online.

We invite you to join in our worship and study. Friday evening services start at 7:00 p.m. Tot Shabbat services are at 5:30 p.m. the second Friday of each month.

Call us at 518-482-5283 or email office@bnaisholom.albany.ny.us and we will be happy to send you information in a confirming email.

We look forward to welcoming you – online and in-person!

–Rabbi Danielle Weisbrot and the officers, trustees and members of B’nai Sholom

Directions

Giving

Rabbi Cashman Retirement

Office Hours

9:30 am – 3:30 pm Tuesdays-Fridays.

Closed Mondays

Get Connected with B'nai Sholom

Honey For The Holidays

Courses

Movies

FILM Club — February 3, 2022 (Via Zoom)

On Thursday, February 3 at 7:30 join B’nai Sholom’s Film Club for a discussion of the film “1945” which follows two Jewish Holocaust survivors who arrive in a Hungarian village in August 1945. The film paints a complex picture of a society trying to come to terms with the recent horrors they have experienced, perpetrated or just tolerated for personal gain. “Absorbing and finely wrought.” New York Times.

Participating in the discussion that evening will be a very special guest , Ivan Vamos. Ivan is a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who spent much of the war as a very young boy in hiding along with his mother. He also spent several difficult years in Europe after the war before being able to emigrate and therefore has a first-hand perspective on this movie.

The film can be viewed prior to the discussion with multiple streaming options: ChaiFlicks, Amazon, Vudu and Apple.

Contact the office for the Zoom link.
Synagogue Scholars

Friday February 25 — Following the evening service

Martha Rozett will talk about the book Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued Millions of Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky

Lansky’s 2004 account of his adventures, which began when he was twenty-three years old, is a wonderful collection of tales about a rag-tag group of young people who saved Yiddish books from extinction, one trip at a time, with borrowed cars and rented trucks, last-minute phone calls and a growing circle of supporters. Lansky and his volunteers visited with elderly Jews who had no one to pass their books on to, and in the process, forged a community and preserved a history and language that was in danger of being forgotten. The book is often hilarious, always heartwarming, and above all, a record of the way the Yiddish language and culture – once thought to be dead — outwitted history by surviving and flourishing.

For those interested in reading Outwitting History, copies are available in the Albany Public Library system and for purchase online. We will acquire a copy for the B’nai Sholom library which congregants are encourage to sign out and return promptly so that others can borrow it.
Torah Study
Saturdays: Open to all.
- Join in at 10 am for a continuation of our 20-year tradition of sacred text study. We closely read the weekly Parshot with the first Shabbat of the month devoted to the Prophets and the Writings.
All are welcome to participate and learn, reading aloud and discussing in the context of the history of the Bible, including the sociology, archeology, and politics of The Land. No prior experience is necessary! Sessions generally last about 90 minutes.

Layers of Learning —
- Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 7:30 PM, join Rabbi Weisbrot on Zoom for a monthly “sideways dive” into other facets of Torah study – midrashic interpretations, Talmudic commentary, and whatever other thoughts and insights come up in the group as we look at the weeks Torah portion. No prior registration or experience necessary. The link will appear in the weekly e-mail.
Social Action/Social Justice
Israel Education & Advocacy

ADULTS

Over 100 people have traveled on our 8 congregational trips to Israel in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2012. From age 3 1/2 to over 80, we’ve gone from the Golan Heights up north to Eilat in the south, and once went over to Petra in Jordan. While our itinerary varies each time, we always spend plenty of time in Jerusalem, and visit Safed, Masada, the Dead Sea, and Tel Aviv.

HIGH SCHOOL

We provide scholarships for our High School students to visit Israel on Summer programs. Our students have gone on trips sponsored by NFTY, Ramah Seminar, HaShomer HaTza’ir, BBYO,Young Judea, and Nesiya.

COLLEGE

Many college students from B’nai Sholom have gone on Birthright-Taglit trips to Israel, FREE trips for students ages 18-29. Our members can get priority status for KESHER Refrom Movement trips by contacting Rabbi Cashman