Welcome to B'nai Sholom
We are very glad to welcome you to B’nai Sholom, a place Reform Jews and their families — of whatever backgrounds — can truly call “home.”
Please join in our worship, our studying, our celebrations. We look forward to getting to know you. Please call us at 518/482-5283, or e-mail us at office@bnaisholom.albany.ny.us.
–Rabbi Don Cashman, the officers, trustees, and members of B’nai Sholom
Get Connected with B'nai Sholom
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Archaeology of the Religion of Ancient Israel
Wednesday mornings, September 11 through October 30 (no class October 9); 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Fee: $36 members; $54 non-members
Taught by Steve Stark-Riemer, noted local lecturer in archaeology, history and religion of the Ancient Near East.Beginning Hebrew
Wednesday evenings, October 16 and 23, then Monday evenings, October 28 through December 2;
All classes 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
(note: the class shifts from Wednesdays to Mondays after the first two sessions)
Fee: $54 members; $48 non-members
Taught by Carol SmithAmoz Oz: Israel’s Storyteller
Wednesday mornings, November 6 through December 4; 10:30 a.m. to Noon
Fee: $25 members, $30 non-members
Taught by Martha Rozett, professor emerita at the University at AlbanyThis course is coordinated with two other BSRC Adult Education events. It will focus on three books ( a memoir, a collection of short stories, and a novel by one of Israel’s most distinguished prolific writers). Participants are encouraged to acquire copies of all three books and read as much of them as time permits. We will begin with excerpts from A Tale of Love and Darkness, recently selected by the NY Times as one of the fifty finest memoirs of the past fifty years. A film produced by Natalie Portman based on parts of the memoir will be shown at the Nov 16 Movie Night.Our next text, Between Friends, is a collection of linked stories inspired by Oz’s experience of living on a kibbutz. We’ll devote our final class to Oz’s 2014 novel Judas. In his opening sentences, Oz tells us that this is a story set in Jerusalem in 1959-1960, a story of error and desire, of unrequited love, and of a religious question that remains unresolved, the question of Judas Iscariot’s relationship to Jesus. Judas will also be the subject Martha Rozett’s annual Synagogue Scholar presentation on December 13. Course participants will be invited to contribute to the discussion
Hannah Arendt: “Challenges of Thinking, Acting and Judging in Dark Times”
A PROGRAM IN TWO PARTS
Fee: $10 members, $15 non-members
November 14, 7 p.m. A showing of the film, "Hannah Arendt."
November 21, 7 p.m. Professor Laurie Naranch will lead a discussion as
we explore why Arendt still matters today. -
November 16, 2019 – 7:30 PM — A Tale of Love and Darkness
Directed by Natalie Portman, this film is based on the memories of Amos Oz, growing up in Jerusalem in the years before Israeli statehood with his academic father and his dreamy, imaginative mother. “An elegant and intimate movie”- New York Times.February 15, 2020 – 7:30 PM — TBA
March 14, 2020 – 7:30 PM — TBA
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December 13, 2019
Martha Rozett will lead a discussion of Judas by Amos Oz, the final novel in his distinguished career, set in 1950s Jerusalem and blending a tender coming-of-age story with a thought-provoking study of betrayal. The New York Times called it “magnificent” and made it an Editors’ Choice.
January 10, 2020
Ed Rosen will present “Riding Through the History of the Golan,” treating its history, geography, demographic complexities as well as its prospects for the future. Ed attended Hebrew University and is an active member of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, and he has hiked and traveled extensively in the Golan including most recently by horseback
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Saturdays 9:30 AM
Open to all.
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BOOKS FOR BABIES!
Please help the B’nai Sholom Literacy Project, as part of the Social Action Committee, to purchase books for distribution to expectant parents in target populations.
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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
