Tu B’Shevat; The New Year for Trees
Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar - celebrated this year on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. We mark the day of Tu B'Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that ...
Mission
ABOUT KBY The key idea of Kehillot B’Yahad / Congregations Together (KBY) is to encourage individual congregants of Reform and Conservative congregations in the United States and Canada to directly, personally and individually support Reform and Conservative congregations (Kehillot) in Israel. KBY seeks to mobilize and create, at a grass roots level, individual and institutional connections to Israeli congregations and to provide the support systems to make these connections real, effective and long-lasting. Why Support a Congregation in Israel? This project, as designed, is practically and purposefully directed toward supporting both the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism and the Masorti (Conservative) Movement, directly ...
Why Would You Support an Israeli Congregation?
“…we know that ultimately our extended Jewish family is only as strong as its shared religious heritage…Therefore our primary task …is to support synagogues and to promote religious life wherever Jews are found.” Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism said in the presidential sermon at the 2003 biennial convention. Who can question that without strong Israeli progressive Jewish movements, our extended family is impacted? Yoffie continued, “Jewish life cannot be sustained without Israel at its core.” The progressive synagogues in Israel are struggling in an environment that has always been difficult, and sometimes even hostile. ”The State of ...
Give a Soldier a Siddur…
Tzahal (the IDF) gave their approval to give the siddurim to soldiers attending BTI services in Tel Aviv. Imagine, a progressive Friday evening service and 3-4,000 IDF soldiers. We plan to give each soldier the siddur they use to take home. Click here to contribute... to the Soldiers Siddur project. With more than 50 years of liberal Judaism in Israel, one of the biggest challenges was and is always how to influence and impact the Israeli large society. The Orthodox delegitimation of the Reform and Conservative Movements in Israel succeeded in blocking Liberal Jewish movements from the heart and mainstream ...
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved the following proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The new state was recognized that night at 11:00 AM Israel time by the United States and three days later by the USSR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERETZ-ISRAEL (the Land of Israel) was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the ...
KBY Writes Torah Scroll
This past year KBY commissioned and completed the writing of a Torah Scroll based upon a gift from a donor. KBY granted the scroll to the the Conservative Congregation in Zichron Ya'akov last Simhat Torah. This of course was as close as we may come to the "giving of the Torah", clearly a highlight of the year. The Torah Scroll was delivered with a hand full of letter incomplete. A ceremony was held to complete the writing of the scroll and a festive procession, through the streets of Zichron Ya'akov, to deliver it to the congregation. The final letters were added to the scroll in the pictures ...
KBY NEWS
Tu B’Shevat; The New Year for Trees
Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar – celebrated this year on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 – is the day that marks the beginning of a “New Year for Trees.” This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a [...]
Teshuva and Hope
by Beth Frank-Backman Each Elul, the last month of the Jewish year, we prepare for the next. Traditionally, we prepare by a process known as teshuva, or in English repentance. But what exactly are we repenting of? Most of us haven’t murdered anyone nor embezzled our employers nor slandered someone so badly that they wrongly [...]
Give a Soldier a Siddur…
We are doing something unprecedented and need your help. The Israeli Army has asked one of KBY’s associate congregations to expand a newly created Kabbalat Shabbat program for the Israel Defense Forces officer training school. For progressive Judaism in Israel this opportunity is revolutionary. Between 12-15 times a year, IDF officer courses and divisions, involving 3-4,00 soldiers, will be brought to Tel Aviv to experience a progressive Shabbat service, complete with a new progressive prayer book. We want to give this prayer book as a gift to every soldier. Click here to contribute… to the Soldiers Siddur project. Read this post to learn more.
KBY Releases Nishmat Shabbat (The Soul of Shabbat) CD
KBY announces its latest CD, Nishmat Shabbat, The Soul of Shabbat The project is a joint effort by KBY, Beit Knesset Moreshet Yisrael and Ahuva Batz. The CD selections are prayers and psalms sung during Shabbat morning services at Moreshet Yisrael, Jerusalem’s flagship Conservative synagogue. Experience the warmth of the music, recall Israel and Jerusalem, and perhaps remember a Shabbat service in Jerusalem. Click here to visit the Nishmat Shabbat (The Soul of Shabbat) album page.
KBY Writes Torah Scroll
This past year KBY commissioned and completed the writing of a Torah Scroll based upon a gift from a donor. KBY granted the scroll to the the Conservative Congregation in Zichron Ya’akov last Simhat Torah. This of course was as close as we may come to the “giving of the Torah”, clearly a highlight of the year. The Torah [...]
