Adult Education Opportunities
Congregation B’nai Shalom has a rich variety of educational programs for adults. Do you want to learn about Judaism and Jewish history? We have classes for you. Do you want to learn Torah and Talmud? We have classes for you. Do you want to connect with Israel and the Jewish community? We have programs for you. All our programs are on Zoom.
We are a member of Jewish Book Council. “Jewish Book Council, founded in 1944, is the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature. For over seventy years, we have used literature to bring people together for meaningful discussions around Jewish life, identity, and culture. Jewish learning embodied in the printed word has played a crucial role in the development and strengthening of Jewish communities throughout the world. Jewish Book Council is proud to carry on this important tradition.”
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/about
Through the Jewish Book Council we have Zoom meetings with authors to talk about their books.
The rabbi has classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
The Men’s Club has programs including a monthly Lunch and Learn program. Further information is on the Men’s Club page.
On alternating Shabbats we have Torah Plus. See their page for more information.
We have a Yoga class on Tuesdays.
All of these programs and more are on the Congregation B’nai Shalom calendar.
There is an Adult Education Committee which coordinates and initiates programs for adults. If you have ideas or comments about programs or would like to join the committee, contact David Marshak at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Civil Rights Study Group
Abraham Joshua Heschel said in a 1963 conference on Race and Religion, “Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation?”
This past summer, our nation was once again awakened to the call for racial justice as we grieved the brutal death of George Floyd and others. Each of us, in our own way, tried to figure out how to respond, with some of us looking to our Jewish teachings and traditions for guidance. To this end, and with the guidance of Rabbi Stein, a committee was formed to craft a congregational response to issues of racial justice and civil rights in our community.
Our committee, now known as the Civil Rights Study Group, has been hard at work developing programs to help our congregation with reflections on our own behavior and attitudes as well as creating a non-partisan space to examine how racial attitudes and policies affect our national life. During July and August with the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County, our committee conducted a 21-day Racial Equity Challenge in which members of our congregation read articles, watched videos, listened to talks, and met together to discuss how racial attitudes affect our interpersonal relationships, our institutions, and our economic and political systems. One thing we learned from the 21-day challenge is that there is a hunger in our congregation for more, a desire to act as well as to learn.
Click here to here listen to a recording from our recent Virtual Discussion of Race and The Criminal Justice System https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a8qkCTAC6YkvSO3wrqdLIxBprhuQsg-F/view
Upcoming Programs
In this spirit, our committee has decided to focus our next round of programs on racial issues in the criminal justice system. On January 27, we have invited Rev. Dr. Larry Foy and Rev. Deborah Lee of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity to speak to us about how race affects all aspects of the criminal justice system. Dr. Foy was the leader of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity’s Justice not Jails program which worked to develop alternatives to mass incarceration in Los Angeles and Rev. Lee is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.
On February 24, March 31 and April 28 we will have a book study group examining Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenso facilitated by our Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Gordon Freeman. Just Mercy is about an unjust death penalty case and how racial issues were important factors in this case.
Later this spring, we are working to co-host a workshop with Jews on Ohlone Land that will explain the history of injustice experience by the Ohlone tribe, the predominant tribe of native peoples in the East Bay. The workshop will also describe the connection between the Ohlone people’s efforts to regain some control over their land and sacred sites and our own Jewish connection to our holy sites.