May 9th 6:30 pm Sabbath Worship Service, followed by an Oneg Shabbat Social

May 17th 11:00 am Walking Tour “The City on the Hill: The Spirituality of Boston Architecture”, Rabbi Berman leads a tour of historic Boston buildings, focusing on the Jewish and religious dimensions of our city's landmarks. A reception follows at 45 Province Street and is sponsored by the Abbey Group. (See below for details). Reservations required, space is limited.

May 31st 7:30 pm An Evening with Julie Silver (see below for more details!). A very special benefit performance by one of America’s most popular composers and singers of contemporary Jewish music. Join us to find out why “Few performers engage audiences as quickly or with as much warmth and soul as Julie Silver. Her strong guitar playing, her ability to read her audiences, and her impeccable comic timing make her concerts enormously successful.”

BJS's New Torah and Ark!

BJS is celebrating a major milestone in our short history, as we begin this New Year! Since our inception in 2004, we have borrowed a Torah Scroll - the parchment scroll containing the manuscript text of the Five Books of Moses - from our sister synagogue, the Belmont Temple Center, for the High Holy Days. Last year, we acquired a miniature "replica" scroll for regular symbolic use, but this is a printed facsimile, rather than an authentic parchment scroll. Recently , Rabbi Berman was speaking with his old friend and colleague, Rabbi Edward Cohn of Temple Sinai, the major Reform congregation in New Orleans, and was sharing a report of our inspiring progress. Rabbi Cohn immediately offered to approach his Board to request a long-term loan of a Scroll for BJS, and they unanimously approved the transfer of one of their historic 19th century Torahs to us! This Torah Scroll originated in Germany, and dates from about 1850. It was brought to New Orleans around 1900, and has been used by Sinai since then. As a large and historic congregation, they have ten Scrolls, and have graciously offered to part with this one, for our use. The Scroll had been slightly damaged during Hurricane Katrina, and has just been restored. Rabbi Cohn has indicated that the presentation to us is a thanksgiving offering for the resumption of their Temple's normal life after a year of upheaval from the storm, and the return of many of their members who had been in "exile".

As part of this major development, BJS has acquired a beautiful new Holy Ark - the shrine that houses the Torah - to replace the handmade one that we have used since our beginning. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of many of our members who have expressed their joy by contributing the new Ark, Vestments and Silver adornments that traditionally cover the Scroll. We formally dedicated all of these at our worship on Rosh Hashanah Morning.