Jewish Life

Friday Night Services

with Rabbi Aaron

This inclusive service led by Rabbi Aaron and musicians Aaron Shneyer, Sarah Fredrick, and Jeff Geld blends contemporary and traditional elements for an experience that feels both familiar and fresh.

Volunteer with the Capital Area Food Bank

Support the Capital Area Food Bank’s efforts to provide equitable access to food and opportunity to people struggling with hunger and food insecurity in our area.

Open Space: Israel

Rabbi Nora facilitates an open space to process and reflect, ask questions, and express the wide spectrum of emotions you may be feeling. 

Joshua Weissman

In Conversation with Daniela Galarza

In Joshua Weissman: Texture Over Taste, Weissman uses stories and fun visualizations to teach the six fundamental textures and how they impact flavor through over 75 recipes.

Jewish Ethics: Freeing Captives 

On Saturday, October 7, Hamas terrorists, in addition to murdering over 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped over 160 hostages. While this hostage situation is unparalleled in its magnitude and brutality, this is sadly not the first time Jews have been forced to deal with the painful challenge of freeing captives. How far must we go to redeem captives? How far are we allowed to go? How do we balance the needs of the individual captives with the needs of the broader society? Explore with Rabbi Aaron the ways our ancient rabbis addressed these complicated questions. 

Open Space: Israel

Rabbi Aaron facilitates an open space to process and reflect, ask questions, and express the wide spectrum of emotions you may be feeling.

Friday Night Services + Dinner

with Rabbi Nora

This inclusive service led by Rabbi Nora and musicians Aaron Shneyer, Sarah Fredrick, and Jeff Geld blends contemporary and traditional elements for an experience that feels both familiar and fresh.

Avi Avital, mandolin, and Hanzhi Wang, accordion

Hayes Series alumna and champion concert accordionist Hanzhi Wang is celebrated for her extraordinary virtuosity and captivating stage presence. GRAMMY-nominated classical mandolinist Avi Avital is best known for his interpretations of popular Baroque and folk music written for performance by other instruments.

Modern-Day Antisemitism 

What are we talking about when we talk about antisemitism? Discussing this topic can feel fraught and overwhelming, opening up big questions related to Jewish identity, history, and discrimination in the past and the present. With Rabbi Nora, discuss definitions and manifestations of antisemitism and explore how responses, and lack of responses, to the attack on Israel and the ensuing war connect to antisemitism. 

The Intersections of Israel and Judaism

More than 50% of the world’s Jews live outside of Israel, and 20% of Israeli citizens are not Jewish. Yet Israel and Judaism are deeply connected, in confusing and complicated ways. Together with Rabbi Aaron, explore Israel’s role in ancient Jewish history and in our 2000-year-long diasporic imagination and discuss why decoupling Israel and Judaism is so hard.