A half-day planning retreat on Aug. 26 involving 23 Tikvat Israel board members and professional staff developed some short-term measures to address membership recruitment and retention. The participants applied findings from a congregation-wide membership survey plus focus groups managed by Rodney Matheson during the past year. They also heard a presentation by Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Continue Reading »
We are offering two ten week classes on Thursday mornings from 11:00 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. Fall Class “The Star and the Crescent: The Long Relationship of Judaism and Islam” taught by Rabbi Ben Shull Classes begin on Thursday October 4, 2018 at Tikvat Israel Congregation 2200 Baltimore Rd, Rockville MD 20851. Class will run for 10 weeks. Continue Reading »
So here is a summer homework assignment. As you travel about this summer, use that smart phone to take a picture of someone engaging in mitzvah work. It could be someone helping to clean up a park or someone helping someone learn to swim. Below you will find a list of Mitzvah Hero powers and Continue Reading »
The Women’s League for Conservative Judaism is honoring late Shelly Goldin for her many years of leadership to the national organization. The league has created the Shelly Goldin Memorial Leadership Institute Scholarship Fund, which will be used to carry on her work in supporting female Jewish volunteer leaders. She passed away on June 18. Shelly Continue Reading »
“Be a Mitzvah Hero.” This was my message to the students and parents at our end of year assembly for our Atid Learning Center (our religious school) on Sunday, June 2. I was referencing a term that Danny Siegel, the great Jewish educator/poet and inspiration to generations of USYers, coined several decades ago. A Mitzvah Continue Reading »
Who are your heroes? What characteristics do you admire? Heroes inspire us. Their actions motivate our behaviors. We admire their actions and aspire to be like them. Anyone can be a hero but as Jews, we are commanded to be heroes. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel states, “The meaning of man’s life lies in his Continue Reading »
This past spring for me was not the traditional study-abroad experience. I’m already an “untraditional” college student, enrolled in a joint program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. (Next spring, I hope to receive two bachelor of arts degrees.) I could have undertaken the typical study abroad experience by spending a semester somewhere Continue Reading »
Sheri Brown, an early childhood educator since 1985, has been appointed as the new director of the Tikvat Israel Early Childhood Center. Brown will assume her post in May. She was the top choice of a search committee, chaired by Ellen Kaminow, to fill a vacancy that occurred in January. Brown began teaching at the Continue Reading »
Rabbi Benjamin Shull’s 5K Walk in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary is set for Sunday, June 10, with hopes for up to 200 participants, including adults and children. The walk will start at the synagogue and head along the Rock Creek Trail to Lake Frank and back for a total journey of approximately three miles. Continue Reading »
