Join Us for the High Holidays 2025/5786

 Dear CBE Community, 

We are happy to welcome you to celebrate the High Holidays with our Jewish community at Congregation Beth Elohim. We are thrilled to once again kick off the new year with the theme that will bring us all together throughout 5786: Joyfully Jewish at CBE.

Perhaps we should say “Joyfully Jewish” despite all that we are going through today - as a Jewish community and as Americans. Joy – Simcha, serves as one of the secrets of Jewish survival and thriving against the odds. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught, “It is a great mitzvah to always be happy.”

Here at CBE, we take this mitzvah seriously and have a calendar and program full of joyful activities. We could talk about Brotherhood Breakfast with amazing “Scientist in the Synagogue” speakers, the Purim Megillah reading with dozens of readers, wine and cheese in the Sukkah, the Kosher Chinese dinner on Chanukkah, our amazing religious school or any of the many other events or programs this past year.

 Read more...

Sign up for High Holiday Honors

The High Holidays are a special time for our community to come together.  During services, there are many different opportunities for community members to participate in honors on the bimah.  You may also choose to do an honor together with someone else.  The more members of our community that participate in honors, the more our services can truly represent CBE.  

Please sign up here to let us know when and what type of honor you would be interested in.  If you have any questions or need more information, please email Jess Rosenblatt at ritual@bethelohim.org.  

Thank you so much for participating in High Holiday services!

►E-Ticketing for Congregants:

• Congregants, with accounts in good standing, will receive a "ticket email" on or about September 9th that will serve as your family's High Holiday services ticket for the adult services in the sanctuary. This ticket email will be sent to the adult family members to the email address that we have in our member directory. The ticket email will be issued from the Congregation Beth Elohim email address:  cbe_main@bethelohim.org.  
• The ticket email will also include the Zoom link and password for Zoom services in the event that you will attend all or some services via Zoom.
• We will re-issue this ticket email on or about September 21 and September 30, just prior to each holiday.
• For security purposes, please do not forward your ticket email to others.

If you have any questions regarding your account, you may contact our financial secretaries, Kathie Becker and Alan Berko, at financialsecretary@bethelohim.org. If you do not receive your ticket by  September 11th and you have checked your spam/ junk folder and have confirmed no issue with your CBE account balance, please contact Gary Budiansky at websupport@bethelohim.org.

Childcare and Children's Programming

Programming for children 3 months to grade 6

Sign-up using the High Holidays Children's Registration Form by Thursday, September 18 or by Thursday, September 25 if only registering for Yom Kippur morning.

Please be sure to let us know, on the sign up form, if your child has any food allergies or needs any accommodations.  You may email Maureen Parker at HHprogramming@bethelohim.org if you have questions or want to provide further information.

• Childcare on the two days of Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur morning from 9:30 AM until the end of adult services for children ages 3 months to Pre-K. 
• Children's services and programming for students in grades K through 6 on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur morning. There is no K to 6 programming on Rosh Hashanah day 2 morning.

High Holiday Appeal

CBE's High Holiday Appeal is under way!  All congregants received a letter via postal mail from our President, Linda Minkoff, and our VP of Development, Rachel Gwaltney.  

We hope you'll support this year's High Holiday appeal through a donation. You can donate online, selecting "High Holiday Appeal" in the dropdown list. or you can mail or drop off your donation using the envelope contained in the High Holiday Appeal letter.

Everyone's generous contributions to our annual appeal enable us to express our joy and pride in being a diverse community of Jews in so many ways. Across CBE, the common thread is our being members of an active Jewish community that welcomes all and continues to provide a wide variety of engaging programs to meet the needs and interests of our unique membership.

Your High Holiday contribution, large or small, will help ensure that CBE will always be here to celebrate and support you and your family.

Yom Kippur Afternoon Discussions

3:15 PM to 4:15 PM

Lay-led meditation & chanting the Book of Jonah

4:15 PM to 5:15 PM

Rabbi's Discussion: "Spiritual Communities as a Mental Health Refuge for our Young People"

Join Rabbi David and Cantor Sarra for this important discussion with our friend, Rev. Sean Witty.

Yizkor Memorial Booklet

During the Yizkor service — which takes place during four of our holidays (Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, Passover, and Shavuot) — we remember family members, congregants, and friends whom we have lost. 

Each year we print a Yizkor Memorial Booklet with the names of those we are remembering. As we prepare our booklet for 5786 we will automatically add the names of loved ones lost by our congregation during 5785.

Here is this year's Yizkor Memorial Booklet.  In addition to the list of loved ones lost this year and in past years, it includes photo memory pages, submitted by congregants, to recall their loved ones lost in the past year. 

Join the Shofar Choir!

It is a tradition at CBE for many congregants to come to the Bimah and participate in our Shofar Choir!  If you'd like, bring your shofar and join in on each day of Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Neilah on Yom Kippur.

We recommend that all shofar blowers test for Covid before arriving at CBE to help ensure the health and safety of our community.