There is so much that 4,000 years of tradition and wisdom can teach us. Young or old, observant or not-so-much; whether you already know a lot or are just starting out – you’re not alone. Jump in. No wrong answers –
Coming in October: Intro to Judaism 5779!
Join Rabbi Batsheva Meiri of Congregation Beth Hatephila and Rabbi Justin Goldstein of Congregation Beth Israel for Introduction to Judaism 5779. This fascinating class is designed for anyone who is curious, those seeking to create partnerships with Jews, and Jews who hope to refresh their connection to and knowledge of Jewish tradition. The class begins shortly after the fall High Holy Days and runs October through January.
Learn more
"With the knowledge and empathy I have gained at the Friday Study Group, my understanding of life has also grown. We are a community where I can live my values."-Carol Cohen
This week's learning
Write and share your stories in a GAB – Guided Autobiography –
Everyone, each and everyone of us, has a story. This class is designed to help you get organized and pull that story up from your lifetime of memories. It’s hard to home in on things that truly inform your life perspective. The GAB method, developed by Dr, James Birren, can help you write your story, two pages at a time, by focusing on themes such as health, money, family and spiritual identity. Participants share their writings with the other members of the group each week. Finding the story, not evaluating grammar, punctuation, or writing style, is the goal of writing and sharing. Class size is limited to five people.GAB is a national program with instructors and workshops around the country.Here is a link to the GAB website: http://guidedautobiography.com When: Ten Tuesdays beginning March 17 to May 19, 2020 from 1:00 to 3:00.Where: CBI LibraryCost: $150. Money goes to CBIText: Writing Your Legacy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story by Richard Campbell and Cheryl Svensson.Instructor: Caroline Manheimer – She took the online GAB instructor training class in 2012 with Cheryl Svensson. She found the method and writing prompts helpful and liberating in finding her own story. Since then She has led Guided Autobiography workshops at the Jewish Community Center, OLLI – Senior Learning Center at UNCA, the Grove Opportunity Center, and at her home. She is a retired librarian and a modestly active fiber artist.Please feel free to contact her with any questions.
Write and share your stories in a GAB – Guided Autobiography –
Everyone, each and everyone of us, has a story. This class is designed to help you get organized and pull that story up from your lifetime of memories. It’s hard to home in on things that truly inform your life perspective. The GAB method, developed by Dr, James Birren, can help you write your story, two pages at a time, by focusing on themes such as health, money, family and spiritual identity. Participants share their writings with the other members of the group each week. Finding the story, not evaluating grammar, punctuation, or writing style, is the goal of writing and sharing. Class size is limited to five people.GAB is a national program with instructors and workshops around the country.Here is a link to the GAB website: http://guidedautobiography.com When: Ten Tuesdays beginning March 17 to May 19, 2020 from 1:00 to 3:00.Where: CBI LibraryCost: $150. Money goes to CBIText: Writing Your Legacy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story by Richard Campbell and Cheryl Svensson.Instructor: Caroline Manheimer – She took the online GAB instructor training class in 2012 with Cheryl Svensson. She found the method and writing prompts helpful and liberating in finding her own story. Since then She has led Guided Autobiography workshops at the Jewish Community Center, OLLI – Senior Learning Center at UNCA, the Grove Opportunity Center, and at her home. She is a retired librarian and a modestly active fiber artist.Please feel free to contact her with any questions.
April 3, 2020 12-1
Last Friday our online Zoom session looked more closely at Chapters 1-3 in Romans.
Here’s what we covered:
-
A recap of Paul’s purpose and audience for Romans
-
Clarification on potential differences between Resurrection and resuscitation
-
The Circumcision Controversy
-
Judgment Day
-
What is meant by “Law”?
-
Justification/salvation by faith (faithfulness) or good works
-
SIN
This Friday, we’ll start by looking at Romans 3:20-31 and then move on to Chapters 4-6: The faithfulness of Abraham and his descendants; The faithfulness of God in Christ; the faithful obedience of life in Christ.
Our informal discussion group will be conducted online every Friday from 12-1. All are welcome to join us, regardless of their level of expertise or attendance at previous noon study group discussions. Any copy of the New Testament is acceptable (the more versions the richer the conversation). Our discussions will be supplemented by commentary drawn from The Jewish Annotated New Testament, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. If you have questions, please contact Jay Jacoby at jbjacoby@uncc.edu.
Instructions for joining our online study group
If you have not already installed Zoom on your computer, follow these 6 steps:
(Don’t wait until the last minute to do this. Install Zoom well before the meeting is scheduled to begin.)
-
Go to https://zoom.us
-
Hover over (don’t click) “RESOURCES” on the top right and then click “Download Zoom Client” from the drop-down menu that appears
-
Click “Download” under “Zoom Client for Meetings”
-
If it asks you to allow it to download “zoom.us”, click “Allow” or “Yes”
-
Open the downloaded file and follow the instructions to install Zoom on your computer.
-
Close/Exit Zoom now (it will remain on your computer and you will not need to download it again on that computer.
If you have already installed Zoom on your computer, follow these 4 steps (but don’t do this any earlier than about 15 minutes before we are scheduled to start):
-
Go to the CBI web page at https://www.bethisraelnc.org/
-
Scroll down and click on “Find Virtual Classes Services, and Programs”
-
Scroll down to the blurb on the Friday Noon Study Group and click on “Join the Fri. Noon Study Group”
-
Click on “Open Zoom” and you should be connected.
- 1Share
Write and share your stories in a GAB – Guided Autobiography –
Everyone, each and everyone of us, has a story. This class is designed to help you get organized and pull that story up from your lifetime of memories. It’s hard to home in on things that truly inform your life perspective. The GAB method, developed by Dr, James Birren, can help you write your story, two pages at a time, by focusing on themes such as health, money, family and spiritual identity. Participants share their writings with the other members of the group each week. Finding the story, not evaluating grammar, punctuation, or writing style, is the goal of writing and sharing. Class size is limited to five people.GAB is a national program with instructors and workshops around the country.Here is a link to the GAB website: http://guidedautobiography.com When: Ten Tuesdays beginning March 17 to May 19, 2020 from 1:00 to 3:00.Where: CBI LibraryCost: $150. Money goes to CBIText: Writing Your Legacy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story by Richard Campbell and Cheryl Svensson.Instructor: Caroline Manheimer – She took the online GAB instructor training class in 2012 with Cheryl Svensson. She found the method and writing prompts helpful and liberating in finding her own story. Since then She has led Guided Autobiography workshops at the Jewish Community Center, OLLI – Senior Learning Center at UNCA, the Grove Opportunity Center, and at her home. She is a retired librarian and a modestly active fiber artist.Please feel free to contact her with any questions.
April 3, 2020 12-1
Last Friday our online Zoom session looked more closely at Chapters 1-3 in Romans.
Here’s what we covered:
-
A recap of Paul’s purpose and audience for Romans
-
Clarification on potential differences between Resurrection and resuscitation
-
The Circumcision Controversy
-
Judgment Day
-
What is meant by “Law”?
-
Justification/salvation by faith (faithfulness) or good works
-
SIN
This Friday, we’ll start by looking at Romans 3:20-31 and then move on to Chapters 4-6: The faithfulness of Abraham and his descendants; The faithfulness of God in Christ; the faithful obedience of life in Christ.
Our informal discussion group will be conducted online every Friday from 12-1. All are welcome to join us, regardless of their level of expertise or attendance at previous noon study group discussions. Any copy of the New Testament is acceptable (the more versions the richer the conversation). Our discussions will be supplemented by commentary drawn from The Jewish Annotated New Testament, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. If you have questions, please contact Jay Jacoby at jbjacoby@uncc.edu.
Instructions for joining our online study group
If you have not already installed Zoom on your computer, follow these 6 steps:
(Don’t wait until the last minute to do this. Install Zoom well before the meeting is scheduled to begin.)
-
Go to https://zoom.us
-
Hover over (don’t click) “RESOURCES” on the top right and then click “Download Zoom Client” from the drop-down menu that appears
-
Click “Download” under “Zoom Client for Meetings”
-
If it asks you to allow it to download “zoom.us”, click “Allow” or “Yes”
-
Open the downloaded file and follow the instructions to install Zoom on your computer.
-
Close/Exit Zoom now (it will remain on your computer and you will not need to download it again on that computer.
If you have already installed Zoom on your computer, follow these 4 steps (but don’t do this any earlier than about 15 minutes before we are scheduled to start):
-
Go to the CBI web page at https://www.bethisraelnc.org/
-
Scroll down and click on “Find Virtual Classes Services, and Programs”
-
Scroll down to the blurb on the Friday Noon Study Group and click on “Join the Fri. Noon Study Group”
-
Click on “Open Zoom” and you should be connected.
- 1Share
YEP! (Youth Engagement Program)
Forget Sunday School. YEP! is an innovative and exciting multi-generational, hands-on Jewish educational experience for parents and their children. Once a week during the school year, families come together for experiential learning that that fosters deep relationships among families, our congregation and the greater community, while strengthening Jewish identity on a personal level.
One of the beautiful aspects of raising Jewish kids in Asheville is that they tend to grow up with a sense of groundedness. Their bar/bat mitzvah is not an over-the-top competition. It's just one of life's milestones. It's not a culmination of their Jewish learning and engagement - it's the beginning.
Bar/Bat mitzvah study is introduced early on, at least several years prior to the event. Our kids study with Josefa Briant, a former soloist in the Batsheva Dance Company (Tel Aviv) with a deep sense of spirituality. They meet as a class to acquire the skills needed to lead services. About a year out, kids begin studying one-one-one to learn their Torah portion and haftorah and begin to meet with Rabbi Justin to get a taste of what Jewish study with a chevruta (partner) is all about. After it's over, many decide to remain engaged. That is our measure of success.
The post b'nei mitzvah group is for those young adults 13 and over who have already become bar/bat mitzvvah. The student-led group meets the first Tuesday of the month with Rabbi Goldstein in a setting that is open, safe and confidential. Topics for discussion revolve around creating, growing and sustaining meaningful relationships and use both text study and discussion as tools with which to explore Jewish life and Jewish values. For more information, please contact Rabbi Goldstein.
"I find it quite remarkable that people are both open and respectful! Open? That happens. Respectful? Not everywhere!! But always here!" - Judith Hoy
Learning for Adults
Do you ever wonder what it’s all about? Curious what Judaism has to say about today’s thornier problems? Always wanted to learn to speak Hebrew? Yiddish? Or maybe you just want to get more out of Shabbat and the other holidays. You’re in the right place. We get together weekly, monthly or whenever we can. Many, but not all, groups are led by Rabbi Justin. And not all take place at the synagogue.
Weekly/Monthly Learning
Learning Throughout the Year
Scholar-in-Residence
At least once each year, the CBI hosts a Scholar/Artist-in-Residence for a weekend. Previous scholars/artists include: Rabbi Harold Kushner; Israeli writer/entertainer, Danny Maseng; dancer and creator of MOVING TORAH, Andrea Hodos; storyteller and folklorist, Pennina Schram.
Holiday Study
The holidays provide opportunities to deepen our understanding of who we are - as individuals and as a people. We take advantage of as many as we can, including Tu b'Shevat, Purim, Pesach, Shavuot, Tisha b'Av, and more.
Dinner and a Movie
Start with a dairy pot-luck dinner, add a few dozen of your friends, then settle in for a movie that's sure to make you laugh, cry, love, cringe or, at the very least, think.
"The culture of learning at CBI is vibrant, non-dogmatic, participatory, respectful, relevant, and evolving within the context of our growing congregation. The intellect and the spirit are equally honored." -Dr. Robert Klein