Author: Congregation Beth El

Zimriyah and Shlichut: A Joyous Combination

June 9, 2025

On Sunday, May 11, our congregation celebrated Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, with a love-filled and voices-lifted program featuring our Religious School students in grades K-5. Our shaliach, Yoel Gleizer, …

Food Tourah: Naso

June 4, 2025

Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu. 35 parshiot down, 19 more to go! …

Trust and Betrayal in Brussels

May 29, 2025

In the 1990s, American playwright and screenwriter Alice Austen was working as a lawyer in Brussels. Some elderly neighbors in her elegant Beaux Arts apartment building befriended her, inviting her regularly …

Food Tourah: Bamidbar

May 28, 2025

Bamidbar (“In The Desert”) is the first parsha in the Book of Numbers. In it, G-d instructs Moses and Aaron to take a census of all the tribes of Israel …

It’s Time to Ensure Israel’s Inclusive Future

April 22, 2025

As the 39th World Jewish Congress Election continues, with voting open until May 4, we asked Mercaz representative Tammy Gottlieb, vice chair of Women of the Wall and member of …

The Complicated Legacy of Anne Frank

April 17, 2025

For millions around the globe, the face of Anne Frank – bright, sensitive, and all-too-young – is instantly recognizable.  For many, she represents the six million Jews, including 1.5 million …

Vote for Your Vision of Israel

April 4, 2025

At the first World Zionist Congress in November 1897, Theodor Herzl proclaimed his vision for the reestablishment of the State of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Fifty …

Food Torah – Vayikra

April 2, 2025

Parshat Vayikra – 24 parshiot down, only 30 more to go! Full steam ahead into the third book of the Torah.  In Vayikra (“He called”), the opening portion of Leviticus, …

Freedom to Vote

April 1, 2025

By Rabbi Deborah Megdal.  If you ask our youngest Religious School students “Why do we celebrate Passover?” they might start by singing the refrain: “frogs here, frogs there, frogs are …

Meet David Speer, Executive Director at the Maryland/Israel Development Center

March 24, 2025

David Speer recently spoke to Beth El members at an event hosted by Beth El’s Men’s Club and sponsored by the Am Yisrael Chai committee to share insights on the …