Membership

Benefits of Joining Temple Israel

Being a part of a congregation has many benefits you may not have realized. Here are some examples:

• Make lifelong friends who celebrate the same holidays as you.
• Personal connection to Jewish clergy and friends who will be there for you during illnesses, lifecycle celebrations, and the loss of a loved one.
• Scholarship potential and reduced tuition for your children to attend Camp Newman (or other URJ Jewish summer camps).
• A community to volunteer with on Social Justice issues.
• A place to say the Mourners Kaddish to remember loved ones.
• Attend High Holy Days services in our sanctuary (pending Covid), not a rented banquet room.
• Access to Jewish learning including Tot Shabbats, Religious and Hebrew School for children, weekly Torah Study, adult education, and family/parent education offerings.
• Adult education programs.
• Social and cultural events such as concerts, performances, and dinners (all on Zoom during the pandemic, of course).
• Helping to ensure a Jewish presence in Alameda and the East Bay. Strength in numbers!

President's Greeting

Dear Congregation:

We are so glad that you are with us and I do not take that for granted. When we closed the building over a year ago, I wondered how we could possibly hold our congregation together with no sanctuary to go to and no classrooms for the school. What I learned was that Temple Israel is far more than a building and that closing the doors was not closing the Temple. We went virtual with our school and services and you showed up. We held classes, events, and even fundraisers on Zoom and you attended. We did lose rent income and could not do a planned gala fundraiser however due to your generosity and a PPP loan we survived the year with the budget in the black.

At the end of May the school held two sessions in person in our newly paved courtyard. Wow, what a treat to see old friends in three dimensions and the kids, they have grown so much. Cantor Brian has built a wonderful school community and it was good to see them all at our building once again.

I have long believed that a congregation is like a family in that it is a group of individuals that you did not choose and yet you are connected. As Jews we are connected through thousands of years of shared history, through life-cycle and holiday events that we have attended together, and through the knowledge that however long we are apart, we will take up again right where we left off. As we open for services at our building, I am so looking forward to seeing each of you, if only to exchange an elbow bump.

This year we will be holding High Holy Day Services in “hybrid” mode. They will be live for some congregants and on Zoom for the rest. You may be asking who gets to attend in person. Individuals must be fully vaccinated, and priority will be given to those for whom Zoom is a difficult obstacle. For security reasons families will need to preregister to receive the Zoom link. Also, we still require that families be current members to receive their HHD “tickets”, so please renew today. It is now very easy on our website to renew your Membership dues, see below to do so. 

Welcome Home. We have left a light (the ner tamid) on for you. May we all gather around that light, and with joy, prayer, and song, fan that flame into the bright light that is Temple Israel.

L’shalom,

Eric Strimling
President, Board of Directors