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Member shares history of our Torah

Cass Friedberg, member of Congregation Bene Shalom: Over a thousand Torahs from various communities in Czechoslovakia were rescued from the Holocaust. The Torahs had been abandoned, and were discovered in a damp basement in Prague, in the early 1960's. Someone from England brought them to the Westminster Synagogue in London. The Torahs were then examined carefully. Some could not be repaired. The few Torahs that were salvageable went on to be identified by their respective communities of origin. The Czech Torahs were then distributed to synagogues all over the world. Our congregation is fortunate to have one of these Torahs, and its origin is known: the small Czech town of Bzenec, about two hundred miles southeast of Prague. Bene Shalom received our Czech Torah in the early 1970's, not long after the founding of our congregation. The Jewish community had been in Bzenec for several hundred years. It was never a large Jewish community, numbering a few hundred individuals at its peak. There were fewer than 150 Jews in Bzenec at the time of the Holocaust. To the best of our knowledge, all died in concentration camps. We have a list of those who perished; we encourage everyone to remember them in our thoughts and prayers.

gray torah cut out surrounding Member shares history of out torah
green blue ASL for love with blue heart in the palm closer to the thumb

Shabbat Shalom ASL  

gray black ASL for love with dark gray  heart in the palm closer to the thumb

Shama Prayer ASL and Hebrew 

beige black accented ASL for love with red heart in palm near thumb
light blue accented dark blue ASL for love with dark blue heart in palm close to thumb

Membership Rates

New Families                                            $800 
(1st Year Only)
New Families                                           $1,000
(2nd Year Only)

New Member, Single Adult                            $400
(1st Year Only)
New Member, Single Adult                            $500
(2nd Year Only)

Family, per year                                        $1,725

Senior Couple (over 65)                                $850

Senior Single (over 65)                                  $625

Single Adult                                              $850

Student                                                    $250

Out-of-Towners                                          $650

High Holy Day Tickets,                                  $200
non-members

Security Fee,                                               $75
per member family

We ask a minimum of $200 payments with membership application.

Below is a PDF to 
download of our membership form for 5783/2022. 

Are you planning a wedding, baby naming or other simcha?  Please consider holding a life event here at Congregation Bene Shalom.

If you never had a B'nai (Bar or Bat) Mitzvah, it’s never too late.  Please contact us if you are interested. 

black fancy chuppah over  one person in a suite and tie next to another in a white dress
black silhouetted  baby being held up by two hands
Torah read by older man in blue with kippah next to younger man in gray with green tie both tallits
young person wearing white kippah, tallit, and tefillin  reading Torah multi-colored background
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