Simchat Torah
Other Holidays & Festivals
BJC celebrates the holidays with traditional worship and with our own style. Here are just a few of the ways we embrace our traditions:
Purim. Purim is a focal point for BJC's spring events with a Purim Spiel or dance with live music, a Megillah reading, and a Purim carnival for our families and their children.
Pesach. At Pesach each year, we enjoy a congregational seder, using a Haggadah written and compiled by Rabbi Schnitzer. Our seder is filled with songs and reflections on the social justice issues suggested by the Passover story. As we like to sing: There's No Seder Like Our Seder!
Yom HaShoah. On Yom HaShoah, we hold an annual solemn service to commemorate the death of 6 million Jews in World War II. A highlight of our observance is to bring out BJC's Holocaust Memorial Scroll from the now-lost Jewish community of Boskovice in Slovakia.
Shavuot. At BJC, Shavuot is a time to celebrate Torah, education, and actively choosing to participate in Jewish life with a tikun L'eil Shavuot. Often joining with other nearby congregations, we follow the venerable Shavuot tradition of studying far into the night, noshing on blintzes and cheesecake.
Tisha B’Av. Each year we commemorate the destruction of the Temple with a moving service.
Sukkot. Each year, we build multiple Sukkot on our grounds and in our worship space, Covenant Hall. We gather together to shake the Lulav and the Etrog and celebrate HeChag! (THE festival.)
Simchat Torah. We unroll the Torah so that all can see, and enjoy Rabbi Schnitzer's commentary on the stories in it and the scribal style of this central icon of Jewish life. Then we celebrate, dancing with a live Klezmer band, food, and drink.
Hanukkah. We hold a community dinner, lighting the Hannukkiah together, exchanging small gifts with a Mystery Maccabee drawing, singing traditional and some not-so-traditional songs of the season.