Congregation Beth Am-Reform

What a warm and welcoming synagogue! There is something for everyone! Services are joyful and inspiring. Adult and children’s education programs are outstanding. We have found our home here. We love it!
Rebecca L

I cannot say enough good things about Congregation Beth Am. Rabbi Marder is the best teacher I’ve ever had (and I went to school for 29 years!). Her sermons are a work of art. I have seen no better master of the art of public speaking. I have rarely been so moved and inspired as I am when I listen to her.
The highlight of my entire week is going to Torah Study at Beth Am at 9 am to hear Rabbi Marder. The group is progressing through Genesis, having recently started over after a 10 year cycle or so, I understand. (This class does NOT do the Portion of the Week). This class is positively addictive, which may explain why it keeps growing and now seems to have 150 people who come regularly. Come early for bagel breakfast at 8:45 am.
Friday services begin at 6:15 pm. It is hard for a working full time person to get to, but worth the effort.
This shul has a wide variety of activities for people of all ages. In addition to the usual bar and bat mitzvah education, and in addition to traditional Sunday school, it has an excellent educational program for families of young children on Saturday afternoons (the Shabbaton program), where my daughter and I have gone for three years now. In Shabbaton, there is a joint educational activity first, then separate classes for adults and children, and then a reunion for havdallah at the end. There are also Hebrew classes beginning in third grade.
Beth Am has many volunteer activities to get involved in, including a program for visiting the homebound sick and elderly (Yad L’Yad), and is a site for the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Chicken Soupers program, a volunteer activity in which congregants make and deliver meals monthly for disabled people between 18 and 60 in the community. There is an affiliated hiking club (Torah Trekkers), an alternating shabbat salon and film series at 4 pm on Saturday afternoons, a club with monthly events for people in their 50s and 60s (Club ⁵⁄₆), singles events, and an active teen group.
The temple also has a men’s group which hosts poker nights for charity, a yearly ski trip (Slalom Rav), and a family camping trip each year on Father’s Day weekend. The more traditional women’s group hosts monthly Rosh Chodesh events, a Passover dessert seder, and an annual dinner, and leads many other volunteer activities.
The clergy, including Rabbis Janet Marder, Sarah Wolf (a recent rabbinical school graduate), Jennifer Clayman, and Adam Rosenwasser are all innovative, knowledgeable, and nice human beings. The cantor, Lauren Bandman sings like an angel and has incredible mastery of Hebrew and the liturgy in general.
The temple is welcoming to interfaith couples, converts, LGBT and everyone else.