News

Start the New Year with the Warmth of Music!

Join us at a community menorah lighting on December 4th in Williamstown.

Break the Yom Kippur fast after services on October 2, 2025.

During Pesach, we traditionally do not own any chametz. To avoid throwing or giving away the chametz we may have in our possession, we sell it to a non-Jewish person for the duration of the festival.  Since Rabbi Rachel will… Read More »Sale of Chametz

A new butterfly garden called Gan Shalom (Peace Garden) was recently planted outside Congregation B’nai Tikvah Beth Israel (CBTBI). The project was spearheaded by second year Hebrew School teacher Dee Lutz, 33, who moved to Sewell in 2019. Arrayed with… Read More »New Garden at CBTBI Aims to Foster Community, Connect Students to Power of Agriculture

Couple spearheads building of butterfly garden at Bnai Tikvah Beth Israel Dee and Joe Lutz wanted to do something for their local synagogue, Bnai Tikvah Beth Israel in Sewell. That something is a new butterfly garden. As someone who is… Read More »A Space in the Natural World

In July 2022, Benjamin Negin took over as president of Congregation B’nai Tikvah Beth Israel. As the synagogue’s new leader, he had one major initiative: reopening after COVID-19. “WE ARE BACK,” he wrote on cbtbi.org. Since reopening that fall, the… Read More »Congregation B’nai Tikvah Beth Israel Survives COVID, Reconnects, Looks Ahead

This past June, Rabbi Rachel Dvash Schoenfeld of Cong. B’nai Tikvah-Beth Israel (CBTBI) celebrated a significant milestone: The rabbinical ordination of her sister, Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld. With the latter Schoenfeld’s new title, the women have the rare distinction of… Read More »CBTBI Rabbi Schoenfeld Celebrates as Her Sister Also Becomes a Rabbi

Is Chanukah light during a dark Jewish time this year? The question hung in the air over the phone. But it didn’t take long for rabbis to respond. “Absolutely,” they said. Get Jewish Exponent’s Newsletter by email and never miss… Read More »Rabbis Discuss Chanukah’s Significance During a Time of War and Antisemitism