Welcome to Beth Shalom!
Serving Southern Saratoga County for the last 50 years, we are so excited to welcome you into our building, services, and synagogue family. While our unique membership comes from all branches of Judaism, we lean towards liberal Conservative practices and embrace interfaith, LGBTQA, and all our diverse friends and families. Have a question? Our Board and members are here to help. Poke around our website to learn more about us and contact us today so we can learn more about you! We are so glad you are here and can’t wait to greet you in person! We have several different membership options and one may be perfect for you. Please contact our Membership VP for additional information.
A Message from Rabbi Shara Siegfeld
This week, our congregation was blessed with a remarkable gift that carries with it a beautiful story of family, memory, artistry, and Jewish tradition.
Congregation Beth Israel, Schenectady, the synagogue where our own Annie Friedman grew up, is preparing to close its doors. Earlier this month, Annie’s cousin Harold visited our Kabbalat Shabbat services while in town for a special closing ceremony for Beth Israel. During that gathering, he was given the treasured High Holiday Torah mantle that had been commissioned in honor of his father, Oscar’s, 90th birthday. With great generosity, Harold has donated this magnificent mantle to Congregation Beth Shalom, where it will adorn one of our Torah scrolls during the High Holidays.
The mantle was lovingly created by artist Sarah Jacobs, who shared the moving inspiration behind its design. Reflecting on Oscar’s life as a kosher butcher, she chose imagery from the Untaneh Tokef prayer, especially the beloved passage: “As a shepherd inspects his flock, making his sheep pass under his rod, so do You cause to pass, count, number, and review the soul of every living being.”
Sarah remembered singing these words as a child and imagining herself passing beneath the Divine shepherd’s staff, lovingly counted and known by God. She crafted the mantle with three whimsical sheep, a golden shepherd’s crook, and elegant Hebrew lettering. She searched tirelessly through New York’s garment district for fabric that would resemble a sheep’s woolly coat, eventually discovering a hidden remnant of white chenille in the basement of a closing fabric store. Working with delicate silk, metallic gold thread, and painstaking appliqué, she poured her heart into every stitch.
What makes this gift especially meaningful is not only its beauty, but the love woven into it: the love for Annie Friedman’s Uncle Oscar, Sarah’s desire to honor both of them, and now Harold’s wish that this mantle continue to live within an active Jewish community.
As we prepare for the coming High Holidays, may this mantle remind us that every soul is counted, cherished, and held beneath the sheltering care of the Divine Shepherd. We are deeply grateful to Harold and the Friedman family for entrusting this sacred treasure to our congregation.
Shabbat Shalom With love, Rabbi Shara; #EndAntisemitism
Donate
If you would like to make a donation to Beth Shalom, please click on the “Donate” button at the top of this page. We have several categories available: General Congregational Fund, Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, Cemetery Fund, High Holiday Appeal, Reyut, or Security.
After you select the category and the amount, you can write a specific note. For example, if you donate to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund in memory of a loved one, you can include a note which will say, “In memory of _____________.”
If you would like to purchase a lovely Tree of Life Plaque or a Yahrzeit Plague, please click on the links below, complete the appropriate form and mail to or drop off at the Synagogue office with your remittance:
Kabbalat Shabbat - Fridays at 6:30 pm
Weekly, in-person and over Zoom. Oneg will follow.
Please see the Beth Shalom weekly email announcements for all worship details including Zoom information. Please note that the service schedule is subject to change. Check Thursday’s Beth Shalom email announcements for the most current information.
Beth Shalom Hadassah Book Club
Mitzvah Opportunities
We have a chance for volunteers to participate in a mitzvah by helping a refugee family who have settled in our area. Rabbi Beverly Magidson has forwarded this request to us.
The United States Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is looking for volunteers to assist with a small Afghan refugee family located in Ballston Spa. The family consists of two older adults and two adult children. Most of what they need is daytime transportation to doctor appointments. They are living with family; their English is pretty good. USCRI would like to run background checks for volunteers (at their expense) but will not require it in this case.
Please contact Margaret Slotnick at mslotnick@uscri-albany.org
