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
As we gently prepare for the close of Passover, the rhythm of the holiday begins to quiet. The seders are behind us, the familiar foods nearly finished, but the spirit of the week still lingers. We are not quite at the end, but rather in a tender in-between moment, holding onto the meaning of freedom just a little longer.
Passover invites us to carry our story forward, to let the message of resilience and renewal stay with us beyond the holiday itself. And we begin to turn our hearts toward Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins this Monday night. The shift can feel abrupt, yet it is deeply meaningful. From celebrating freedom, we turn to remembering a time when freedom was so brutally taken. And still, we endure.
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks so beautifully taught:
“There are cultures that forget the past, and there are cultures that are held captive by the past. Jews do neither. We carry the past with us, as we will carry the memory of the Shoah with us, for as long as the Jewish people exist, as Moses carried the bones of Joseph, and as the Levites carried the fragments of the shattered tablets of stone. Those fragments of memory help make us who we are.”
In these days, we hold both memory and hope together, gently and with care. We carry the story of our people, with all its pain and its promise, with tenderness, dignity, quiet strength, and pride.
Wishing all a happy chametz-filled end of Passover and a Shabbat Shalom with love, Rabbi Shara
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
