Jewish Holidays at CBI

Worship at CBI is inspirational, dynamic, and in keeping with the ever-changing face of Reform Judaism.  Shabbat Evening Services take place Friday evenings at 6:00 PM; Shabbat Morning Services are at 10:30 AM on Saturdays, generally in Pollin Chapel. While young children are welcome at all services, ongoing programming just for them (and their grownups) includes a joyous, music-filled Shir Shabbat Service on the second Friday of each month, and Tot Shabbat morning services on the first and third Saturdays of each month, complete with songs, stories, art projects, and a tasty Oneg. Summer sees our community coming together for one of CBI’s most beautiful ongoing traditions: Shabbat on the Plaza. Families and friends gather (often with picnic suppers!) on the Temple Lawn for a festive outdoor service.

Congregation Beth Israel celebrates the High Holidays with a full schedule of services that invite each of us to reflect on the meaning of our lives, our capacity for gratitude, and our relationships with the divine. At our Traditional Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Services, superb organ and choral music adds to the beauty of worship in our historic Main Sanctuary, while at our Family Services our youngest members participate in lively storytelling and enduring traditions. Our celebration of Sukkot  and Simchat Torah are moving as well; the former seeing an Open House at the home of Rabbi and Cantor Cahana in past years and a community sukkah building, the latter a moving first grade Consecration Service in our Main Sanctuary.  We always welcome members of the community to our High Holiday Services.

Families come together for our annual Chanukah Family Festival, a Friday Evening Shabbat Service followed by latkes, games, latkes, crafts, latkes, music, latkes, local Portland Food Trucks, latkes, and did we mention latkes?

A particularly beautiful CBI tradition is our annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Shabbat Service where leaders of the Civil Rights Movement (previous speakers include Congressman John Lewis and activist and journalist Myrlie Evers-Williams) speak and our choir joins with the NW Gospel Choir to honor Dr. King’s enduring legacy.

Expect to laugh—a lot—when you celebrate Purim at CBI. Our talented clergy, staff, and congregant volunteers perform Purim Schpiels like no one else while our teen leaders and the CBI Brotherhood put on a costume carnival for young families.

Our annual Womens’ Seder brings our community together in the lead up to Passover, as well as other Passover celebrations that have included pizza parties and chocolate seders in the past.