Our rabbis, staff and lay leaders have been so gratified by the warm and appreciative feedback you have sent about our Rosh Hashanah services, learning sessions and outdoor gatherings. Now, we look forward to being together virtually for Yom Kippur.

Once again, through our High Holiday website, we invite you to enter the doorway to services with a full heart, a desire to experience the majesty of Yom Kippur services, and an open mind. Our rabbis will be there and we hope you will too. Please click here to go to the portal. You can find the portal on the Beth El website as well. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for 5781 and may the new year be sweet, healthy, and bring a better world for all of us.

Click on this image of the Yom Kippur schedule to enlarge it and read it. The schedule was in your Beth El High Holidays @Home Gift Bag and it's in the High Holiday portal. Please be aware that all of the times are approximate once the services begin.

We are delighted to announce our sukkah will be available at selected times during Sukkot, by prior signup, for you to bring a dairy or pareve meal to eat in the Beth El sukkah. There will be an opportunity to say the blessings over lulav and etrog. Each time slot is limited to 25 people, including children, and households will be seated socially distant from one another. Everyone must wear masks except when they are eating at their tables. On Tuesday, after Yom Kippur, we we will send out a special Sukkot email with further details on safety and health procedures and a link for signing up.

It’s a mitzvah to decorate the Sukkah! Everyone is invited to hang a decoration in the community Sukkah in the Beth El parking lot from 9/29-10/2 between 4:30-7:30 PM. Hang a decoration with your name on it, paper chains, or one of these coloring pages. It’s BYOT (bring your own tape). 

Our wonderful Mens Club is once again organizing building the sukkah, but this year is different from all other years. We are using a sign up process to assure that only a safely limited number of individuals is working on the sukkah at a time. Here are the safety rules.

1) Masks required at all times

2) Gloves required

3) Bring your own tools

4) Social distancing required

5) No more than 2 people in tight spaces

6) Unfortunately we cannot provide breakfast this year

Please sign up here.

Order your Lulav & Etrog for Sukkot here.

This year, in order to fulfill the mitzvah of lulav and etrog, most of us will need access to them at home. Click here to order yours. The deadline for ordering is Friday, September 25 at 5 pm. They will be available for pickup outside Beth El on dates and times to be announced in the special Sukkot email next Tuesday..

Mazal tov to Ellen Tamaroff and Peter Leepson, and Steve and Jill Tamaroff, on the marriage of their daughter, Rachel Tamaroff to Gregg Brody.

Mazal tov to Lucy Mann and her proud parents Danielle and Josh Mann, and grandparents Sharon and Jimmy Schwarz and Ken Mayers and Sally Fortunato on Lucy becoming Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat morning, September 26. Click here to read more from Lucy.

Mazal tov to Olivia Traub and her proud parents Adena and Matt Traub on Olivia becoming Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat, September 26. Click here to read more from Olivia.

7:45 am: Morning Minyan

10:30 am: Shabbat Singalong with Rabbi Marder

6:35 pm: Shabbat Candle Lighting with Rabbi Marder

9:30 am: Shabbat Shuvah Services led by Rabbi Olitzky

7:30 pm: Havdalah with Rabbi Marder

8:15 am: Morning Minyan

9:00 am: Beth El Sukkah Raising

11:00 am: Boomer's Brunch & Schmooze

6:00 pm: Kol Nidre Services

7:45 am: Morning Minyan followed by learning with Rabbi Marder at approximately 8:30 am

7:45 am: Morning Minyan

7:45 am: Morning Minyan

Rabbi Jesse Olitzky speaks with Idit Klein, President and CEO of Keshet, the national Jewish organization that works to ensure the full equality of all LGBTQ Jews and families in Jewish life as well as advancing LGBTQ rights nationwide. They discuss the groundbreaking Supreme Court decisions over the past decade that have advanced LGBTQ rights, including, US v. Windsor, Obergefell v. Hodges, as well as the most recent Bostock v. Clayton County, and what’s at stake in the upcoming election. Additionally, they share what each synagogue and Jewish community can and should do to create a more welcoming, sacred, and safe space for LGBTQ Jews. Click here to listen.

Operation Isaiah will run this year from Saturday, September 19, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, until Sunday, September 27 before Kol Nidre begins. Please fill the Operation Isaiah grocery bag in your Beth El @Home Gift Bag (or use any grocery bag you may have) and bring it to our food bin in front of the main sanctuary doors. You may drop your food donations off anytime; they will be brought inside daily. This year we are specifically in need of peanut butter, hearty low sodium soups, canned tuna or chicken, tomato sauce (no glass jars), and jelly in plastic containers.

VOTE - make sure you are registered to vote, register to vote or request an absentee ballot, you can do it all here at VOTE.org. You can also sign up to be a poll worker, there is a shortage this year.

Tuesday, October 27th at 7:30 PM (ET) on Zoom for a conversation with Eric K. Ward, Executive Director of the Western States Center in Portland, OR about "Portland, Policing and White Supremacy: What Can We Do?”. Registration is free and required in advance by signing up here. 

Are you looking for a meaningful way to bring in the New Year? Help advocate for students in Orange whose funding is being cut for School Based Youth Services Programs (SBYSP’s). New Jersey is home to a program recognized across the nation as a model for how to reach at-risk youth who refuse to participate in other social services or otherwise slip through the cracks. Now with the proposed 2021 budget, that program is on the chopping block.

Everyone who believes in supporting these life-saving model programs is urged to contact their local members of the State Assembly and Senate – and the Governor as well. For more information on how to take action, visit here.

The Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges is back to operating on Wednesday mornings. We are working out of a temporary warehouse space on S. Jefferson Street in Orange. We have moved to an appointment based system to better serve our clients. If you are interested in volunteering or donating please contact Shayna Schmidt shayna.schmidt15@gmail.com or Diane Stein dianehstein@aol.com.