Brooklyn Jews

Brooklyn Jews is CBE’s community-organizing initiative for Jews in their 20s and 30s. In operation since 2003, this innovative program meets people “where they are” as an open resource for those seeking a meaningful connection to Jewish life, culture and practice.

Brooklyn Jews seeks to bring together people of different background, practices and passions. Since its creation, Brooklyn Jews has centered around one question: What do we want out of our Jewish lives?

While the answers to this question have varied, the themes have not: We want a positive connection to Jewish life. We want a life of meaning and celebration. We want a way to do good and to change the world, rooted in the particular ways of Jewish life and the universal values of American culture. We want to learn the basic texts of Jewish life: Bible, prayer, and rabbinic literature. We want to understand Israel, its history, the current situation and the prospects for peace. And finally, no matter how old, we want to recapture the kind of Jewish community we once may have felt in summer camp, or youth group, or semesters abroad, when Judaism and Jewish identity was real, relevant and alive.

Last year we took many of these themes and created a number of highly successful programs. Highlights have included:

• High Holiday services at Congregation Beth Elohim where more than 500 men and women, adults and children, joined together for music-filled prayer, meaningful learning and joyful community as we welcomed in the New Year and marked the Day of Atonement.

• A Tu-Bishvat Seder, run jointly by Brooklyn Jews and the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn focusing on the mystical and social justice elements of the holiday.

• Our exciting new program, Shabbat in the ‘Hood, in which we use an organizing model to help Brooklyn Jews in the neighborhood host Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations for their friends and neighbors. Neighborhoods have included Fort Greene, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg.

• A monthly service (except during the summer) run by Brooklyn Jews Rabbinic Intern Marc Katz. Following the service we offer a variety of programs, from dinner to learning to drinks at local bars.

• A yearlong Introduction to Judaism class (starting in the fall) that seeks to teach the traditions, practices and history of the Jewish religion and people. All are welcome.

For more information about Brooklyn Jews and to find out what’s going on, visit our Web site. To email us, click here.