Our Community

Members and Friends of Beth David

Following the tragic events in Pittsburgh recently, the topic of security at the synagogue is high on the list of priorities for us all. This note to the community is to provide members and visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at the activities of our Security Committee. I will provide a brief update on additional security measures being implemented in the short term, as well as a glimpse of more longer-term planning.

However, before going into too many details, I would like to lay out the objective of this notice. The attack on the community at Tree of Life can have two possible effects. The first is that people stay away due to fears for their security. The alternative is that we heed the AJC's call to #ShowupforShabbat and show up in greater strength with a heightened resolve that we will not be cowed by the actions of a coward. The objective of this notice is to provide the community with the confidence to choose the communal path.

Our Security Committee is headed by Dr. Peter Lang, who provides expertise and leadership gained through security training and performance of security roles in synagogues in Mexico City. The committee met this Monday evening and is in the process of evaluating enhanced protocols and performing short, medium and long-term planning for additional protocol and infrastructure improvements to our building.

Over the past year, we have already installed and rolled out multiple security tools, the details of which I will not lay out here for hopefully obvious reasons. We have also secured further funding from a Homeland Security grant which will enable us to strengthen those areas that the committee, in cooperation with local police and national security organizations, find to be deficient.

As the enhanced protocols evolve over the coming weeks, the community will be kept informed and education will be provided as necessary to ensure that everyone knows what to do in case of a security event.

As you come to shul this Shabbat, as I hope you all will, please follow their instructions and be reassured that significant changes are coming that will benefit us all.

Daniel Schneider
President - Beth David Synagogue

Beginning Nov. 7, Wednesdays, 7-8:30 pm

Beth David Synagogue becomes CT’s first synagogue to welcome Orthodox scholar from controversial women’s yeshiva 

By Stacey Dresner

WEST HARTFORD – Jenna Englender is a Jewish scholar.

Currently enrolled in an in-depth course of study that includes Jewish law, Talmud, Torah, Jewish thought, leadership training, and pastoral counseling, Englender will use all that she is learning as the new director of outreach at Beth David Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation in West Hartford. Englender took up her new post on August 1.
     Next year, when she graduates, she has a choice of using the title of either “Maharat” or “Rabba.” Maharat is an acronym for “Torah, spiritual and halachic leader;” Rabba is the feminine for “Rabbi.”
     Beth David’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Yitzchock Adler, says the title is really up to Englender, who this fall will begin her fourth and last year of study at Yeshivat Maharat, the Orthodox women’s yeshiva founded in 2009 by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabba Sara Hurwitz.

    “For me it hasn’t really been about the title. It is more about the skills,” she explains. “I think it is important to have had someone say, ‘You have been taught, you have knowledge, you are capable of teaching the community in a serious way.’ But I think the conferral of a degree is very important in that way. It gives a sense of authority to what you are doing that I think is very important.”

Read the full Article here.  

Rabbi Yitzchok Adler of the Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford is working with Father Edward Moran of St. Thomas the Apostle Church to foster an interfaith alliance. (Stephen Singer / Hartford Courant)

By Stephen Singer
The Hartford Courant

On the first Sabbath after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 congregants dead, Jewish community leaders nationwide have invited friends and neighbors of all faiths to join their services as a rebuke to fear.
     For two congregations on either side of a residential street in West Hartford, coming together for the national #ShowUpForShabbat initiative this weekend is only natural.
     Rabbi Yitzchok Adler of Beth David Synagogue and the Rev. Edward Moran of St. Thomas the Apostle Church have worked together for four years, meeting for discussions, lectures, Bible studies — using both the Old and New Testaments — and just for visits.
     Members of the two congregations also maintain a community garden on the synagogue campus, with vegetables donated each summer and fall to soup kitchens and shelters.

A Guide to Jewish Resources and events in the Greater Hartford Area

Grow West Hartford

Mikveh Bess Israel

The West Hartford Eruv

Our Day Schools:

Bess & Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy

Solomon Schechter 

Hebrew High School of New England

Hartford Kashrut Commission

Brit Milah

Purim Party Pictures:
Pictures from Beth David's community Purim party. Click here

Congratulations to Team MoJo as winners of the Chopped! event with Scot Haney of Channel 3, Robyn Weller, and Leah Berson.

Check out our Facebook page for more images.

It is Beth David tradition to take one hakafah outside on Simchat Torah. Unbeknownst to us, this year our neighbors across the street at the Catholic church caught our celebration on video! Looking forward to a year of simchas with our wonderful community.

Click here to order a copy of our Beth David Kosher Legacy recipe book...