A place where you feel the warmth of a Jewish community.
A place of challenging prayer and heart-opening song.
A place of Jewish ideas, concepts, theology, and philosophy.
A place where you can celebrate Shabbat and Jewish Holidays.
A place where you can celebrate the major events in your life with a community ready to stand with you and support you as you face life's challenges.
A place where your children can feel at home with words, songs, prayers, holidays and rituals that can add layers of Jewish meaning to their lives...and to yours


Tree of memories

 

Rabbi Lisa Berney is a third year rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, CA. She travels up to Redding once a month, usually around Jewish holidays, and for the High Holy Days. As a student, she is able to perform most life cycle events with the exceptions of weddings and conversions.

    Rabbi Lisa grew up in Miami, Fl where she attended Jewish day schools. She attended the Washington University in St Louis where she majored in Theological Studies and Political Science. She has worked as a camp counselor and Hebrew school teacher for the past six years. She spent the first year of her rabbinical studies in Israel.

Rabbi Lisa brings a level of joy and enthusiasm to every service and we are glad to have her with us.

We are a small community of 61 families.We welcome all who want to worship with us. At TBI we are open to those from tradtional as well as non-tradtional families. Our congregation embraces individuals from all backgrounds, from those who were raised Jewish to those raised in secular, or even non-Jewish families.

As of April 2010 we had 77 adults and 36 children, infants to teens. Thirty-one percent of our dues paying members are single, the rest are married. About a third of married members claim both partners as members. We do have some "honorary" members who cannot afford dues. (Mostly seniors.) In about 21% of our population, one party in a couple claims membership.

The majority of us were raised reform (30%) or conservative (18% ), with 5% raised orthodox. Overall, we are from all backgrounds, from orthodox to those who came to Judaism as adults. We also have a number of dues paying members who list themselves as non-Jewish couples. Almost all of us were born elsewhere and moved to Redding as adults. We hope you will join us!

    A Jewish presence in Shasta County was first evident in the 1800s through the merchants that settled here during the Gold Rush Era. They formed the Jewish Benevolent Society in order to have consecrated ground for burials. Subsequently, the Shasta County Supervisors deeded land to them in 1857 to establish a cemetery. That land, located on both sides of Highway 299 west of Old Shasta, now belongs to Temple Beth Israel. A State Historical Marker at the site identifies an early Jewish baby’s grave, that of Charles Brownstein, infant son of George and Helena Brownstein, who died 14 Dec 1864.
    Temple Beth Israel began with a luncheon of interested women in Shingletown. Their enthusiasm sparked a meeting of other families who organized the Redding Jewish Community Center on 10 November 1976. On 25 April 1980, the Center received a charter as Congregation Beth Israel from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the U nion of R eform J udaism).
    In our early days, we met and prayed in many places. In 1981, we began a 15-year relation with Pilgrim Congregational Church as our center of congregational life. In December 1996, we acquired our current building and became Temple Beth Israel of Redding.

 For information or general questions: Contact our resident maven (expert) Tanta Golda