Membership

MR900384836Congregation B’nai Israel fosters a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment. We invite you to visit our congregation, attend a Shabbat service, and become a part of our Jewish family. We offer a variety of membership options. If you would like more information regarding membership, please contact our Membership Chair.

The 9 Reasons You Should Belong to Our Congregation
(by Mike Silver)

1. We are a welcoming group and we are like a family. Everyone needs to have family. There is both strength and comfort in numbers. In this family, we enjoy a sense of fellowship with like-minded people.

2. We are friends that you can count on, and if you can count on your friends, then your friends should be able to count on you.

3. We share a time weekly that gives each individual an opportunity to worship and communicate with their deity in their own way. You don’t even have to be Jewish.

4. You do gain a Jewish identity by being a member of our congregation. And you help to maintain a Jewish presence in West Tennessee, carrying upon your shoulders a tradition that goes back over 140 years in this area, and 5773 years in history. The Jewish people in our area have always had a role and influence Tennessee history. It is a part of our goal to carry those traditions forward and keep them strong for future generations.

5. We welcome diversity, including people from all backgrounds, from all over the world, and from any and every walk of life.

6. We learn the lessons of the Torah, and attempt to live by them as individuals and as a group. Our learning is both rabbinic-based and from the shared experience of our lay leaders and teachers.

7. Children are welcome! Our children have the opportunity to be grounded in our beliefs and to learn in class and by observation a sense of morality, responsibility, and proper conduct.

8. We celebrate together the cycles of the year and the cycles of life. We sing together and laugh together and play together. And we mourn together when there is a loss. When life brings unexpected changes, we are here for you without fail, without judgment, without recrimination.

9. There is no financial reason that you cannot be a member of this congregation. Monetary contributions are voluntary, can change with your circumstance, and are a matter of confidentiality between the individual, the president, and the treasurer.

The journey that we each take through life is more than a starting point and a destination. We shape our lives by all the ways that we live our lives. It matters with whom you share that journey. By joining and being a member of B’nai Israel you are assured of stalwart companions who will enhance and facilitate your journey.

This is where your family is!

This is where your friends are!

This is the place where you find comfort!

This is where you are free to be yourself.

This is where you find God.

How could you not belong to B’nai Israel?