Kehilat Birkat Shalom, founded in 1997, is located on the Latrun road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, near the Biblical site of Tel Gezer, and not far from Ben Gurion Airport. The congregation serves the regional communities, offering a liberal Jewish alternative for lifecycle and holiday events. With approximately 85 member families, Birkat Shalom is a regional congregation offering a warm and inviting community to people living in the Gezer Regional Council as well as Ramla-Lod, Rehovot, Gedera, Nes Ziona, Mazkeret Batya, and other surrounding communities.
Rabbi Miri Gold (HUC Jerusalem ’99) and the congregants place great emphasis on bridge-building between the Diaspora and Israel, and welcome visitors from abroad to participate in Kabbalat Shabbat services, and tours of the synagogue and neighboring Pinat Shorashim, a Jewish educational park rooted in Jewish sources, which strives to strengthen Jewish identity and to explore the role that Eretz Yisrael plays in the lives of Diaspora Jews as well as working with Israeli school children to show them the importance of Judaism in their lives.
The congregation also promotes tolerance and religious pluralism, and strives for social justice in its activities. The congregation works in cooperation with Pinat Shorashim to provide monthly programming for prisoners in a rehabilitation program. In addition the congregation has an ongoing relationship with a volunteer association which provides food and clothing for new immigrants and other needy people in the neighboring towns of Lod & Ramla, and is involved with the Volunteer Department of the Municipality of Ramla, working as “big brothers”, assisting single-parent immigrant families and the like. Birkat Shalom provides weekly transportation to and from the synagogue so that South American immigrants living in the area can attend Shabbat and holiday events.
In addition to the yearly workshop sessions for Bnai Mitzvah, Tu Bishvat seder, and outdoor Shavuot festivities, one of the highlights every year is the Simchat Torah celebration in the outdoor sanctuary at Pinat Shorashim, which draws over 400 people, from over fifteen communities, for hakafot with live music. For many of the participants, it is the first time they have seen a Torah scroll close-up, or have an opportunity to dance with the Torah.
Kehilat Birkat Shalom is happy to host individuals or congregational groups from abroad. In the summer, we offer groups the option of participating in Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat services in the outdoor sanctuary, followed by a catered Shabbat dinner, an interesting and memorable experience.
