Join us for a special concert featuring our own Havurah songwriters. They will share their music, both secular and Jewish. Featuring Leah Shoshanah, Ilene Safyan, Beth Hamon, and more songwriters.

Join the Climate Action Team's monthly meeting in Zoom Room Gimel: 5 pm to 6:30 pm. (For Zoom room login info, log in to your Havurah member account on the website, go to the Contact tab, and click on Zoom Meeting Rooms in the drop-down menu.)

We gather to find some moments of quiet and shalom. Led by Rabbi Benjamin, Adela Basayne, Deborah Eisenbach-Budner, Nancy Becker, or Ria de Neeve. We will meet both in-person (Havurah Sanctuary or Library) and in Zoom Room Bet. Log in to the website and then visit havurahshalom.org/zoom or call the office for join info (503-248-4662). All are welcome.

In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA, Dani Shapiro received the astonishing news that her beloved deceased father was not her biological father. Over the course of a single day, her entire history--the life she had lived--crumbled beneath her. In just a few hours of Internet sleuthing, she was able to piece together the story of her conception and, remarkably, find a YouTube video of her biological father--his face and mannerisms eerily similar to her own. Inheritance is a book about secrets--secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that had been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in, a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover. Dani Shapiro's memoir unfolds at a breakneck pace--part mystery, part real-time investigation, part rumination on the ineffable combination of memory, history, biology, and experience that makes us who we are. A haunting interrogation of the meaning of kinship and identity, written with stunning intensity and precision--Dani Shapiro's most intimate and compelling work yet. Discussion led by Barbara Hershey. This discussion will take place in Zoom Room Bet.

For all who want a regular prayer practice and for people saying Kaddish. We meet both in person and streaming online in Zoom Room Aleph. All are welcome. Please email info@havurahshalom.org for join info.

Join Reconstructionist Communities of the PNW for an evening of learning, eating and meditations as we celebrate the New Year of Trees through an in-depth exploration of the seven species of the land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive (oil) and dates. We invite you to bring your own samples of each of these items (or their respective derivatives), and journey through the mystical and the mundane as each rabbi explores the significance of one of these items in Jewish tradition, and leads us in mindful tasting. Pre-registration at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldOqsqjwiHt3Twts4_enWSOCxtrs3qcR7.

Would you like to improve your ability to speak conversational Hebrew? Can you already read Hebrew but don't always know what you're reading? Did you take Hebrew lessons ages ago or did you participate in an Ulpan experience in Israel but have forgotten all you learned? Would you like to laugh and learn with fellow Havurahniks? Come join Racheli Ross as she continues a beginning Hebrew class in which the focus is on functional Hebrew conversations and vocabulary development. Thursdays, 7-8:00 pm, with an optional 8-8:30 practice session, starting on January 14, and continuing until March 18. This will be in Zoom Room Heh.

Have you thought about trying to write prose? Do you want to try with others? This year’s Havurah Adult Writers Workshop (for Non-Writers!) begins January 14 and continues for the next 7 Thursdays, through March 4. The workshop is for anyone who wants to explore prose writing – and is NOT a published writer or working on a big writing project. The focus is memoir writing generated through reflection, engaging prompts, discussion and feedback. While the Jewish experience often comes up in memoir writing in a Jewish community, our focus is the writer’s personal exploration from any perspective. Participants develop one piece from the workshop and may choose to read at a culminating Friday Oneg Reading for the Havurah community. Led by David Kertzner. Group size limited to 8.

Please join us for our spirited and joy-filled Kabbalat Shabbat Service, led by Elizabeth Schwartz. Music will be provided by our talented Havurah musicians. This service will take place in Zoom Room Aleph. Please email info@havurahshalom.org if you need Zoom join info.

An in-depth look at the weekly Torah reading, led by congregants. No prior knowledge or study is necessary. At Havurah Shalom and in Zoom Room Bet. Email info@havurahshalom.org for Zoom link.

Please join us in welcoming Logan Mafchir-Werth as a Bar Mitzvah and member of our community.

Between Climate Change, Covid, great economic and social injustice, and a reckoning after centuries of oppression for Black and Ingdigenous peoples, we are living in a powerfully transformative Earthquake trembling time. Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow has recently completed his latest book for just such a time, Dancing In God’s Earthquake, and he will be joining Havurah & P’nai Or, Jan. 30th, 3-5 p.m. for a book talk and discussion, followed by Havdalah led by Rabbi Benjamin. At 87, having been arrested more than 60 times, Rabbi Arthur has lived a deeply spiritual life devoted to teaching and activism. His latest book succinctly distills his lifelong Torah wisdom into pearls for these times. He invites us to take a hard look at ourselves, Judaism, and the way humanity is living with each other and our world. With great love and wisdom, he takes us on a journey to help transform it all. From chapter 1, Healing the Perennial Sin of Eden, through the final chapter 11, Two Biblical Genocides: Were Both Sins? Rabbi Waskow guides us through Renaming God as an Ecological Worldview. Purchase the book through Havurah for $15 using the form below.