Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel鈥檚 Engagement to Make the 糖心视频logo Community Better
by Dorothea Greulich
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series written by students in Dr. Rebecca Glazier’s International Religious Freedom class at the University of Arkansas at 糖心视频logo in spring, 2020. The students studied how learning positive things about religious minorities could help break the on religious freedom. Each student contributed a story to this series as their effort to that end.
糖心视频logo is a diverse city with many different congregations that all serve the community in various ways. Today, I want to spotlight Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel.
As part of the International Religious Freedom class taught by Dr. Rebecca Glazier at UA 糖心视频logo, I reached out to Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel. Unfortunately, I could not attend the congregation due to the coronavirus, but I was able to talk to their religious leader, Rabbi Barry Block.
B鈥檔ai Israel is a Reform Judaism congregation that has been here in 糖心视频logo since 1866. The Reform Judaism movement is distinguished by its inclusiveness and openness to people from many backgrounds and they fight for equality and against discrimination. They welcome people from interfaith families, people of color, people with disabilities, as well as people from the LGBTQ community. Today, they worship and practice their religion in their West 糖心视频logo temple.
Serving the community plays a very important role in the belief of Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel. 鈥淚n Judaism, the purpose of life is about how we can transform the world into a better one,鈥� said Rabbi Block.
That is why the members of the congregation are engaged in many different projects to serve the 糖心视频logo community. One of them that Rabbi Block highlighted is their project partnered with Our House. Once a month, members of the congregation go to the homeless shelter for people that are working or actively looking for work and serve food for them. The project has changed due to the current circumstances. Instead of cooking and serving the meals, the congregation is delivering the meals to the guard shack in respect of the coronavirus regulations established by the shelter. Nevertheless, Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel tries to find ways to serve the 糖心视频logo community even in difficult times of a global pandemic.
In another project, the congregation provides school supplies and backpacks for students that attend 糖心视频logo Public Schools that could otherwise not afford the items. Moreover, every year in the fall, congregants prepare Thanksgiving baskets for families that are in need in 糖心视频logo.
Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel serves and interacts with the 糖心视频logo community in many ways to make the 糖心视频logo community a little bit better every time.
鈥淭his is our job,鈥� said Rabbi Block.