Next film title TBA. Please note this group is for BHS members only. No RSVP required.

A bereavement support series for BHS members on Thursdays, 6-7pm, on March 5, 12, 19, & 26 and April 9, 16, 23, & 30 (eight sessions).

We will create a non-judgmental, safe space in which to share the grief of losing partners, sustaining memories, and the legacies that endure. Participants are invited to find comfort, support, and hope in community. The group is facilitated by Rabbi Chaplain Miriam Herscher, BCC — a rabbi and board-certified chaplain with over 11 years of experience leading bereavement groups in person and on Zoom. She spent 10 years working at the Jewish Board and currently serves as a rabbi chaplain at NY-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Hospital.

At our next Book Group meeting we will discuss The Last Dekrepitzer, by Howard Langer.

Please note this group is for BHS members only. No RSVP required.

Join us for an evening of spirit, music and prayer Shabbat Services with the BHS Band! Led by our clergy and BHS Choir Members. This service is open to all and includes Simcha Blessings.

Co-facilitated by Dana Dorfman and Ruth Gerson, the Women's Group is a monthly Sunday meeting of women and non-binary individuals to discuss and learn about social issues, relationships, and ideas in the context of shared Jewish values. Our goal is to build community and connection and to hold space for deeper conversations, intergenerational sharing of ideas and wisdom, and exploration of our Jewish identity.

The group is for BHS members of all ages and is now a closed group. For inquiries, please reach out to ruthgerson@gmail.com.

Brooklyn Community Wide Yom HaZikaron Ceremony 2026 at BHS

The Brooklyn Jewish community gathers for a shared Yom HaZikaron ceremony commemorating Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

This year’s ceremony is centered around the theme “Soon We Will Become a Song.” The program reflects on the lives of fallen individuals whose words became songs, or whose stories were later expressed through music.

The ceremony will feature participation by students from Hannah Senesh Community Day School and Luria Academy of Brooklyn, clergy leaders, and Jewish and Israeli community members from across Brooklyn.

6:45–7:00 PM | Arrival and Security Check
Doors open. Please arrive on time to allow for bag checks before the program begins.

7:00–8:00 PM | Yom HaZikaron Memorial Ceremony:
A community ceremony honoring Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

8:00–9:00 PM | Screening of the brief (19 minutes) documentary: “The Speed of the Distance Between Us”  followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and Q&A.

Learn with Cantor Ayelet Porzecanski in the third class of a three-part music series, presented by renowned musician and educator, Robert Cohen, at BHS. Do songs have the power to change the world? Or do people — from participants in social change movements to people in power — believe they can? We’ll consider these questions as we listen to songs from Colonial America, the Abolition movement, and the Civil Rights struggle; anti- (and pro-) war songs; and songs from the labor and environmental movements — and, perhaps, songs from a few unexpected sources as well.  Along the way:  What makes a protest song "effective" — and what do we mean by that, anyway?

About Robert Cohen: Robert has been lecturing on Jewish music and American folk and popular music for some 30 years — including at the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library (Jewish Division Lectures), the New England Conservatory of Music, New School University in New York and Hebrew College in Boston, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Cantors Assembly, and Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and School of Theology & Ministry, and at numerous libraries, JCCs. and synagogues — including, numerous times, at this Synagogue! (For some fifteen years, he was also one of the most sought-after presenters in the Speakers in the Humanities and Speakers in the Schools programs of the New York Council for the Humanities.)  He has produced and hosted over 100 radio programs on Jewish identity and culture; wrote the NPR documentary "One People, Many Voices: American-Jewish Music Comes of Age" (now in the permanent collection of the Paley Center for Media in New York); and produced the compilation CD Open the Gates! New American-Jewish Music for Prayer.

Men’s group, facilitated by Congregant Jeff Gold, meets together monthly to support one another and hold thoughtful discussions. Please note this group is for BHS members only. For questions or interest in joining, please reach out to Jeff at jeffreygold12@gmail.com.

Israeli society is not divided by a single line, but shaped by multiple overlapping tensions. This series explores several of the most significant fault lines that continue to influence Israeli identity, politics, and cultural life, and concludes by examining how these tensions shape Israel’s present challenges and future possibilities. Rather than beginning with headlines or ideological arguments, we begin with culture.

Through music, poetry, film, and popular media, each session combines historical grounding with cultural expression. Participants encounter the past that explains the present, connect deeply with Israeli cultural creativity, and engage in honest conversations about identity, belonging, and responsibility.

Exploring politics, and how identity and tensions in modern Israel society, as well as future pathways, are shaped by history and culture – including expression through music, poetry, film and popular media.

Session I 

East and West: The Mizrahi Ashkenazi Divide

This session explores the ethnic and cultural hierarchy that emerged in the early decades of the state. We will examine the absorption policies of the 1950s, the dominance of European Zionist elites, and the long struggle of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds for recognition and dignity.

Through protest movements, political transformation, and especially Israeli music — from marginalized voices to mainstream influence — we will explore how culture became both a battlefield and a bridge.

Session II

Religious and Secular: Competing Visions of Zionism

Early Zionism was largely secular and revolutionary in spirit, seeking to create a new Hebrew identity. Religious Zionism was initially a minority partner within a predominantly secular national leadership. After 1967 and the rise of the settlement movement, however, it began reshaping the national narrative and redefining the relationship between faith, land, and sovereignty.

Through songs written after the Yom Kippur War, cultural responses to 1967, and contemporary debates about democracy and state power, we will examine how different communities imagine the purpose of the Jewish state — and what happens when religion and nationalism become intertwined.

Session III

Jewish and Arab: Shared Land, Conflicting Narratives

This session addresses one of the most complex and painful tensions within and around Israel.

We will explore competing national stories, the lived experience of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the cultural spaces where encounter and friction coexist. Through literature and media, we will ask how two peoples narrate the same land differently — and what culture reveals that political discourse often obscures.

Session IV
Israel Today: Democracy, Boundaries, and the Future

The final session turns from the historical fault lines we explored to the pressing questions shaping Israel today. Building on the social, religious, and national tensions discussed in the previous sessions, we will examine several contemporary challenges facing Israeli society.

Topics will include the presence of anti-Zionist currents within parts of the Haredi community and the questions this raises about citizenship and shared responsibility; the ongoing struggle to strengthen democratic norms and institutions in a deeply divided society; and the continuing debate over Israel’s borders, security, and regional future.

Alongside these tensions, the session will also highlight the social, civic, and cultural forces that continue to generate hope within Israeli society. Through cultural voices and public debate, we will ask what kind of society Israelis are trying to build, and what possibilities still exist for a shared future.

About the Facilitator

Lior Lekner serves as the Brooklyn Community Shlicha of the Jewish Agency for Israel. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Biblical Studies, and brings years of experience in informal Jewish education, cultural programming, and public dialogue around Israeli identity. She previously facilitated educational initiatives at the Shitim Institute, connecting Jewish historical consciousness to contemporary Zionist thought.

Rooted in a liberal humanistic perspective, her work engages complexity rather than avoiding it, fostering connection grounded in depth, historical awareness, and moral responsibility rather than slogans.

Join BHS for the Israel Day Parade on Fifth

Sunday, May 31, 2026

A project of JCRC-NY in partnership with the UJA Federation New York

Details coming soon