Congregation Shir Shalom — Sonoma, California : Membership

Prospective members, new members, returning members, associate members, maybe someday members, no way members.... Welcome!

Lifecycle Traditions & Transitions

Together with Rabbi Jack and the Congregation as a whole, we celebrate and honor Life-cycle Traditions and Transitions from birth to death. We have an active Caring Committee that reaches out and helps wherever needed.

Adult Education & Spiritual Growth

We foster lifelong learning and spiritual growth with twice monthly classes led by Rabbi Jack, speakers, films and potluck dinners. These gatherings bring us together to share and learn from one another.

Interfaith Relations

Many of our families are Interfaith. We feel this enriches us in creating a unique, welcoming and participatory Community. Since our inception we have shared the campus of the First Congregational Church, have held periodic joint services and together are planning a series of Interfaith classes.

Cultural Enrichment & Social Activities

Many of us choose to enjoy each others Company through cultural and social activities. We are a close knit Community. Among our members there are “circles of eight” and discussion and book groups. We come together for field trips, and other cultural events in the Bay Area and participate in Shabbat Across America. And our own “Sonoma Jewish Music & Arts Festival.

Fundraising & Development

All calendar holidays are celebrated and studied. From season to season and year to year just a few of the myriad of traditions we celebrate are High Holiday services, construction of a Community Sukkah, rolling the Torah scroll on Simchat Torah, a community Chanukah Menorah Menorah Lighting, a Purim Celebration and our Community Seder.

Sisterhood & Men's Club

More than just social groups, our Sisterhood and Men's Club serve the congregation in many ways. From constructing the sukkah to serving hot dogs at the Purim carnival, the men of Shir Shalom are always there to help. This congenial group meets regularly for "guy talks." The Men's Club is planning a Food and Wine pairing event next May... Watch for the flyers!

Sisterhood is the place for women to connect and thrive through activities such as an Evening of Jewish Books at Readers' Books, a welcome get together for Rabbi Jack and Pamela, a dinner at Ramekins Cooking School, an evening of fashion and inner renewal, an Evening of tasting of Passover favorites. They are getting more and more involved in helping the CSS community by setting up for Passover, baking for Break The Fast, Book Sale fund raiser to support our Festival. It is also a good place if you are looking for a mah-jong or Scrabble game!

Worship

Haimish (friendly), musical, participatory and inspiring, Shabbat Services are held three times monthly:

Second Friday
Family Shabbat Service - 6:00 pm
Second Saturday
10:30 am
Fourth Friday
7:30 pm

Rabbi Jack infuses the services with his wisdom, humor and professional musical ability.

Holidays & Festival

Social Action & Community Involvement

As a congregation and as individual citizens and Jews, we are committed to the needs of the Jewish and non-Jewish community. Congregation Shir Shalom is the Jewish voice in the Sonoma Valley. Our Rabbi is a member of the interfaith clergy group.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." -Gandhi

Religious School & Family Activities

We foster lifelong learning and spiritual growth with classes led by Rabbi Jack, speakers, films and pot luck dinners. These gatherings bring us together to share and learn from one another.

Membership-related forms and information are below as downloadable PDF files. If you have questions or need a packet mailed to you, please contact us.

Membership application
Files are contained in a ZIP Archive - please use WinZip (Windows) or Stuffit Expander (Mac) to view

Membership form & dues structure
(65 KB)

Paying your dues: To make a Shir Shalom membership payment, you may submit an online payment via PayPal, or download and print the credit card form below.

Membership Dues

To make a Shir Shalom tuition payment, you may submit an online payment via PayPal, or download and print the credit card form below.

Credit Card Authorization Form
(99 KB)

→ Yahrzeits this Month

Every kosher Jewish home -- and this web site can certainly be considered a home -- must have a mezuzah.

A Mezuzah (literally, "doorpost") is a scroll of parchment with certain Bible verses written on it, which is affixed to the doorpost of a permanent dwelling by custom (if you're a cultural Jew) or commandment (if you're a religious Jew). The verses, written in Hebrew, are Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21, thus:

Hear, O Israel! YHVH our God, YHVH is One. You must love YHVH your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. Take to heart these words with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign upon your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving YHVH your God and serving him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late; you shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil, and I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle; thus you shall eat your fill. Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For YHVH's anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land YHVH is giving you.

Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children -- reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates -- to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that YHVH swore to your fathers to give to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.

(Although the name YHVH (The Hebrew letters yod, heh, vav, heh) is often written or vocalized as "Adonai," "Hashem," "The Lord," "Yahweh" or "Jehovah," no one really knows how it's pronounced. The Jewish mystical tradition tells us that YHVH represents God's aspect of mercy, as opposed to the name "Elohim," which connotes justice.)

These 15 verses, part of the daily liturgy, form the traditional central statement of Jewish belief. Mezuzot (the plural) are not "lucky charms" or amulets, but rather reminders for us to act in an ethical and deliberate fashion, according to the laws and customs of Judaism. Observant Jews will touch a mezuzah before passing through the doorway, as a means of making the reminder more tangible.