Soul Stitchers was created and continues to create shawls to be given to those who are sick or may need an extra hug from Beth Emet. Recently several BE Soul Stitchers gathered to share their progress in knitting more than 20 healing shawls! On Friday, July 29 the shawls will be displayed and presented to the congregation, and we will honor the memory of Nikki Zarefsky z”l, who created Soul Stitchers many years ago. Come celebrate and honor this special moment. The BE Soul Stitchers continue to create new ones - New members are always welcome!  Contact Bekki Kaplan, who can pass your name along!

If you have not yet completed the annual membership form, please contact Debbie Gilbert who is happy to assist. For questions regarding membership or if you wish to make payment arrangements, please contact Bekki Kaplan.

If you are not yet a member and would like to be, Bekki can help you with that as well!

Beit Sefer Registration is also open! Please use your personal link that was emailed on July 11, or contact Geoff Prass for further assistance.

Our very own Netiva Caftori invites us to experience the healing practice of Qigong with her. Qigong is a millennia-old system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for health and spirituality.

Please join Beth Emet’s Young Families! We’ll enjoy Havdalah and singing with Cantor Cotler, a pizza dinner, a campfire for roasting yummy marshmallows, and fun on the playground. A perfect Saturday evening! Cost: $20 per family

Join us for joyful, collaborative music-making with Nicole Jaworski and Jamberry Music! Class is geared to kids 6 months to 2.5 years old and siblings are welcome to join!

Know how to knit and/or crochet? As a tribute to Nikki Zarefsky z”l, join us for an hour of knitting and connecting as we create shawls to warm people during services and/or healing shawls that will bring warmth to those in need.

Even as a child I’ve always been passionate about food, and I was fortunate to turn my passion into a catering company which I stared in 1980 and closed in 2000. Though currently I am not cooking “professionally;” I love food even more today. I have hosted many parties, planned and cooked for many events (some at Beth Emet), and taught cooking classes. As an artist, I must express myself as long as I move my hands (and not just to my mouth). I’m always taking an art class of some form as a way to improve my craft. I have worked in metal sculpture, stone carving, acrylic painting, charcoal drawing, and now I currently “paint” with pastels. I love the water and the reflections, and I especially gravitate towards rocks. I love traveling, kayaking, hiking in nature, renovating houses, and have been a realtor since 2000.  

My daughter, Zoe (16) and I have enjoyed our involvement at Beth Emet - through our own studies to become B’not Mitzvah (Zoe at 13 and me at 60), my work in tikkun middot and in the various ways that I volunteer. I look forward to future events when I can use my gifts and talents for others to experience the pleasure of the taste and/or be moved by something visually. 

Whether it's good news to share or you would like to be featured or know someone who should be featured "In The BE Family," let us know or contact Bekki Kaplan

Would you like to share your delicious cooking with others? Every Friday, volunteers for Shabbat Connections deliver a home-cooked meal to someone in our Beth Emet family who may need support in times of need or transition. Whether you would like to regularly participate or lend a hand once or twice a year, help perform this mitzvah. Learn more and see if this is the right opportunity for you!

For the first time ever, Beth Emet is stepping up to coordinate this month's SNAPGap donations for Interfaith Action Evanston's Producemobile! If you are able to donate, please know that these items are greatly needed by families and nothing will go to waste. Learn more about this program and where you can order and drop off your donations.

The Soup Kitchen has volunteer openings most Wednesdays in August and early September. The most pressing need is for made-at-home salads and sack lunches. Adults are also needed onsite 4:15 - 7:00 p.m. to prepare and serve the meal. Those working at home or onsite purchase ingredients used in the food preparation. Please let us know your interest, and we’ll find you an open date and provide additional instructions.

Last year’s Gan Yom Rishon (our Sunday morning parent-child class) met at Mark and Diane Williams’ home for a lovely pot-luck Shabbat dinner. 

We recently consolidated BE Connected and EmetMail into one weekly e-newsletter, to be sent on Tuesdays! We've simplified the categories, updated the formatting, and made it easier (we hope) to read all that is happening at Beth Emet and how to get involved. Now that we have a few weeks under our belts, we would love your feedback! Our goal is for the e-newsletter to be as straightforward and informative as possible!

Please let us know what you think! For the 18th, 36th and 54th person who offers feedback, a parking spot during the High Holy Days is yours!  

We had so much fun at July's picnic, so why not do it again! Following an abbreviated service, we will have a picnic at Larimer Park. Bring your own dinner, we’ll provide the drinks, desserts and paper goods!

On Tisha B’Av we commemorate the destruction of both the Temples that stood in Jerusalem and other calamities that befell the Jewish people on this date.

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs is hosting a Jewish community gathering in Oz Park just before Tisha B'Av to engage with how the homelessness crisis in Chicago is contributing to that brokenness here, and how we can make our city and our homeless neighbors more whole.