High Holidays Ticket Update

Rosh Hashanah is just over a week away, and we will begin sending the tickets via email within the next few days. We fully understand you might have changes or questions about your tickets once you have reviewed them, please contact the Temple office at 914-723-7727, or email [email protected].

Please click here to read about how services are organized this year, and to request your service tickets online.

Click here for some FAQs that will help guide you through questions about your tickets.

Volunteers Needed to Usher for the High Holidays

As WRT prepares for the High Holidays, we are looking for members who would like to volunteer to usher. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Nancy Michaels at [email protected] or (914) 725-8310. 

Shabbat and Holiday Services

Congregational Shabbat and S'lichot Services with

Stephen Arnoff, author of The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan

On the Spiritual Soundtracks of Our Lives

Friday, September 16 at 5:00 pm - "Pre"-Neg

How does popular music illuminate the spiritual pathways of our lives? Join us for a special conversation on the meaning embedded in the music we love (with a unique emphasis on Bob Dylan from two experts) with Rabbi Jonathan Blake and author Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff.

“Oh Sister” - Greeting the Sabbath Queen with an Old-Fashioned Love Song

Friday, September 16 at 6:15 pm - Shabbat Service

Jewish lore speaks of the Sabbath as a union of two star-struck partners, whose love animates the worship that welcomes the Sabbath and carries us on the wings of song through Saturday night. We’ll greet the “Shekhina,” or Sabbath Queen, with melodies inspired by Bob Dylan.

“Every Grain of Sand” and the Humility of the High Holy Days

Saturday, September 17 at 9:00 am - Shabbat Morning Service and Community Learning

The High Holy Days are the definitive Jewish season for reflection about life’s purpose. For many, the period marked by Selichot on the Saturday prior to Rosh Hashanah is a call for humility, reminding us that we are all part of a Divine plan. Through study of one of Dylan’s spiritual masterworks, “Every Grain of Sand,” we’ll touch on key themes of traditional Jewish texts animating this most profound time of year.

Community-Wide S’lichot Service and Learning

Saturday, September 17 at 7:00 pm - Program / 8:00 pm - S’lichot Service

Bob Dylan’s need to know what’s blowing in the wind has shaped much of our understanding about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything for more than sixty years. Join Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff, CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and author of About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan, for study, prayer, reflection, and song inspired by Dylan’s restless journey to wisdom through the Jewish lens of sacred text, divine revelation, and t’shuvah -- repentance. Together with congregations throughout Westchester, we will open the Season of T’Shuvah with new arrangements combining traditional tunes with Dylan classics like “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door” and “I Shall Be Released.” 

Shabbat Evening Services in the Sanctuary

Friday, September 16 at 6:15 pm (*in-person indoors or live streamed) 

Full details above

* Masks are now optional for Shabbat Services and everyone is expected to be vaccinated and boosted (if eligible).

A new opportunity to celebrate a special moment.

Celebrate an upcoming simcha or honor someone you love by sponsoring a Shabbat or Holiday Oneg at WRT.

Torah Study

Saturday, September 17 at 9:00 am (in-person in the CJL or Zoom) 

Full details above for this week

Each Shabbat morning we gather informally to read and discuss the week’s Torah portion. The morning begins with a brief Shabbat service at which mourners who wish to say Kaddish are warmly welcomed. The group is led by volunteers, with clergy participation. No prior experience with Torah is necessary.  

Sharing Shabbat

Saturday, September 17 at 9:00 am

Our engaging, musical Shabbat service for children in Grades K-6 and their families is open to the congregation and community. This weekly service is led by our clergy and followed by engaging learning and conversation organized by cohort – a special JLL curricular experience for the children, and time for the adults to concurrently study, share stories, and ask questions together with a member of the clergy team. All are welcome!

Apple Picking – JLL, Sharing Shabbat, and ECC is invited!

Saturday, September 17 at 11:45 am

Join Rabbi Citrin for apple picking at Wilkens Farm to kick off the JLL year. Pick extra apples that you don't know what to do with? Do a mitzvah, and give them to Rabbi Citrin so that they can be donated to Cooking4HOPE as part of our 9/18 JLL program. Click here for more information.

Programs and Special Events

WRJ’s Opening Dinner with speaker: Journalist and film critic Neil Rosen

Thursday, September 15 at 6:30 pm

Join WRJ for dinner under the tent, followed by an evening with Emmy award winning entertainment critic and journalist Neil Rosen discussing "The Role of Jewish Women in Film and TV."

Living with Divorce: Support Group

Monday, September 19 at 7:00 pm (Zoom)

WRT is committed to embracing and supporting people as they live through divorce and single parenting, and find their new family rituals in the face of that change. Wherever you are in the journey of divorce or single parenting, we welcome and are at the ready to provide you with support and community. 

Led by Jane Slevin, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from Westchester Jewish Community Services), and Cantor Laura Stein, LMSW, a social worker who specializes in spiritual care. 

MRJ Board Meeting

Tuesday, September 20 at 7:30 pm

Come join the MRJ for the monthly meeting, where we kibbitz and plan the many events and activities held throughout the year.

Evening Book Group

Tuesday, September 20 at 7:30 pm (Zoom)

Join the Book Group for a discussion on this month's book title "Clementine" by Sonia Purnell. Please RSVP to Lenore Rosenbaum for the book title and Zoom link.

Spousal Bereavement Group

Wednesday, September 21 at 11:30 am (Zoom)

This Support Group meets to create community for those in mourning over the loss of a loved one, and to help find comfort and process feelings of loss through caring discussion and in sacred Jewish context.

Led by Jane Slevin, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from Westchester Jewish Community Services), and Cantor Laura Stein, LMSW, a social worker who specializes in spiritual care. 

WRT is excited to announce a music series for the 2022-2023 calendar year.

We know that music has immense power to connect us, lift us up, and inspire us, and what better way to be in community than to experience the beauty of music with fellow congregants and leading Jewish artists, cantors, and composers!

To discover the rest of our wonderful artists in this series, please visit the website, https://bit.ly/3MSTYfV

Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World)

To learn more about the ways that the WRT community impacts the broader world through acts of Tikkun Olam, read Repairing Our World - WRT Social Impact Update. In this blog, Sharon Stiefel, WRT's Director of Social Impact and Community Engagement, reflects on WRT's social action programming. and discusses further opportunities to engage in tzedakah, chesed and tzedek. Click here to read.

WRT is committed to pursuing tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (social justice) for impact locally, statewide, nationally, and globally through direct service, tzedakah, advocacy, and community organizing.  

RAC-NY Climate Covenant Bond Act Webinar (Zoom)

Wednesday, October 12, 2022, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

REGISTER NOW: Join leaders from Westchester Reform Temple and Reform congregations around the state for a virtual meeting on October 12th, at 7:30-8:30 p.m., to learn about the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act, New York’s first public referendum on an environmental bond proposal in more than 25 years, which will appear on the ballot in November. We need your help to build support! Register here and join us during Sukkot to reaffirm our mutual commitment to protect our world for future generations. 

Donation sites for Ukraine

Please join WRT in sending support, through our partners listed below:

UJA-NY (our local Jewish Federation

JDC (Joint Distribution Committee)

Jewish Agency for Israel (North American)

World Union for Progressive Judaism Ukraine Crisis Fund 

Do you have a child/children in college? 

Please let us know their mailing addresses for this school year, so the WRT Youth Committee can send them holiday gifts throughout the year. Please don’t tell - we want it to be a surprise! 

Please provide the following information for your student(s): Name, School, School Address, Move-in date, Winter break dates, Spring break dates, Graduation year. and will they be abroad this year? If so, which semester?

Please email this information no later than MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 to [email protected].

Visit the Jewish Learning Lab (JLL)

For WRT members: If you would like to receive notifications of birth announcements and deaths within the WRT community, please email [email protected] with your full name and email address. Please specify if you would like to be added to one or both of these notification lists.  

For more information about Inclusion at WRT, click here.

For more information about Our Jewish World, click here.